Camille:

"'Montmartre was the center of my new world' when I spoke those words, I felt myself opening as I did when walking Montmartre's lanes the early years of my adult life. I felt the innocence of that girl breathing deeply as I, again, breathed deeply while passing the houses and shops and cafés for the first time.

The innocence, the pleasure, the pain poisoning, no, tainting only as I wouldn't allow the pain to poison me to poison us, I have lived love as my body has lived life: feeling everything, surviving all of it, I have held us together throughout all of it, and I have me more than I had in all of my life because of all of it.

I am happy from this; I am happy to have been acknowledged the many times that I have been acknowledged. Still, I don't think that I have been happier being acknowledged than this evening; after all, imagine a stranger turning in his seat; then, staring into me once questioning me, and he brought all of me out to lie bare upon the white cloth covering this table! Yes, I could not be happier from exposing all of me."

To the reader,

If you are intending to read this piece, I appreciate artistic license; I allow it to control this piece as I wanted the pace of the writing to convey passion. I hope that you don't find this too distracting either here or in other writings. As always, thank you for reading my words.

C