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Demi-Tarif (Half Price) (2003)
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 aIways 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 aIways 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 l'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 |
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