32. AT THE END OF HER FIRST WEEK THERE

At the end of her first week there, Elle had managed to keep up with the pace at the orchids greenhouse. The lady was saying that care was more important than speed. The smallest spot on a flower ruled it out of export. Japanese customers were expecting the very best.

On the other rectangular table the lady boss used to pack each tall stem in a clear paper wrapper. She then hung them up again upside down on the trays hooked above her head. She could spend a whole week-end placing them with art according to colour and size in cartons, three, six or eight long orchids together.

From time to time the trays had to be taken to the final packing room across the yard. One or two trays of these dressed beauties were carried by hand above their heads by the workers. The packing room was also the place for tea or coffee break, at 10 am, at lunch time and at 3 pm every day. Slowly day by day the room filled up with conditioned orchids, long flowering stems hanging upside down from the beams. There was sometimes not enough room left for three chairs at lunch break.

On the TV turned on as background to the conversations during lunch break, the Olympic Games were being retransmitted from Tokyo. To view them live you had to stay up all night due to the time gap between Japan and New Zealond. The Japanese at the hostel, keen to follow the latest news from their teams, used to take turns through the night in front of the hostel's TV to follow the Games. When Elle left to work every morning, they used to call her out and announce the latest French performances. Thus at lunch break she would have loved to watch the particular Olympic sports that had earned France a medal according to her Japanese informants. The third lady who used to sit next to the TV set turned it off systematically as soon as there were news of the French athletes.

- "Why is that?" Liyan asked when Elle told her.
- "Well, I wonder actually!... specially since this particular lady had a daughter studying French at school and she had been all proud to tell me that... when her daughter came to visit at work the other day, I said to her: "bonjour, comment ca va?" in French. The girl stood there gaping as if she didn't understand. So I said "quelle heure est-il?" because that's what one learns in the first few lessons usually and she still didn't understand. So I stopped saying anything. Perhaps she's mad at me now."

- "Why would she be mad at you?" Liyan said.
- "I don't know... because I didn't make a big deal of her daughter, I guess."