Lisa-Loup at le Conteur (part 3)

THE PRISON
(In front of the cell)
“Hello, I’m Lisa and I’m looking for the man who talks…”
“But we all talk here!” the man replies, “it’s the only thing they allow us to do. Cross my heart and hope to die! Listen to them all… they talk to the void, they talk to the chairs, they talk to the walls and even to the jams.”
“I talk to the rocks too, but there’s always someone underneath! Besides, Grandmother, who is underground…”
“Listen…” he gets annoyed, “I can’t, I have three years to go, and I have to move my feet. Your guy, he talks, right? Well, I have to walk.”
Lisa seems lost in her thoughts but the man to cut it without bluntness, resumes:

“Listen, why don’t you go see cell 102… The guy inside is as crazy as you are, Child! He’s been in there for ten years, the dead guy! But he won’t move!!! And not even bars to stop him. He’s got plenty of time to listen to you searching. Now get out!”
Lisa turns away from the man when she changes her mind and says:
“By stomping around you’ll wear out your feet, but you won’t get very far this way, you know!!! It is Grandmother who said it… “
Before the man grabbed Lisa’s arm, angry at so much disrespect, she (not without some agitation) ran away.
“It is that, take your legs to your neck! Before I twist it”, shouted the crook, forgetting one instant the bars of the dungeon.
HIS RAGE MADE HIS EYEBALLS GO OUT OF THEIR SOCKETS – WHAT A SIGHT!

Lisa is also hungry, but she has to face the facts… No money, no bread! No bread, no luck!
She remembers a sentence that Grandma used to repeat to her while nodding her head:
“It’s all or nothing. And the opposite of everything… is nothing!”
The prison corridors are long, a little nauseating too, Lisa notes. She prefers not to think about it too much… She would gladly put her ten fingers in her nose… But that is a bad manners, no?
Kilometers of raw iron offer themselves to the strangers. Only the rust seems to want to excuse its nakedness. Who would dare to hope for a little warmth in this place which has neither privacy, nor even a feeling of peace?
And these numerous tattoos mixed with the sweat of their wearers. Lisa walks many hours… But not in vain because she finally meets the little round man at 102. Maybe he will tell her important things?

She is surprised…No visible bars or nasty locks bothered her, just a small square carpet on which she is sitting (in a funny position, I must say), a bit like a melon pretending to be a fakir. He seems to be surrounded by goodness.

“No doubt…” replied the tenderized man. “So, you’re looking for someone who talks all the time?”

“He doesn’t talk anymore since it’s hot, he left his house without even saying a word,” Lisa answers. “Loup and I were sleeping like logs, you understand, it was cold, of course he could have waited but he didn’t know we were going to surprise him… You know, he writes. He had to tell me stories even later! You see, I have insomnia at night… “(Lisa almost choked.)
” Slowly!… ” Interrupted the man, ” slowly! You can take your time!” (But he didn’t know that Lisa had already been looking for him for so long!)
The man tells her that he is a Buddhist, that he lives in the present moment and that he is “wise” too!
She asks him if it is the same thing as “contemplating”…
“You know… A Buddhist is the specialist of ” contemplating ” as the smoker, a specialist of “smoking”! But grandma says it’s ugly to put tar in the pot… (*play of words –note from translator)
“How funny,” said the man, laughing.
“No Lisa, it’s a little different!”
“Oh well, it’s not!?! So much worse”, says Lisa, blushing.
Even if it seems very strange to us, the man will never get out of prison, because he is fine there and feels free wherever he is! That’s the way it is.
“And then there’s his mouse Kolia,” Lisa thinks, “she has her whole family that has found refuge with this kind man, she does not care to go outside!”
He also tells her briefly about the homo-voice. (They still have time!)
The Wise Man explains to Lisa, in simple language (not a fancy language), his own confinement (as he says.)
“He had the opportunity to run with you, Lisa, but by refusing to talk to you, caring only for his escape, he made you aware of his imprisonment… No need for bars, dungeon or keys, sometimes you have to sit down and see far beyond the end of your nose, you have to believe…”

“I have an itchy nose…” Lisa declares without realizing that she had just cut him off, “when I feel something that tells me: I know!!!…”
“Lisa,” resumes the man who never gets angry, “Lisa, you have to learn to listen continuously.”
“I know,” said Lisa, sheepishly. “But it’s like Loup being me, and then me being Loup, who sometimes can’t hear! Do you know how to tell stories?” she asked in a quiet voice.
“…” “He shouldn’t be far away the one you are looking for. You must continue your search,” the man said in whisper. “Lisa, listen to me carefully. Go where your heart leads you, it is always the best way. Now run and don’t look back! Look far ahead, keep your eyes wide open…
AND KNOW THAT THE WATER IN THE RIVER ALWAYS HAS A BIG DESTINATION.”

But Loup is not there! Neither all his companions, who all disappeared when the police came… Since they all ran away, without even saying sorry!
Lisa had no idea where they could hide!
The house of the talking man was now very, very far from the prison, which itself was very, very far from the house…

So, she began to move in a very precise direction, as if invited by a wind that pushed her softly, with no other intention than to help her trot in a direction that doesn’t even have a name…
Lisa didn’t know yet that her intuition was naturally pulling her by the collar of her sweater, like thousands of balloons driving the words of JÉSULLE. (Or something like that?)
JESULLE-JESTICULE… were two words that Lisa had actually combined. She had heard, one Christmas Eve, while walking with her grandmother, from a “PREACHER” who was a little scary!
But this man of the cloth, who smelled of licorice, was not scary as much as the one who liked Zen!
At least that’s what Lisa concluded. On the other hand, he was somewhat “enlightened”, even very, very restless!

She would then take a moment to pick up her teeth… (Grandmother had dentures that didn’t always stick together!)
“The ‘GOOD'”, she continued, “is in each of us… It’s up to us to watch for it, to sow it and to grow it.
(That was a very sweet thought.)

And Grandma was right… Lisa sensed it because her nose itched!
RELIGION SEEMS TO BE A BURDEN THAT MAKES THE CRAZY CRAZIER, AND MAKES MORE THAN A FEW CRAZY…WHICH IS EVERYTHING FOR SOME, WHO GET LOST ON THE WAY!
But, since Lisa was baptized, naturally, she was sent to the Father Dition every Sunday, (what a funny name!) to familiarize herself with the BIBLE: A TALE is not ordinary, but much less funny than a dictionary! She was then simply heading for the schoolhouse of the Catechism, of which she had used the pews for a long time.
She had told her three friends about it, of course, mentioning its proximity to a massive winch, which split the air and beyond!

She was the tallest girl in town! She hoped to find her friends there. But it was on the way that she was struck by a harsh thought…WHY WAS THE LOUP NO LONGER BY HER SIDE?
He who should be her shadow! Her half! He didn’t follow her into the prison (but neither did the sun)… So????
Of course! The sun! Outside, this one was hidden by clouds with the plumage that makes the great couturiers jealous!
IT WAS ENOUGH TO LOOK UP TO PENETRATE THE MYSTERY!

THE WIND THAT PUSHED THE GIRL FIRST JUST SCATTERED ALL INTO CRUMBS.

“Follow me, if I were you… I have a little idea…” she resumed. “Let’s go straight to the crane… Maybe they are there, our missing friends?
Loup was not asked for a long time, in front of so much innocence and temperament, he was conquered on the spot!

In this moment, he was restored, for the only pleasure is to be beside Lisa. He had however a ball of bitterness which revealed a fatigue.
“I DO NOT EXIST, I AM ALL FLAT, AND NO DADDY!” said Loup.
“But stop saying that all the time! You’re lying…” said Lisa (who was losing control of the situation).
“I made you up, I created you, so I know…” says Lisa.
“No…” says Loup, “no! I was here before you.”
” Ah??? ” Wonders Lisa, while walking.
“Yes, I was there before you, because I was Me!
Lisa, as vexed to be a little exceeded, hurries to respond to him:
“Oh well! And you were what then? “
” I was a dinosaur “, answers Loup.
“And why are you all flat, now?” continues Lisa.
“Because it is the Soul of my former body.”
“If you were here before me, then why do you keep saying, ‘I don’t exist? ” “
” Because I’m just waiting for you to say it to me out loud…”, said the flat kid.
” … That you exist in me?”
“Yes, and I am here for You; and you are me!” concluded Loup, on the spot.

Lisa was not very sure she understood. Yet, what Loup was telling her was important.
If Loup does not really speak, that in the thoughts of Lisa, it is that it is the hidden part of the child:
WHAT HE DOES NOT SAY.
If Loup does not understand, it is because it is still too early for Lisa to hear what life must teach her, her fear needs to be tamed.
“Don’t ever leave me again, okay? You’re my best friend, my better half,” Lisa says with a small sob.

“If I’m going to say I LOVE YOU, I’m going to have to say it out loud to myself…. Is that it??? And me, it’s You! And you are Me?
BUT, SINCE I DON’T LOVE MYSELF, HOW CAN I SAY: “I LOVE YOU” TO MYSELF?
“Do you know it, you?” questions Lisa. But Loup does not answer, because Loup does not hear.
“Do you want me to put you on my back?” questions the little one, “you seem to me quite flat, even if it is your state! You’re in a bad shape, I can’t take it!”
“No need,” thinks Loup, who is all limp. “I follow you like your shadow, no chance of losing me, even for a second.
The crane pierces the sky; Loup and Lisa pierce the ears of the passers-by: they singing pop tunes at the top of their voices, which irritate the trucks that make the axle squeal, agitating the gypsies, who, themselves, play like gods, contaminating the pigeons (scraps of old bidets), succeeding at best, to disperse them…
But all that in a general chaos and that it is good for their morale!

They are slowly approaching the place of worship…
It was here, every Sunday, the little girl and other children shared the communion wafer and the overly slow lessons. (Sorry! The author is getting lost!) They shared the wafer and the THE “TEACHINGS”.
Lisa was right! Humphrey and the Spider were sitting quietly in the shade of an olive tree.
As for Rabbit Martin (carrots in hand), he was rubbing his nose! (Still a little embarrassed…) Lisa didn’t feel like incriminating them. The time is no time any more for getting even. Each day has its own punishment, even if tomorrow is a problem…There is no point in running if you drink good wine…
Putting everything off until tomorrow is sometimes for the best…etc. etc.

Behind the precious tree were eyes, then legs – all four, an insolent tail that chased the “flying”, and a bouncy flank that only liked to eat nettles.
But, to identify the stranger, Lisa and Loup went around the trunk of the olive tree like Sioux, and discovered with astonishment: a donkey with a cross
A DONKEY WITH A CROSS NEAR THE CHURCH??? WHAT A JOKE!
Indeed, on its back, a drawn cross was lying on the fur of our donkey!
“Hello!” said Lisa (who seemed very intrigued by this newcomer). “Is it because they crucified you that you no longer smile?” The donkey didn’t know what to reply. After all, he was ignorant, and as if to apologize for not filling in the blanks… he showed his very white twelve teeth.
“Do you know how to do anything other braying?” asked the little one. “And then what is your name?
They call me the Donkey-Cat… My mother is a daughter of joy, that’s why!” he said, very proudly.

“She is always happy, is that it? How lucky is she.. Loup, you see, I knew it! There are people on earth who are chosen beings!”(But she had no idea that Donkey was a bastard, and still angry about it. His father didn’t recognize him, (even though he was bare) He didn’t cry out, but he was already being pushed away).
So, the Donkey told his story, and Lisa, for a change, is brooding!
” … And moreover, the church is closed!” she gets angry to mask her trouble.
“And on the top of that, the donkey’s fleas have gone wild! Loup, who doesn’t like it at all, thinks.
“It’s the last straw! All right, the moon is round,” the little girl continued, “but ISN’T AN ABSURD that no one, at this hour, is welcomed to the house of God?”

“Isn’t it not normal that one takes a refuge in this place populated by angels and hospitality?” associates the Spider.
“It is a holy hypocrisy!” I would add (the worm is green), “to say that this place of prayers, in short, opens its arms to any man, while a heavy door is constructed before the heavens, before their hopes!”
As for Loup, he does not think anything more about it… He stares at Donkey Cat with a “jackass” eyes…
Rabbit Martin is unhappy, he complains: his carrots have a strong taste of asbestos!
“Everything is going to hell” he growls, “they don’t even taste like fields anymore! They taste of the city.
All this beautiful little world seems to be on the verge of collapse!
And to distract the storm that lurks, Lisa invites the whole party to get to know their new friend.

“It’s a Snow White, she’s with the seven dwarfs. She bit into the apple, she’s dead!” he gushes.
… It’s a little boy, he puts the crumbs in the forest, they ate everything, he is dead!
… It’s Cinderella, she has evil sisters, she found a pumpkin, she went to the ball, she lost her shoe, she is dead!
… It’s Donkey Skin, she put a skin on her back, she made a cake, she lost her ring, she’s dead!” he drools.
“But, stop! What are you saying here!” screams Lisa.
“It’s never short like that, the stories! Yours have nothing to neither eat nor to drink. So, stop now! It’s depressing!!! I’d rather eat the dirt, than listen to you screeching!”
The Donkey-Cat, who has no wit, is a poor storyteller… (The idea was a mistake!)
LISA HAS LEARNED HER LESSON WELL: NO COUNTERFEITS!

Only, there is no love encounter on the horizon! NO, rather “Mister BELZÉBUTH (also called DEMON). Something she sensed because her nose started to itch!

Her companions are with her, no one would disagree…
But the enemy who is watching her has more than one trick in his spice bag, more than one day in his life of mischief! He recognizes all the unfortunate people who try to escape him by pretending to be happy, when they suffer from boredom. And he quickly plays with them to tempt them, because:
HE KNOWS THE EYES THAT LAUGH AND SIMULATE JOY, BUT HE ALSO KNOWS THE SMILES THAT TURN TO FEAR. AND HE LIKES TO FRIGHTEN, THAT’S HIS JOB!

Fortunately, the church is nearby, and they could all hide there? (But the door is closed.) Or maybe there, in the little cemetery behind the presbytery?
After all, gravestones are wonderful hiding places for all the squirrels.
(Lisa had seen thousands of them playing hide-and-seek.)
“Why not to do as they do and skim the coffins, without making the slightest noise, so that no one gets angry?” dared the little one.
Nobody really felt the danger coming. Except Lisa!
That’s how, out of the blue, she proposed to her long-time friends to take a trip to the root-eaters, the twelve thousand buried in the soft pass of VERMINE.
“No way!!!” the worm panics, “I’m homesick! YOU WILL GO AND WITHOUT ME!!!!!!!. You hear???? The day I say yes will be the day,” says the creep, ” with my feet first…if I may say so!”

“But what does it matter?” retorts the Spider.
“You are an earthworm, not a worm in a living room! You’re a disgrace to your brothers who feed the fish. And even the worms that swarm over the remains will laugh at you, if you’re a pallet. You don’t have a choice anymore”, the spider worm ironically says.
“Annoying you are! And hurtful too! ” Throws the maggot who is not in control.
“It was missing only that! Since everyone is ganging up on me, I’ll ignore our friendship and, from now on, thumb my nose at the cumbersome adage: “There is strength in numbers. “Well, I say to him: CROTTE! Goodbye to all of you!
THE SITUATION IS DETERIORATING BY THE MINUTE, AND PROMISES A FALL OF THE WORLD FOR THE SQUAD.

Rabbit Martin follows the Spider, who, a little outraged by the behavior of the crawling worm, decides to leave for other continents. Without even saying “goodbye”, nor “see you soon”, “I’ll be back late! Everything is like a cockroach. No sooner said than done, and no hope!
All this had no basis, nor any sense. (A bit like the hysteria of fifty-year-old girls).

It is also the “ideal” site of vanity for the CREATURE of EVIL, to have within its reach a small star between the desire to love and the desire to die. All are scattered-separated-lonely, all have underestimated the influence of: “LUCIFER”. TO MAKE A JAM, A PRETTY RIPE FRUIT MUST BE PICKED FIRST
Lisa is alone from the start, the door of the church to which she leaned is closed, but nevertheless useful to the child. She needed a break, to breathe again (because her heart is too big!)

What was her surprise when she found herself on her backside: the door that opened? While it is closed?. Nobody inside, no sounds of choirs… (Only the smell of the incense which relieves the little one, who suffers since a long time from a funny sinusitis).
Then, Lisa enters the place of worship, place that she knew… since she tasted it.
Just do as those did (who still confirms it to us), that it is, of course, here, the body (that of a dead person): THE BODY OF CHRIST.
“He must be in a lot of pain as if they snapped off his neck,” Lisa thought every time she got down on her knees. “Hostia is Latin for VICTIM,” she said loudly, to give herself strength. “It’s Grandma… who told me…”. But Lisa understood…
She knows that something strange is going to happen; nothing is like before in this church.
All the candles are extinguished, the holy water fonts emptied of their sanctified water, everything is
shaken-mixed, a piles of papers are thrown all over the wet floor.

“Pages from the Bible!” the little girl noticed. All are scattered, it is the Last Judgement.
Lisa struggles with the Invisible One and, sensing his malignant presence, starts to scream, her eyes all shot out:
“But what have I done to you, and what have I done wrong? Show yourself! If you are so clever!” she shouts to hide her sorrow.
BUT THE DISRUPTIVE BEAST THINKS SHE’S AN ARTIST! AND TO “GARBONIZE” HIS CHOICE, HE APPEARS ONLY IN PLACES WHERE HE IS NOT EXPECTED.
The darkness of the place has nothing comforting.
Lisa trembles with fear, when suddenly: A DIVINE LIGHT illuminates the ceiling and discovers frescos, which opens to the horizon…

But NO! Lisa knows that this is not an enlightenment, nor is it about FAITH, since she herself does not believe… (at least not like that).
Besides, she doesn’t feel any warmth enveloping her soul, rather an icy coldness that announces, “the BEAST”! And she was right… Lightnings form above her head, almost frying her eyes.
The same icy cold then took over the building. (She had seen this in a movie: “The Exorcist” or something like that, and it doesn’t go away!!!)
“WHERE ARE YOU?” screams the child. “Show yourself!” she resumes, crying.
“I am inside you, Lisa, I am deep inside you, deep inside you, YOU MUST KILL ME!”

Lisa runs outside and collapses crying.
It is then that she expels from her childish body all the embarrassment, all the weight of the sorrows which had piled up during all these years.

LISA IS EMPTY. NOTHING MORE IN THE STOMACH!
A very last gasp, just as a final touch, the unusual hiccup of the terminal phase, which forces her to spit out the little something: A SMALL DROP – A PEARL OF BLOOD.
Lisa observes and fixes her attention on this small piece, which lies, flat on the lawn…
The hopeful feeling quickly takes over her quickly. She will give it her name, and even the reason for her visit! Lisa understands that the expelled drop is called “BORING “.
“I am the boredom and I run in your veins! I was there, trapped by your sorrows that are useless!”

Lisa was all ears:
“Not those of the heart, nor those of imprisonment, but those of your ‘unhappiness’ which slowly eat away at you and weigh like a lid on your resentments: I mean your ‘BOREDOME’, Lisa, which prevents you from living.”
“But I can’t help it, if I’m bored all the time?” she said. “If everything tires me too quickly, if the morning tells me: today is the same as tomorrow which follows it, which bores me, which wears me out, because everything is the same as if it’s written!”
“I am bored! I am bored! I’m bored!” cries the autistic, “I’m bored! I’m bored!” said the little one, who vomited up gallons of it.
An opaque puddle spread all around Lisa. In a pool of hemoglobin, which soon turns into a lake, sweet CALIGULINE COMPTINE, Lisa drowns, the Caligula.

IN A BODY MOVEMENT THAT WOULD WAKE UP A DEAD MAN, LISA THEN TURNS TO ME!
Addresses “ME” loosely, crying, and asks, TO ME!
THE AUTHOR of this heartbreaking story, a solution to her “metaphysical and not at all comical” problem.
“HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO FIND THE MORAL WHEN I MYSELF AFFECTED BY THIS TERRIBLE DISEASE?
I’M BORED TOO, I’M BORED, I’M BORED. THAT’S WHY YOU ARE ALIVE… THAT’S WHY I WRITE!”

“Lisa, I beg your forgiveness. I would like to dissolve myself in a bottle of acid… and then to mutilate myself and then to see the living flesh bleed, to blush before this terrible homicide. How could I, “Soul” (whom I guessed was sensitive?), be so unaware that giving you a life is like remembering a distant scroll. It is the writing of my blood that sails through your veins, and with an innocent gesture I have cast the anathema: I am my own infanticide?”
“Who am I?”

Lisa didn’t wear her socks all night long, but tights when it was cold inside; she didn’t use stickers to make high cheekbones (like the grown-ups), she had grown up the child… And how!

ALREADY 17 YEARS OLD!

“Do you want to go to the movies?” asks Loup Lisa.
“Do you want to get some cats?” asks the Spider. “The fair is just around the corner and Martin has hands! He can hit the targets, shoot rabbits, win the big prize and… Uh-oh…” (Confused is the Spider, realizing the mistake.)
“But I didn’t mean to!” she says, bending over, “Ouch!” Avoiding with a thousand jumps, “ouille!” the wrath of the Jeannot; fearing Lapin Martin who, red and very angry, shows his teeth a little.
“What can I say?… It was all for Lisa “, the Spider is out of breath, slightly trampled.
Little Lisa is not afraid of the dark, nor even of the cries at night, not more than of the Nettles, which sting the Toes; Lisa is not afraid of the Ogres, of the monsters of hell, of the gores of the Commodore, even less of the bees!
Then who? Or rather what, frightened Lisa so much, to the point of kneading her? Her soul was crushed, her life was sedated.

SHE CAN NO LONGER SEE THE SKY, IT BECOMES SO DARK THAT IN THE END THE LOUP AND THE MOON FEEL A LITTLE LOST.
“That’s it, it’s over”, she admits between two sobs. “I lost… I believed however a long time that we were going to find him, to keep him close to us to tell him secrets…All that for nothing! All “THAT” leads you to sorrow. Every day waiting for a little sign of life, and then nothing but wind, wind and time!
Only Wind, only Wind that moves the Vines, only Wind, only Wind AND NOT THE SLIGHTEST SIGN!

Lisa did not contain any more her fury, she typed without respite and of the fist and the foot, avoiding the Spider on the ground, zigzagged.
EXHAUSTED FINALLY, LISA CLOSED HER EYES, TO SEE BETTER BEYOND THEM.
She could see the cemetery where Grandmother rested, and could hear her hoarse and trembling voice, that voice of the past, which Lisa loved so much!
“It’s all warm in the neck when her words drip,” she recalled.
That same voice would tell her:
“Don’t give up, my Lisa, he is there, I know it! He is so close to you! Don’t give up, Lisa, your heart has made its choice, and it will be yours… You have to believe me, trust yourself.”

A very slight shiver ran down her spine. Slowly, the birth of a pretty smile appeared on the edge of her lips. “She smiled and came back to life!” sang all her friends. But Loup is gone. Loup faded into the night. (He knows that Lisa will not need him anymore.) She is not alone anymore…
… A silhouette in the distance, cut out by a friendly moon, moves forward with the great steps;
his bare feet do not seem to touch the ground… yet he looks like a man…
Lisa’s heart beats for him, and my heart beats too.
AFTER ALL, HE STILL HAD AT LEAST A HUNDRED YEARS LEFT HERE!
What a feeling!

Thank you… to all those who… I love!!!