Chapter Five

We woke next day. The sun was already up and we lay in our sleeping bags blissfully happy.
"It’s been great hasn’t it?" I said.
"Yes I’m glad we came here first. It was a good idea of yours."
"How’s your blisters?"
"OK. Boy you sure did scream didn’t you?" Teased gary
"That bloody stuff stung like hell."
"You wimp." We were back to insulting each other.
"I notice you didn’t want the treatment. You were quick to refuse." A cow lowed outside, then another. "What time is it?"
Gary fumbled for his watch. "It’s eight o’clock." he said.
"The cows should have been milked by now."
"They’re probably having a lie in, after all we did put away a fair bit of wine last night."
"Yes old Monsieur Le Cam is probably nursing a hangover right now."
"Well he deserves a lie in every now and then. Everyone does. It’s a basic human right. To be able to lie in and slob about all morning, once in a while."
We lay back looking up at the roof of the tent, the sun beating down on the walls was making it start to get warm inside, but that was OK we’d get up when we started to sweat.
"You know. I really love it here........"
There was a rustling outside and someone came to the tent and started unzipping the flap a little.
"Bonjour." I called cheerfully.
"I ‘ave a note for vous." it was Nelly.
"A note? Who from? What’s it for?" But she was gone already, running back to the farm house. I opened the piece of paper and read it with disbelief.
"Father has gone to the bar to get drunk. He says if you are still on the farm when he gets back he will kill you. He has taken his shotgun. I have lost my honour because I was alone with you in your tent until midnight. I’m so sorry. You must leave. Helene."
In the space of thirty seconds my life had changed from perfect happiness to terror.
"What does it say?"
I handed Gary the note and said nothing, I still couldn’t believe it. How could it end like this? We were innocent. We’d done nothing. I went over in my mind all the previous nights fun and laughter trying to find a reason. But there was none.
"It’s not fair." I said, I got up and quickly dressed.
I went to the farm house and called. Madame Le Cam came to the doorway.
"What have we done? We’re innocent." But she didn’t understand. She just shook her head sadly and pointed to the road. I ran back to the tent. "It’s no good we’d better leave."
"What did Helene say?"
"I never saw her. She must be locked in her bedroom."
We stripped out the tent and packed it away not bothering with the usual niceties of folding it properly.
Fully packed we walked to the farmhouse again. Madame Le Cam was still in the doorway, watching us leave, it was obvious she didn’t want to speak. I looked up at the upstairs window. Helene was there, clutching the curtains, tears rolling down her cheeks. It would be the last I saw of her for twenty years.
Gary and I never said a word as we trudged down that country lane toward Morlaix. The sky was still blue the sun was still hot, but the joy was gone. What we thought of as purely innocent laughter had been misinterpreted as something sordid. Through our ignorance we had betrayed their hospitality. The knowledge that we knew we were innocent didn’t help. We felt branded and no amount of explanation would change anything.
Half a mile down the road we heard the tractor. It was Helene’s Father coming back from the bar. "Shit! What do we do?"
"Hide."
We threw ourselves into the nearest ditch, the long spring grass sheltered us from view. For what seemed an eternity the tractor got closer and closer. We dared not even breath for fear he would hear us. As he got closer, we could see the shotgun slung over his arm. He was weaving back and forth across the road. He’d obviously had a skin full. As he passed by we could the look on his face, pure, black, anger. Our hearts pounded as he chugged by.
As soon as he rounded the corner we ran. Running, stumbling and desperately unhappy, we got to the station and caught the first train Eastbound. We didn’t care where it was going as long as it took us away.