Chapter 3 Louveciennes
Come on Skinny
Who will love you?
And who will fight?
And who will fall for behind?
Comme on Skinny Love....
Although Birdy was totally French, from a very young age she listened to London and American artists, Birdy's song Skinny Love, had a special meaning for her, it was the first song she learned to play and dance to on the piano. Birdy wiped her tears and immersed herself in the bathtub, the warm water enveloped her body and she stood under the tub, for a time that seemed like an eternity to her. Flowers floated above her, red roses, white gardenias, and pink carnations, and as she opened her eyes her curved eyelashes and grayish eyes made little bubbles bubble up to the surface of the tub. She kept picturing in her mind her father with that woman, in the opera house, probably on top of each other, kissing while she danced on the stage, without looking for her parents in the audience, because nothing filled her with more sadness than looking for them in the audience and never seeing them, although her sister supported her with the dance she had never gone to see her dance, and she always danced for others, full of loneliness.
She stepped out of the shower and put on white heeled boots that covered her entire leg, a turquoise blue flowered dress and wrapped her still wet hair in a scarf, sprayed her neck with perfume and painted her lips a vivid pastel pink. She took from her parents' library the volumes of her favorite French writers, among them Violet Leduc, books by Patricia Hinghmith and Scott Fitzgerald. She kept the paintings of Edgar Degas in a carry-on suitcase, as if she had the right to take them because of an inheritance and invisible pact made with her parents. She took everything that had for her something of emotional value in that house, for she never intended to set foot in it again. She opened the closet and looked at the ballet costumes she wore as a child, held them in her arms and continued to take out of her closet, some knitted sweaters and designer dresses that belonged to her grandmother.
He opened the porch of the house with the remote control and entered his parents' old vehicle, a beige jeep, like the sand that envelops the Nile River with a few layers of dust on the windshield. He dropped on the passenger seat two suitcases, one of them full of books and clothes, the other full of paintings. He picked up a carton of Camel cigarettes and lit a cigarette, left his parents' property driving the old jeep, the trees from above covering the road with dry leaves.
Birdy drove the car all afternoon until late at night, he arrived at his family's old house located in the suburbs of Louveciennes, a rap by the band Black Eyed Peas and the song Shut Up were playing at full volume, Birdy drove with his eyesight blurred by his thoughts and every now and then he smoked a cigarette. Arriving at Loveciennes she parked the car and a Dalmatian dog ran over her, Birdy greeted it with joy and sweetness stopped for a moment at the entrance of the house and leaned on the ground to pet the dog. She took her belongings from the passenger seat and entered the house. Unlike her home in Paris, decorated with luxuries and artistic details silk curtains and furniture finished in leather upholstery, the Louvenciennes property was rustic and remained with a country feel for as long as Birdy could remember. The grass grew rapidly and although it was mowed regularly, it gave the garden behind the kitchen a wild look, and ivy grew up the walls and into the upstairs bedrooms.
Birdy entered her room and the dim light of her bedroom made her squint, she walked to the window and when she opened it she heard the wailing of the trees and the loneliness of the night, it seemed endless and without light, like her hopes of having a life full of love and truth. Now everything he knew about love seemed like a lie.
She listened to the soft scales of a piano and looked on her phone at the time, it was past midnight, she had missed calls from her parents, probably asking if she had taken the car, and from her boyfriend Seeley. Birdy put on her headphones, took her feet off her heels and brought her left leg up over her left shoulder, then bent her right knee, and did the same with her right leg, stretched her insteps and pressed them into the carpet in her room.
A ballet song played, and Birdy opened all the curtains on the Louveciennes windows as she said goodbye to old memories, tears ran down her cheeks, the property in total had 5 rooms upstairs and a main living room, dining room and kitchen and two rooms downstairs. All the windows were opened, as she went into the office to open the windows she found a woman's dress along with women's lingerie on her father's desk. She also checked the wastebasket in the bathrooms and found condoms, there was also women's lingerie in what was her parents' bedroom. In the master bedroom there is a picture of her father on a golf course, she takes the framed photograph and with her fingers trembling with rage throws it in the trash, followed by taking all the photographs of her father and throwing them in the trash. She opens the closet and the dolls in her room and takes them all downstairs, places them next to some boxes full of old objects. At that moment Birdy places both hands on the table and with a disconsolate gesture lets out a sigh.
Her phone rings.
\- Hello?
\- Bird? I've been trying to call you all day. Where are you?
She smiles slightly at the sound of Seeley's voice.
\- I'm in Louveciennes.
\- What are you doing there? Have you traveled with your parents?
\- No, I didn't come alone.
\- Is everything all right?
\- No, I mean yes, nothing has happened.
\- What is it Birdy, do you want me to come and get you?
She hears him pressing her lips together and lets out a snort.
\- Baby?
\- Seeley, have you ever lied to me?
\- Baby, I will never, ever lie to you.
\- Promise me?
\- I would never lie to you, I love you, your beauty gives my life meaning, I love you my baby.
\- I love you too. Please don't ever lie to me.
\- Ok my love, I'll pick you up early tomorrow morning?
\- I don't want to go dancing tomorrow, I really prefer to spend a few days here.
\- Why my heart? What happened to you? Are you sick?
\- No, it's just that I don't feel like dancing.
\- I'm on my way to your place in Louveniciences.
\- No, Seeley, it's not necessary, it's 3:00 in the morning, you'll be there at dawn.
\- Then wait for me for breakfast.
\- I love you, okay?
\- I love you too.
\- Send me the GPS address.
\- Okay, I got it.
Birdy hangs up the call and looks at her face in a mirror in the hallway connecting the kitchen to the main living room corridor, her eyes framed by bushy eyebrows seem dull, and her full, large lips now look pale. Birdy tucks her hair behind her shoulders and sighs, staring at herself in the mirror. She walked toward the entrance carrying the boxes and belongings she had thrown in the trash. The women's clothes, dresses, lingerie and perfumes that were not her mother's she threw them in the trash.
Upon entering the house, she turned off the light in the kitchen, then proceeded to the hallway, the library, the housekeeper's room and went upstairs to the rooms on the upper floor, turning off the lights and leaving the windows open, until she finally turned off the room that was her bedroom.
He lay down on the bed and stared out onto the balcony, as the curtains were moved by the fine breeze and he could make out distant lights through the treetops that pointed the way to the city of Paris. She remembered to send her home address to her boyfriend. She checked the Ballet Opera group.
\- Rehearsal tomorrow at 9am. Doors close at 8:50, latecomers will not be allowed in.
\- Dress audition tomorrow.
Birdy ignored the messages.
She wrote to Seeley
\- Mon amour, my love, here is the address.
\- I'll be waiting for you.
Seeley replied.
\- Ok my love, sleep, see you tomorrow.
Birdy sighed, she wasn't sleepy at all, she didn't want to go back to rehearsal the next day either, the last thing she wanted was to go back to Paris. She began to dance barefoot, and in her turquoise dress to a Celine Dion song, she danced with sadness and delicacy in every movement, she walked to the balcony dancing and looked out the window. Then she remained looking out at the trees and the garden at the main entrance.
She listened to Celine Dion's music and closed her eyes dancing and flowing with the light movement of her hands and feet.
Je m´inventerai reine porque tú me retiennes
Je me ferai nouvelle pour que le feu reprenne
Je deviendrai ces autres qui te donnent du plaisir
Vos jeux seront les nótres si tel ton désir....