We lost a rabbit in the flood, but I wasn’t allowed to mourn
Shirley doesn’t own a diary. She remembers the date by painting her
for him at first. Keiko came and told me that I wasn’t to ask for
nails instead. One finger deals with the days, another the months,
another one either. She said it was an unwritten rule. When a
the third the years and the rest for whims alone. Tuesday is a light
rabbit and a man die on the same day, you are to ignore the
blue, Wednesday grass green, Thursday blue/grey, Friday violet,
rabbit. I found this very difficult, especially since I had no idea
Saturday scarlet and Sunday a warm yellow that fades to lemon for
which man had died. Keiko came and told me that it was my uncle,
the start of the week on Monday. This month – which is April – is
but this didn’t make things any clearer. I had eight uncles. Still,
represented by a peachy orange and this year – 2005 – by a
said Keiko, you must be able to remember this one. So he was
desert ochre. All of these colours are chosen by Shirley and her
very quiet, sure, but he had lovely thin white hair and the kindest
friend Luis, who used to be a psychologist, but is now an art
smile you ever saw. He also had a very small nose. When Keiko
historian. The effect of this fingernail diary is a curious one, for
had finished I tried to conjure up an image of my dead uncle, but
each day there are usually seven nails unpainted. I suggested that
all that came to mind was the dead rabbit. According to her
the fingers should represent the days instead of the colours, but
description, they must’ve looked much the same as each other. Thus
she wasn’t the slightest bit interested. I argued also that she should
I considered the possibility that they had been one and the same.
work out a way of indicating appointments in her finger diary. And
Once my uncle became my rabbit, I found it much easier to mourn.
yet, what with all the nail painting, she has no appointments to mark.
(Pierre Monceau and Jean-Pierre Sertin)
