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The little girl was used to go the river that ran near the country house of her
parents each time that the weather was fine enough. This time, the sun
invited her to ramble along the river.
Sitting in the grass, she was staring at the water when she perceived a
pretty gravel in the river bed ; she took it between her fingers and eyed it
carefully. The gravel seemed to consist of two different substances, a
smaller dark part on a bigger light one.
The little girl put it in her pocket and when she came back home, she
placed it carefully on a set of shelves. Just before going to bed, she gazed
at it once again.
The following morning, she thought of this pretty gravel, and looked at it on
the shelves : it has disappeared. That was quite incomprehensible. She
ran to the river and she searched and found the gravel exactly in the same
place that she discovered it the previous day. She didn't understand, but
she took it again and put it on the same shelves. Before going to bed, she
looked at it : it was still here. But the following morning, as soon as she
woke up, she searched it on the shelves : it had vanished once again. She
ran to the river, found it in its right place, took it and put it in her pocket, for
she knew she was leaving the country house a few hours later. In their flat,
she put the gravel on the table in her room, thinking that this time it couldn't
join the river again. But the following morning, she didn't find it in the place
she had set it.
A few days later, her parents and her drove to their country house once
again. The little girl was thinking a lot about this queer gravel, and as soon
as they arrived, she ran to the river : the gravel was in its right place. She
decided to let it there. And since this moment, every time that the weather
was fine enough, she went to the river to see the queer gravel, it stayed
always in the same place despite of the current, she thought that maybe it
waited her.
20/01/10
Isabelle Coquinot