Audiobook - Contemporary Classic
Top Talent
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Young Adult (18-35)Accents
French (General) North American (General)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
for a long time, though unlike his puzzle boxes, his model of their neighborhood makes little sense to her. It's not like the real world. The miniature intersection of Rue de Mier Bell and Rue Monge, for example, just a block from their apartment is nothing like the rial intersection. The rial one presents an amphitheater of noise and fragrance in the fall. It smells of traffic and castor oil bread from the bakery camper from Evans Pharmacy, delphiniums and sweet peas and roses from the flower stand. On winter days, it swims with the odor of roasting chestnuts. On summer evenings, it becomes slow and drowsy, full of sleepy conversations and the scraping of heavy iron chairs. But her father's model of the same intersection smells Onley of dried glue and sawdust. Its streets are empty. It's pavements, static to her fingers. It serves as little more than a tiny and insufficient facsimile. He persists in asking Marie Laure to run her fingers over it, to recognize different houses, the angles of the streets and one cold day in December, when Marie Laure has been blind for over a year. Her father walks her up rue couvertier to the edge of Jardin de Plant here. Marshall. He is the path we take every morning through the cedars. Up ahead is the Grand Gallery. I know Papa. He picks her up and spins her around three times. Now he says, You're going to take us home. Her mouth drops open. I want you to think of the model, Marie, but I can't possibly. I'm one step behind you. I won't let anything happen. You have your cane. You know where you are. I do not. You do exasperation. She cannot even say if the gardens are ahead or behind. Calm yourself, Marie. One centimeter at a time. It's far Papa. Six blocks at least six blocks is exactly right. Use logic. Which way should we go first? The world pivots and rumbles. Crows shout brakes hiss someone to her left bang something metal with what might be a hammer. She shuffles forward until the tip of her cane floats in space. The edge of a curb upon ah staircase A cliff. She turns 90 degrees. Three steps forward. Now her cane finds the base of a wall. Papa, I'm here. Six paces, seven paces. Eight. A roar of noise, a necks. Terminator Just leaving a house pump bellowing overtakes them 12 paces farther on the belt, tied around the handle of a shop. Door rings and two women come out jostling her. As they pass. Marie Laure drops her cane. She begins to cry. Her father lifts her. Hold her to his narrow chest. It's so big, she whispers. You can do this, Marie. She cannot.