Writer's Notebook

Back in Gensdouce it was time to get down to the serious stuff. Officially, of course, I was still a trainee on placement and occasionally an experienced centre manager got in touch to see how I was doing. But effectively, I was on my own together with the small team I had gathered around me. Our aims were simple. To get the centre up and running and to make sure it served our little community. This, in itself, was quite ambitious. Not so much the serving the community part, the centre had always done that, and so long as it was under the responsible of the town council, no one had really had to unravel the financial side of things: no one, that is, until Mr. Demille came along. Which was why, now, we also had to make it financially viable. And not only that. My first twelve months salary as administrator were guaranteed, but beyond that the centre would have to pay me; a heavy burden for such a small community.

My first evening back I'd arranged to meet with Thérèse and Guillaume at the pub, so that Jean and Annie were able to be present. And Thérèse had invited another person to the inner circle. This was the first time I'd met Morgana. Whilst she wasn't exactly pretty, her appearance was definitely striking. Her flame red hair and emerald green eyes left no one in any doubt as to her Celtic heritage, lending her a charisma which it was difficult to fathom. She felt quite at ease in our presence and as the evening wore on I realised just how much she had taken this project to heart. She was with us heart and soul was obvious.

My first priority was to put together a team susceptible to back me up in my tasks as administrator. I needed some wise counsellors, who would advise me and with whom I could bat around any ideas I had. I also needed someone with enough punch to stand up to me if I made mistakes and refused to listen. At first, I'd asked Jean to take on that job, but he felt an outsider would be better and thought he knew someone who would fit the bill. Guillaume agreed to take on the post of treasurer for the centre and Thérèse proposed Morgana for secretary. She herself would act as advisor to this ad hoc committee along with Jean. I'd also proposed Gérard in this role but the consensus was that it was too early for this and it might compromise him in front of his father bringing down further wrath on us.

Our first major task was to put together the program for the first year's activities and we jotted down all those who were willing to help in any way. I was amazed at the latent talents within our little community. We had activities that some of the larger centres were green with envy over, including the already thriving folk dance evenings, wine tasting sessions, a creative writing workshop, French classes for the many foreigners who had found a new home in some of the villages around the big city, and a car maintenance workshop run by the now retired village mechanic who still hung his oily T-shirt in front of his house in remembrance of old times. The one area we were still weak on was music and I saw a wistful look in Morgana's eyes as we talked about this. How she must have longed to share some of her skills with the villagers she had come to know and look upon as her family.

I went home that evening with a light step. With a program like that how could we fail to attract a large audience. We had a chance of success and since that success lay in our own hands, then we would succeed. For the first time in months I felt we really would make it. That's what comes of leaving Gensdouce, I thought. A few months away and you'd lost all hope. Just one day back and you can conquer any mountain. And then I thought of one other person who had left Gensdouce. Why had she gone? And where was Violette now? Was she all alone? Did she need help? One lonely creature in an unloving world.