Lion Parmi Les Hommes

I.

 "Les hommes étaient des bêtes. Tout le monde le savait."

-Gregory Maguire, Lion Parmi Les Hommes

Canal Saint Martin, Paris. 1963.

She had first shown up in the beginning of the summer, all bright smiles and sparkling eyes and she had been wearing a chiffon sundress, Marthe remembered that because it had caught in the door a bit and the girl had almost tripped over herself because she hadn't noticed. She had huffed and pulled the fabric loose and then she looked around as if to seek out if anybody had noticed her blunder, her eyes caught on Marthe's and the girl's cheeks had reddened up like autumn leaves and she looked down. Marthe wished that she hadn't. It had been a busy day in the cafe, and Marthe regretted that too. If it was slow she could have left the coffee counter to go sort and shelve the new books and that would have given her more opportunity to dawdle and stare over the girl. Marthe had hoped that the girl would come up to the counter and order a drink or perhaps a pastry because she so wondered what the sound of her voice would be. She didn't though, and instead made a beeline for the fiction section of the bookstore side of the shoppe and Marthe lost sight of her. By the time the customers had all cleared out, the girl was gone. Marthe couldn't manage to shake her for the rest of the day.

Marthe didn't see her again for another week, though she couldn't deny that she had looked for her everytime the door chimed. She couldn't explain it really, it was like the girl just had something magnetic about her. The next time she appeared was the following Sunday. Sundays were never a particularly busy day for them and so this time Marthe had more time to admire the pretty stranger. She was wearing a cotton floral print dress this time and her hair was pulled back away from her face so that Marthe could stand at the coffee counter, chin propped on her hand and just admire the slope of her nose and the way that her brow furrowed while she read over the back of each book that she pulled from the shelf. Marthe liked her a little more for that she always shelved the books properly again in their rightful places. She stayed a tad longer this time, just perusing, though she was gone as soon as she had picked something new to read.

As the months wore on, she frequented the shop more and more often until it was habitual that she come every day. Marthe still had never heard her utter so much as a word but she had learned many things about her through observation in that time. She loved the colour yellow, that was the first thing. She wore something yellow almost every single day and her nails were painted a soft, sunny shade of it. They were never chipped, that was another thing. She was always entirely put together, not in a way that was pretentious or high-maintenance, but rather she took care of herself. Her hair was always free of knots and looked so shiny and Marthe really wanted to know how it would feel in between her fingers. Her clothes looked expensive, Marthe noticed that too. She owned a lot of dresses and skirts and heels. Marthe wondered how on earth it could possibly be comfortable for her to walk all the way to the shop everyday like that. Her favourite books were fiction and fantasy and she would get lost in her stories every single day. A few months in, the girl had started to stay instead of leaving. Her favourite spot to be was in the overstuffed armchair right by the window in the corner. This spot was relatively close to where the coffee counter was and so Marthe could sit and watch the girl read and daydream a bit herself. Usually she wouldn't leave until a few minutes before closing. If she was anybody else, then this might bother Marthe, but she liked the quiet company and that the girl didn't feel the need to fill any of the silence with words.

As the leaves outside turned to hues of oranges, reds, and yellows and the air grew brisker, Marthe began to wonder if the girl would ever speak or if Marthe would have to take matters into her own hands. It was a little bit of both.