“'And you too look like you're doing
well,' he says, with a kindly gaze.
'Really? Well, there have been a few
changes that have been good for me.'
'You know, I didn't come back here to
see the apartment or the people, here. I'm not even sure they'd
recognize me; I even brought my ID card, just in case you yourself
didn't recognize me. No, I came because there's something I can't
remember, something that helped me a lot, already when I was sick and
then afterwards, when I was getting better.'
'And you think I can help?'
'Yes, because you were the one who
told me the name of those flowers one day. In the flower bed, over
there”-he points toward the far side of the courtyard- “there are
some pretty little red and white flowers, you planted them there,
didn't you? And one day I asked you what they were but I wasn't able
to remember the name. And yet I used to think about those flowers all
the time, I don't know why. They're nice to look at, and when I was
so bad off I would think about those flowers, and it did me good. So
I was in the neighborhood just now and I thought, I am going to ask
Madame Michel, maybe she can tell me.'
Slightly embarrassed, he waits for my
reaction.
'It must seem weird, no? I hope I'm
not scaring you, with this flower business.'
'No, not at all. If only I'd known the
good they were doing you...I'd have planted them all over the place!'
He laughs, like a delighted child.
'Ah, Madame Michel, you know, it
practically saved my life. That in itself is a miracle! So, can you
tell me what they're called?'
Yes my angel, I can. Along the
pathways of hell, breathless, one's heart in one's mouth, a faint
glow: they are camellias.
'Yes,' I say. 'They are camellias.'
He stares at me, wide-eyed. A tear
slips across his waiflike cheek.
'Camellias...' he says, lost in a
memory that is his alone. 'Camellias, yes.' He repeats the word,
looking at me again. 'That's it. Camellias.'
I feel a tear on my own cheek.
I take his hand.
'Jean, you cannot imagine how happy I
am that you came by here today.'
'Really?' He looks astonished. 'But
why?'
Why?
Because a camellia can change fate.”
-Muriel Barbary (294-295)
