J/Y et P. Ego-logistes.

out (of water) but close

How many times have I seen him before?

I don’t know.

How many times have we passed in the street`?

Many. We may even have said ‘hello’.

Or ‘bonjour’.

He is - after all - French.

And I am - after all - polite.

He looks like a fish.

Washed up, unexpectedly, on the beach – which in this case is a chair.

He sits down in the chair.

And looks at us through  his fish eyes.

“Are there any questions?” He gulps.

I want to ask him why his ears are so big, whether it was a consequence of being so long in the sea.

But it seems inappropriate.

Instead, someone else asks how many of his fellow fish are still alive.

His answer is unclear, as if the currants of the ocean are interfering.

I understand that there are two in Brittany, maybe another in Switzerland and at least one in Marseille.

He explains that the one in Switzerland is heavily medicated.

As if his renders his existence as no longer countable.

Behind him, on the screen, a series of slides click on and off.

The photos show him as he was, sixty or so years ago.

Before he turned into a fish.

In the photos he looks less out of water, than he does in the chair.

Some one else asks how he would have titled the film.

He replies that for this type of question, he is unable to answer.

It is beyond his competence as a fish.

He is FLOUNDER-ing.

Int/85

 Editorial Note.

Everything here in this blog stems from a reality - either imagined or factual - but often it undergoes a transformation – also either imagined, or factual. Yesterday I went to a screening of the film L’Odyssée which was shown in the presence of André Laban - a member of Jaques Cousteau’s team on the boat Calypso. At the end of the film he was invited to answer our questions. I had one prepared but I was able to answer it myself before i arrived at the cinema so I largely limited myself to listening to the others. Mr Laban remained warm, charming, patient and instructive throughout. He even made us laugh. To put no finer word to it, he was a perfect Fish.

The Calypso is at present somewhere in Turkey.

Waiting.