In the middle of the night I woke up coughing. I have a chest cold. I got up, drank some water, turned on the TV. I saw a woman flying--snowboarding in the Olympics. She was truly flying, so gracefully swinging back and forth across the half-pipe, shining in the sun, the Alps shimmering in the background.

Then I saw cartoons on PBS--old cartoons in French. I couldn’t understand much of the language, trop difficile:) but one was a baby in blue who had a piece of chalk and drew his own story, his own moon, his own monster, his own waves and in the end his own bed. The second a goose named Petunia carrying a red book of wisdom that is revealed at the end as an alphabet book. And the third--ah, the third a Monsieur Racine. He was growing pears. Beautiful pears. Show pears. These men would show up now and again offering wads of money for the pear. M Racine would shake his head, non! And then he’d take a big bite out of the marvelous pear. Near the pear tree, M Racine finds an unusual animal--similar to a small elephant. He observes it, has someone record his observations. He sketches it and labels its parts and sends it to the Academie de Science. The scary men with the money appear again--perhaps this time for the mystery beast. M Racine says, Non! and again eats a pear. Then he appears at the Academie to talk on his discovey and the people watch the new beast with great interest. The creature starts to writhe and crumple on the stage. Out pop a boy and girl, bent over giggling.

And the men and women of the academie in their formal clothes and lorgnettes stare in shock. And then, M Racine and all the grown-ups begin to play, stand on their heads, jump and run and climb, chase each other around the podium.

M Racine, a happy man, returns to his pear tree.

Merci beaucoup, M Racine.