Léonie

by Nayla Aramouni

This is Léonie.

She likes raisins, dried bananas and books about farm animals.

She likes waiting for her father to come home from work,

picnics by the sea,

and her swing.

She likes saying ‘pliff, plaff, ploof’ when she drops bits of bread into her soup.

She doesn’t like having to stay outside when it’s too cold,

or sweaters that make her itch,

or the sound of helicopters.

She likes pretending that her hand is a little bug that crawls around the table, across the window and on people’s head.

She likes her four dogs Jin, Frost, Imiaq,

and Zagrey especially.

Léonie calls all strangers who come and visit ‘copains’ which means friends and loves peeking in at them in the morning while they’re still asleep.

She loves bed time when she listens to her favourite lullaby and is tucked into her sleeping bag.

She likes going on short trips with her parents,

helping them with work,

and welcoming the sun on the first day of light.

Out on the snow in a cold, cold place, there’s a boat that is stuck in the ice.

In the boat on the ice in this cold cold place is a girl who’s been nowhere else.

She’s never seen a cat

or a flower or a car

except in the books that she reads.

But on the little boat in the cold and the ice she seems to have all that she needs.

The End