She lost her first child in a train accident, from which she
I got stung on the tongue once, which wasn’t too pretty. I was
barely recovered herself. Though she gave birth to two children
talking with a lisp for at least three weeks. And yet it could
afterwards, she gave the impression that she did not enjoy
have been worse. I once knew this girl who got a hornet
motherhood and, to some extent, her friends and family took
sting on her left nipple which swelled to the size of a very
more of a role in the upbringing of the boys than their mother.
large grape. It happened in the summer, forcing her to wear a
This does not appear to have had too much effect on the
thick woollen jumper for quite some time. I don’t know why
children, which is testament both to their father and to the
she didn’t just tell people what the problem was – it would
many others who helped out in various ways. Meanwhile,
have been much easier that way. I guess it didn’t help that
her indifference to living continued, even with the constant
a friend of hers developed the sorry incident in a comic
assistance of psychiatry and undying love of her husband.
story he was writing, using the character of ‘Horny the
Though she had not died on that train, something had and that
Hornet’ as a broad parody of animals in children’s books.
something could neither be resurrected nor replaced. Such a
The joke was, of course, that ‘Horny the Hornet’ was the most
gloomy supposition was only confirmed by her suicide on the
perverse, foul-mouthed and amoral insect you’ll ever come
eve of her younger sons fifteenth birthday. We are left to
across. Stinging nipples was the least of his offences. I for one
contemplate a tragic life – and a cracking good story.
will never look at bees, wasps or hornets in the same way again.
(Pierre Monceau and Jean-Pierre Sertin)
