The Adventures Of Theophane Anouil

II

9th February 1901, Paris France

 I met my new friend the next day as planned, he took me by the hand and greeted me in his usual jovial manner, “Bonjour par ici mon ami, this way” and led me into the Cafe light-heartedly. His friends were local business people all sat smiling and stirring or drinking their absinthe happily. They one by one got up and introduced themselves, they were all from different backgrounds. My friend Theophane was an ex-military soldier who had fought as a young man in the Conquest of Tunisia in the Armée d'Afrique and had retired to Paris afterwards as a vagabond. His friends André a baker, Jean a cobbler, Eugéne a hotel owner, and Louis a tour guide, were not rich people but still required my services and I was happy to make more acquaintances in France.

  After the meeting was over I went out to my car and Theophane jumped in the seat next to me. “où Allons-nous à mon friend?” I told him that I was going home and he said he would come along with me. “Mon Dieu, you need company mon cher ami.”

  I let my friend come along to my place, Mdm. de Bisset had prepared dinner which we ate together while he told me about his life. He was currently unemployed, but he said to me he was “employé par le grand monde”. We talked for hours, he filled me in with a complete story of his life, his parents had died when he was 4 years old from some unknown sickness, and his uncle Monsieur Benjamin Alarie and his wife Anne had taken him in, he had joined the military and served seven years then decided then that he no longer wanted to soldier.

 It wasn’t that he was scared to fight the fighting “ennuie mon âme” he would say, “Mon ami, I have been all around the world I saw nothing outside England and France that interested me, a man needs intelligent stimulation in his life to be happy” I agreed with him and he went on, “I craved from the depths of my heart the ventilation of the soul”... soon after he departed, I was left to myself sitting in silence smoking pondering his strange words, “ventilation of the soul”. “Mon Dieu” I cried, “I do believe the man is crazy”

  The next few weeks I was very busy starting up the newly found section of my enterprise in France, I didn't see my friend many times in that time though I was in great awe as to his character and wished to see him. One Wednesday afternoon I was sitting at my desk and Theophane walked in, "Bonjour" he said simply, I knew immediately that something was wrong. "But Mon Ami, what's wrong?" I said, "I do believe that I am doing life completely wrong." He then went on and in great depth explained to me that he had been trying to secure money by the means of a job, but no one was hiring or they said simply that they didn't need vagrants. “My friend, you told me the other day that you didn’t need to work for anyone why the sudden hurry for work?” He explained to me a very intriguing story of what had taken forth in the course of the last few weeks.