Editing City Series:Volume5a Chapter12 (section)

===Rosetta’s Journal: Today’s 1st Entry===

<poem>
  I have finished dinner.

  This morning some things must have been taken into the storeroom while I was asleep. I awoke to the sound of carriage wheels. I rushed out into the hallway in time to see my master leaving the courtyard storeroom. He said a friend had brought some parts to repair that machine.

  Lady Beretta visited at lunchtime. She helped me cook and broke a lot of plates. The biggest problem was when the coffee cup my master has long used – I would use it to make café au lait – broke cleanly in two. Lately Lady Beretta can neglect her work because she is so worried about the ring on her right hand. I cautioned her about that.

  I will need to go into town to buy more plates soon.

  But the city’s atmosphere has changed lately. Some stores have empty shelves and have closed up. That may explain what happened at the night market in front of Boulogne that my master and I visited the night before last. I had seen a knife I wanted at a store in the shopping district and there it was for sale in the night market. That store had empty shelves 3 days before. So its products must have been moved to the night market.

  They are very kind to sell it for so much less.

  Then we set up a table and chairs in the garden so Lady Beretta could use some books to teach me how to write. She was still acting weird sometimes.

  She would occasionally rest her head in her hand and stare into the city. Or she would stare at me. I think she was thinking about something. But I did not ask about what.

  She did say this:

  “Rosetta. Even if the old man leaves tonight you must not go outside. Just stay put.”

  I do not know what she meant. But that is what she said.

  The Fantasmé Renard children approached while we spoke. They played with us. They had avoided Lady Beretta before. But they must be able to relax around her now because they touched her hand.

  The one female – the one with brown fur – especially seemed to like her. It climbed up onto her lap while she sat in her chair. She picked it up and held it in front of her face. It did not know what was happening and struggled.

  “Let’s name this one Mallette. It has brown fur and it’s a girl.”

  Since the other two were males we named them Jack and Jean. Jack is Lady Beretta’s father’s name and Jean is Sir Phillip’s grandfather’s name.

  The parents were a male and a female so I named them Beretta and Phillip. Lady Beretta was clearly displeased but I do not mind. I think this is for the best.

  After a while Lady Beretta lowered the Fantasmé Renard we had named Mallette – calling out that name felt weird. But Mallette immediately climbed back onto her lap and rested its chin on the table. It seemed to like her.

  Lady Beretta held Mallette and looked up into the sky. Then she sang a song:

  ''That which is filled with the blue sky.

  ''That which is covered by the red dirt.

  ''I name thee heaven and earth.

  ''Where the wind howls bravely.

  ''Where the sand dances gently.

  ''I view thee as heaven and earth.

  ''So that no one would grieve again.

  ''That which is endless and cannot be grasped.

  ''That which is vast and cannot be held.

  ''I am with thee.

  “Did I already teach you that? It’s a Lourd de Écrivain’s ode to the wide vision of a Lourd de Marionnette. It talks about the heavens and the earth as everything…but words can be so vague.”

  Did she mean that words could mean more than one thing?

  She opened her notebook and looked to Mallette in her lap as he spoke.

  “This Mallette and the ‘Lady Mallette’ you refer to are different things. We can call them both “Mallette”. But they are different. If you only Signe-d ‘Mallette’ it might be unclear which you meant. But this isn’t the other Mallette. Right? Do you know what I mean?”

  She smiled and rubbed Mallette’s throat. And she said more.

  “I think it’s because our wills decide it. Our will to distinguish between things.”

  I had trouble understanding her. But I will write it all here.

  I kind of understood. I wonder if my will to become human is the same thing.

  Lady Beretta is currently taking a bath. My master called for her before she left and asked her to help repair the big machine in the storeroom and to help pack some boxes.

  I am a bit worried about what she said.

  Is something going to happen tonight?

  I will continue to think about that while heading to the kitchen to cook some food for the two of them.
</poem>