The good old times

The weather is perfect. The sun is shining; the atmosphere is warm but not stifling. The forest (1) is bright green. The water fresh. It's spring.
Kids are splashing around, people chatting, walking up and down the path which follow the river. It feels very much like the river that runs near my home in Normandy. Where my friends and I use to swim in the summer. 
I actually am with some friends. We've been here for some time, playing around in the water. It's time to go. We get out of the water and start drying ourselves up. Suddenly, a shark storms out of the river like a jumping fish (2) and falls on the bank! His teeth are huge and everybody quickly steps away from him. Everybody but me. I can see the sharp knives that are his teeth and his exorbitant eyes but my brain is not processing this information. When it should be thinking "danger, danger, run away you fool, it's gonna eat you alive". I think "Surely, a shark is not supposed to be on a river bank but in the water. Therefore, if we leave it there, it's gonna die. So, we have to push it back into the water" (3). No need to say, my friends are in no way willing to help me. So I walk to the other side of the beast, the furthest to the river, and start pushing it. It's heavy but I manage to roll it up to the river and whoa whoa whoa! That's no a tail! Hold on! It's not a shark!! It's a Stingray! (4) Holy S**t! Ok now, I'm wetting my pants, I don't want to be the next Steve Irwin!!(5) Very, very slowly, I make it slide back in the water. Once fully immersed, the Stingray smoothly goes away. I can't believe it, my friends can't believe it.

 An hour later, I'm facing a wooden table and shelves. The furniture are dark and old. It's probably more 35th than 2nd hand. The flat is tiny. So is the window which gives on the main shopping street. I'm with a childhood friend in the town closest to my parents' village. She shares the flat with her boyfriend and their baby. The more I look at it, the more I wonder how they fit in here. We're chatting about unimportant matters. I feel more obliged to be here by politeness and my parents’ wishes than true will. I keep looking at my watch as I don't want to be late for diner. This is an excuse. My parents would understand if I wanted to enjoy my friend's company longer. Thing is, she's not my friend anymore and I'm not really enjoying her company. Out of boredom I look at the window, wondering which ugly view they will have on the street. I am not disappointed. There is one meter between theirs and the neighbour's wall. It's the narrowest part of the street, looking more like a back alley. However, the bakery is just on their left. I can smell its sweet perfume so I bend a little more over the window. That's when I see another of my childhood friend, loading bread in a car. His parents are the bakery's owner and he's off to deliver it. I wave at him to come up! He smiles and shouts "Later, I'm on deliveries!” I give him a thumbs up!

He walks in the shop with a big smile on his face. "My oh my, it's been years! So you're definitely back?" he asks. "It looks like it" I assert not wanting to give any definite answers. "This looks great" he adds before walking past me and in the shop located right under my friend's flat. The grey metal shelves are filled with hardware. Mainly MP3 players & headsets. Mainly blue and green. It looks like the objects have been chosen more on a colour criteria than for their purpose. I like it. It looks cool and fun.
The place is filled with people holding glasses. It's champagne for everybody tonight as I'm inaugurating my shop. One by one, all of them come to congratulate me. I smile and nod. I'm happy. This is cool. My mum's so excited I fear she's gonna break her leg to give me luck.
By the time the clock hits 10pm, my family has left. Quickly, we fall back in our old roles. Norbert becomes the victim of our friendly jokes; Anthony seats an inch higher than the other like an old wolf on a rock; Mathieu seats aback smoking a cheap cigarette; Sylvain keeps the smile he had on his face all day since I saw him from the window; Bruno checks out the girls. They, laugh at the boy's old routine. All these people that I haven't seen for years are the same. Still young, still silly. I am no different to them. Time has passed but we haven't changed (6).

(1) I do dream a lot about forest these days.... I haven't watched "Forest Gump" lately so that must come from the fact that I now live in a forest...
(2) Which it's not- a fish I mean. Well ok, it's not normally jumping either...
(3) I love how pragmatic I get in my dreams...All logic, logic, logic...
(4) Stingrays & sharks are related, so my unconscious is not so twisted...
(5) RIP Steve, I loved your shows...
(6) I wish!