As we ate, Granpè Nozial told us a story about a man who left the mountain to go to the city and in the city discovered ice. The man liked ice so much he wanted to bring some back up the mountain, but by the time he got up the mountain with the ice, the ice had melted. The man came back to the village several times and tried to find a way to define ice to his friends, who had never seen it, but all he had to show for his encounter with the ice was a wet shirt. “So ice is a wet shirt,” his friends told the man to keep him from feeling too bad.

I think the lesson of the story is that even though Granpè Nozial hadn’t been to the city with us to see for himself what we had been through, he could understand it because he could see the result in Manman’s leg.

Granpè Nozial can always think of a story to make you feel better, no matter how strange the story.

After the meal, Tante Rose showed Moy and me how to change the dressing on Manman’s leg, and she made us promise that we would remind Manman to take her tablets and eat plenty of green vegetables and liver when she could find it. Tante Rose also ordered us not to let Manman go down to the market until her leg was completely healed.

Tante Rose said she would have a surprise for us when she saw us again at Christmas. I asked her what it was, but she refused to tell me. She can be quite a torturer, that Tante Rose, saying something like that just as Moy starts walking her down the mountain.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4

It feels wonderful to be back in school. Madame Auguste made me stand as she made a welcoming speech in my honor.

“We’re happy Celiane is with us again,” she said. “We missed her. Did we not miss her, class?”

There were some whispers, but I think almost everyone missed me except Pouchon, who’s been in first place since I have been gone.

During recess, Thérèse prodded me for details about my adventures in the city. At times during my telling, Thérèse was frightened and outraged. At other times she was plain jealous that I got to spend all that time in the city, no matter how dangerous it was.

She wanted to know how Moy had handled himself. I told her he did well. We couldn’t have gotten along without him, I said. This seemed to increase her esteem for Moy and I think for me, too.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5

Madame Auguste had a special lesson about Christophe Colomb, the Italian explorer who came to our island on this day in 1492 from Spain.