"We were happy" "I don't know if we were happy" "We felt pain" "We felt pain without knowing exactly where" "We were seven, eight and nine" "She'd always done it that way" "That's the way she'd always wanted to do it" "We managed" "We managed pretty well anyway" "We didn't miss her" "We'd wait for her" "We'd wander around" "We'd do what we want" "It's summertime" "Eating was not a problem" "We had fun going that way" "We had to go farther and farther from home" "Not to go back to the same restaurants" "We loved each other" "We loved each other too much" "One person in three bodies" "We'd quarrel, we'd fight" "Hard" "As hard as we can" "She'd call us sometimes to tell us she loved us" "Glad to know it" "Glad to hear it" "She didn' t come home" "School started again" "She called to wish us luck" "We felt happy" "Not about starting school" "School we didn't like." "We'd wait..." "We'd wait all day long for it to end" "To be by ourselves at night, after school" "Time would go by" "Winter would come" "We'd wait for her" "Each of us had a speciality" "Romeo made pasta" "Leo did the washing-up and Louna made yoghurt cakes" "At night, we'd go out" "In summer, for water fights" "In winter, to catch cold" "To have a fever" "Not to go to school" "When we were ill, we'd cry" "Or even when we weren't" "For nothing, for everything" "We got over it anyway" "On the phone, we shouldn't say we were alone" "Never" "It was a secret" "Our secret" "We were magicians" "We could make anything appear and disappear" "Our home, our home was our home" "Nobody'd come" "But her, sometimes" "We wouldn' t see our dads, hardly ever" "She didn't want them to come to our home" "Us to go to theirs" "She didn't want us to split up" "Louna's dad had wanted to take her for a holiday" "She didn't want to" "He had to take all three of us or none" "We dressed up" "We dressed up all the time to try to escape ourselves" "We'd become kings, princesses and queens" "When I grow up, I'll be an astronaut" "When I grow up, I'll be a princess" "When I grow up," "I'll have lots of elephants that will be my friends" "We were always talking about when we'd be big." "It wouldn't come" "We were still there." "We stayed" "She didn't come" "She'd pop in" "She'd stay" "She'd stay a little bit sometimes" "Sometimes not" "She'd do some shopping" "She'd take us to restaurants" "We'd get presents" "Note-books too, for school" "She'd tell us stories" "The story of the sea" "The water boiling, steaming away..." "It makes clouds clouds bumping into hills, bursting rain" "into the ground, the rivers and into the sea" "In the morning, she'd be gone" "It hadn't always been easy" "We didn't need any sleep" "We were never tired" "Small hours made long days" "We had a face." "A doll" "Her gift to us" "Doll would watch us love us" "listen to us" "He'd wake us up" "For fun, for nothing" "To tell us we had to go to school" "Then we'd go back to sleep" "In the morning, we wouldn't wake up" "We'd wait" "We'd wait to see her, to be in her arms" "We did turn off the meter" "She didn't pay" "She didn't pay attention to these things" "She'd pay attention to nothing" "Before, it wasn't the same thing" "She was there a bit more" "We wouldn't want to stay in the dark" "So when the night fell, we'd go out" "Our small heater wouldn't work" "The power company had taken the meter away" "We'd sleep together, huddled up" "Huddled up and dressed" "Huddled up against one another" "We had no pals" "We had Ali." "We'd been to his house a few times for his birthday" "Could you close the door, please ?" "I've asked you to come because there's a problem" "You're always late," "I'd like to know why" "It's the subway" "We take the subway every morning and there are problems" "Every morning?" "Can't your parents bring you over?" "And there's another little problem" "It's the lice problem" "Could you do something about it?" "We always use anti-lice shampoo but it never works" "Then if it never works it means it's not a good shampoo" "So you should tell your parents to treat you, otherwise you might give them to the other children and that's not right" "And why are you always dressed this way?" "Your clothes are not very clean" "In fact we've got very nice things but we don't feel like showing off" "You prefer to keep them for Sundays" "Then from time to time you should put your Sunday clothes on to wash these" "And then they'll be cleaner" "But the washing machine broke down" "Couldn't I see your parents some time?" "Our mother works from morning 'til evening" "And our father, he's on a business trip" "Then you'll have to tell them to contact the school social worker because it's not normal that little children like you should have all these problems" "Well, we pay half a dollar each time" "Fine but school meals aren't half a dollar" "You're brother and sisters" "It's rather expensive for three children" "Here we pay the meal, the food" "Or if you really have problems," "I can help you, something can be done" "No we're fine" "Because otherwise I'm here for that" "From now on try to get up earlier I'll check this out with your mom and dad" "Have a good day" "And try to be on time" "We'd steal, we'd steal, we'd steal" "We had great fun working it out that way" "When school was over she came to pick us up" "She took us where she had said she'd take us for the summer holidays" "She didn't stay" "She had booked for us for all the holidays" "Louna got ill" "She had a fever" "She said she had stayed too long in the cold water of the swimming pool" "She treated herself" "Romeo and Leo kept going to the circus" "Sometimes we'd play we'd stop talking" "It would go on for days"