Chapter Two – The Tragedy of Enriqué Lambert
It was a frozen December day. Brutally cold. There was a thin layer of ice over the ground and the small river running through the outer Parisian suburb. A friend of ours, Edouard Manont, was walking his dog, when he heard the opening bell at my mother's library. Maman always rang a bell to signify that it was opening time. This was a piece of nostalgia from her father's bookstore. Edouard turned around to wave to Maman, when the dog slipped. Edouard, in turn, was caught off guard and fell down ungracefully on his bottom. The dog, now panicked, ran stumbling forward right into the river!
Edouard followed, and crashed through the ice. Papa saw this, since he was just leaving to work when this occurred. Seeing that no one was about to help, he rolled up his sleeves, dove right into the lake, and pulled out the unfortunate Edouard, who couldn't swim. Edouard seemed in shock, and ran back home with the nonplussed and shivering dog behind him. He soon recovered, his brain and body completely guarded from the real impact of the freezing water. Papa, however, stood on the riverbank shivering compulsively. Maman ran to him and brought him inside. For a while it was uncertain the effect the trauma had on him, but then he contracted pneumonia from infected water.
A mere two weeks later he was dead. I always held my mother in the deepest respect because she suffered such loss so young, but managed to be cheerful for her life. Louis swears to remember this horrific event, but Ana and I clearly do not. All I know is this: the story of my father fills me with pride. He knowingly sacrificed himself for another. If only I could die half as well as he did. That would be a comforting thought.
It was a frozen December day. Brutally cold. There was a thin layer of ice over the ground and the small river running through the outer Parisian suburb. A friend of ours, Edouard Manont, was walking his dog, when he heard the opening bell at my mother's library. Maman always rang a bell to signify that it was opening time. This was a piece of nostalgia from her father's bookstore. Edouard turned around to wave to Maman, when the dog slipped. Edouard, in turn, was caught off guard and fell down ungracefully on his bottom. The dog, now panicked, ran stumbling forward right into the river!
Edouard followed, and crashed through the ice. Papa saw this, since he was just leaving to work when this occurred. Seeing that no one was about to help, he rolled up his sleeves, dove right into the lake, and pulled out the unfortunate Edouard, who couldn't swim. Edouard seemed in shock, and ran back home with the nonplussed and shivering dog behind him. He soon recovered, his brain and body completely guarded from the real impact of the freezing water. Papa, however, stood on the riverbank shivering compulsively. Maman ran to him and brought him inside. For a while it was uncertain the effect the trauma had on him, but then he contracted pneumonia from infected water.
A mere two weeks later he was dead. I always held my mother in the deepest respect because she suffered such loss so young, but managed to be cheerful for her life. Louis swears to remember this horrific event, but Ana and I clearly do not. All I know is this: the story of my father fills me with pride. He knowingly sacrificed himself for another. If only I could die half as well as he did. That would be a comforting thought.