Silk Page #6

Japan is an ancient country.

It has ancient laws.

There are crimes here

for which it is acceptable

to condemn a man to death.

This is a rifle, my friend.

Keep your head down.

The boy committed

one of those crimes

when he carried a love message

from his mistress.

He was carrying no message.

He was the message.

He was a boy.

Keep your eyes down.

Now go and never return here again.

It took me 11 days

to reach Sakata,

Where I finally found

four boxes of eggs.

I packed the boxes

in crates filled with ice,

fearful that they

would hatch early.

I reached the Russian coast

by the end of March,

which was one month later

than usual.

Summer had

already come to Europe.

And then, one morning,

I knew it was over.

The eggs had hatched.

The worms were dead.

Millions of them,

all dead.

Ludovic!

Hyah!

I thought you were dead.

And in the whole world, there

was nothing beautiful left.

That was a terrible summer.

We had to close

three of the four mills.

Baldabiou had to make up

stories to explain my failure.

And with the thought

of all that had happened...

how I'd failed the village,

how I'd failed Helene...

I sank into silence.

So, here you are.

What's wrong with you?

You haven't come around for ages.

Listen, Herv...

Sooner or later,

you're gonna have to talk to someone.

It might as well be me.

It might as well be now.

What happened?

What happened in Japan?

There's nothing more to say.

I told you everything.

That's rubbish.

There's nothing more to say.

If things continue like this,

we'll all starve.

Something has to be done.

Do you have any ideas?

Baldabiou.

We'll build a garden.

I'll hire everyone

in the village...

anyone who's

strong enough to dig-

men, women, children, too.

And, together, we'll

build Helene's garden.

We started to work

in late summer.

Whoa!

May I have some water?

I don't think you're working.

And we finished

most of it by the fall.

You pull that one up?

Weeds are bad for trees.

They take their food,

so you've got to pull them out.

Then why do we have them

if they are bad?

God made them to keep us busy.

In nomine patris,

et filii,

et spiritus sancti.

So winter came, and

everyone had enough to eat.

Then a letter arrived.

It took me five days

to open it.

It was stamped in Oostende,

but it had a Japanese seal

in the corner.

I'm going to bed.

I'll be up in a minute.

I shall read it for you,

but this time, I want no money.

What I want is a promise

that you will

never come back here.

I promise.

"My dear master...

"do not be afraid.

"Do not move.

Do not speak.

"No one will see us.

"Stay as you are.

"I want to look at you.

"We have the night to ourselves,

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