OISEAU BLANC CIEL BLEU
She stared at me, her face a mask of frustration and confusion. She shifted from foot to foot, then licked her lips and pointed to the skies. I glanced upwards, following the direction of her slender, pointing finger.
She glanced back at me, then back to the sky and I heard the strange words repeated once more: "Il y avait un grand oiseau blanc dans le ciel bleu, juste par là-bas!"
She looked back at me, and I in turn glanced at the others who were with us. They all shook their heads, just as uncertain as I was. I could see our friend's frustration deepening. She had just moved here from Quebec and was trying very hard to assimilate. She stared straight at me and pointed over her shoulder, her finger thrusting angrily to the distance blue skies behind her.
"Ciel bleu. C'est le ciel bleu."
"The sky?" I asked.
"Yes," she replied in a broken english accent, her face lighting up. "C'est le ciel bleu!"
I nodded and repeated her words. "See-el blue."
She scrunched her face up and made a fifty-fifty waving motion with her hand then paused for a moment. I could tell she was deep in thought and I couldn't help but smile at the valiant effort. After a few fidgety moments, her face lit up again, sending her eyebrows into high arcs of surprise over her big chocolate brown eyes.
She took a step back on the wooden boardwalk we were all standing on and motioned to me, her elected translator, to pay attention. I nodded my head, letting her know I was. I found a slow smile spreading across my face as she wound up, and the smile erupted into full blown laughter as she started flapping her arms and making cooing bird noises at me.
She scowled and I raised my hands apologetically. "A bird, right?" I asked. "You saw a a bird in the see-el blue?"
She nodded her head. "Votre Francais est horrible, mais..." she paused. "Yes, a bird in bleu sky."
I smiled, and nodded my head, pointing up to the sky. She turned to follow my finger, staring up into the bright, blue summer sky. Once she was facing the opposite way, I commented in the most casual manner I could, "Vous avez vue un grand oiseau blanc dans les ciels bleus toute là-bas," I pointed out. "You saw a big white bird in the blue sky over there?"
She spun quickly on her heels and I knew better than to wait around. I could hear the laughter of our friends echoing in the distance as I sprinted off along the boardwalk. Ahead to my right, I could see a large white bird circling in the clear, blue skies, and I would have paused to watch its lazy drift, but I could hear small, angry footsteps hot on my heels.
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