 Again, you can see the place where they go to be. Sharing. What is it? Do you share? How do you do that? There's no way you didn't know that. You don't know it anymore. Working all night. You can come and see me. This starts out on a little day. A little Saturday. A little afternoon. A little week before. Come here. Okay, everybody. Yes, everybody. That's it for today. We're done. And we can be finally presenting a right relationship that I've already seen. Survival receivers have a hot form that depends on what you do. So welcome, everybody, here to the Martini Siegel Theatre Center at the Graduate Center CUNY. And it's very, very kind in general so for you to come out on one of the first sunny days and warmer days in, I think, four or five months. And Aristide, hello. This is one of our patent playwrights from Burkina Faso. We just had yesterday. This is the third day of this great festival. We have ten most significant writers from all around the globe here at the Siegel Center. It's the most significant gathering of professional writers from around the world in both of the Americas. And we're very proud and honored to be the host of this festival for over ten years. We now collaborate with Penn World Voices. A brilliant, I think, festival of literature and art created by Paul Ostra and Salman Rushdie during the very first Bush administration. They felt very strongly that there was a tunnel vision in America, that there were not enough voices heard from outside America. Ninety-five to ninety-six percent of all books published were by British or American writers and only four percent. Half of it was French or German because of subsidies. And so only one or two books out of a hundred offer a view that is perhaps slightly different to understand or to share moments of reality. And for good reasons, they said there's something should be done and would be unthinkable for musicians just to listen to American music or British music. World music is a major factor. It is, of course, people do play and perform locally, but you have to know what people do in other countries. What musicians and artists do. So this is our contribution. We are extremely proud to be collaborating with this great organization. Penn, please do support it. It gets writers out of prison. It's one of the most significant literary awards. And they have so many writing programs, translation programs. It's one of the great organizations I feel and I think too, really deserves our support. My name is Frank Henschkamp, the director of the Siegel Center here at the Guarded Center CUNY and Weebridge Academia and Professional Theater International and American Theater in this festival where we really bring in writers and offer it for free. They all come except for two here. It's a very big undertaking. It's a big effort from the entire Siegel team who I would like to thank. But also I would like to tell you, this is really what we care about. This is at the center of our mission and we are so happy to have you here on a Saturday afternoon. So it really means a lot to us. All the way from Cameroon here, so is our Blévois Edouard-Alvis Bruma. So say hello. I think he had a long odyssey of flights that changed. It was really over 20 or 25 hours for him just to get here to be with that. He came here to hear his first time play done in English, also RST, we had yesterday, right? So it is a great thing I think that we also provide writers with the possibility to spend some time here in the US and see what also our realities compared to what one normally knows from books or films. Thank you very much for coming. Thanks for Heather, a great PhD candidate here at the Graduate Center, also helped with the translations and is researching this area of theater and came to us also with the suggestion Emmanuel Siouard from Seattle in Canada and also others, the French Cultural Services who helped us, Nicole is here. So this is really a great collaboration and so thank you for coming. The play should not be longer even so of course it is much longer. Like the Alfred Jelenek plays for five hours and we had to cut it down and the goat's play is three and a half, so you will see we have the full script in case you are interested. Again, thank you really all for doing this and also for Gisela to direct it. So she is the director. So thank you so much. If you have a cell phone, now is the time just to take it out and see if it says all. So it does not ring. Just double check, please. I know it will happen. Thank you and there will be a little discussion after the play here in the room in case you would like to say it again. Thank you all for coming and Michael, let's go. Edoa and Gisela. Edoa has engaged translated by Herogen Denier. Game over. Has after a tornado or a hurricane or a fiesta a young boy a young girl an old transistor radio. Game over. You heard? Like me. Game over, he said. Don't tell me you didn't hear what I just heard. What he just said. I can't replay it because the radio doesn't replay like a cassette player where you push the button left arrow to make the cassette go backwards. You heard. But did you understand? You know there's a difference between hearing and understanding. That's what Professor Calculus said. Not the real Professor Calculus, but Tintin's friend. That's what we called him at school because he was the Professor Calculus. From the first to the 31st he wore a khaki shirt like Professor Calculus's green jacket. He had Professor Calculus beard and Professor Calculus glasses. You heard what he just spat into our ears, but did you understand it like I understood it? So that's why the camp is empty. Empty like the Roman camp after asterisk and the gulls pass through when they drink the magic potion. Huh, no one left. They didn't finish the spit-rose pig and all the food that they were eating yesterday to celebrate the taking of Denkenberry like the ghouls celebrate when they beat the Romans over and over again. Look! But they didn't even empty the cast of red wine which was stolen yesterday from the Paris priests of a fat priest like Friar Tucker in Robin Hood whose arm they cut off because he wouldn't let go of the casket of communion wine. Yeah, I've heard nothing but because of the jamma jamma in the whiskey. Nope. I've heard nothing because of the jamma jamma in the whiskey. Did you hear anything? Did they flee or are they dead? Tell me. Are they dead or did they flee? What the heck is going on here? No, they're not dead. All over the ground, all over the grass. No scattered bodies. No flies when we talk and walk through the M&D Village. No bad smell like after our passage yesterday to Denkenberry. Oh, the bad smell. It draws like flies. The bad smell that draws cork leaders like vultures and hyenas in ants. I don't see any hyenas or vultures who fly around in circles in the air like in western films. No, they're not dead. Our enemies, they couldn't kill them to leave us alive. That's impossible. The rules say that you should never leave without making sure that everyone is truly, truly dead. That doesn't breathe anymore. You know, true dead is a dead that doesn't move anymore when you poke it with a point of a knife. But there aren't fake dead who pretend to be dead. They tend to not breathe anymore even though they're still breathing softly softly softly and you don't watch them breathe. You know, listen to them breathe. So they're not dead because if they were dead, we would be dead too. Or prisoners with striped uniforms and heavy ball length chains attached to our feet like the vultures. They would take our weapons. We can't let them be burned. They fled. They could only be dead. They left a while ago. Before the early morning. Before the birds began to sing because it was the birds who woke me with the songs in the early morning. They woke up before the birds and before us. It was them who woke the birds who woke us up. Or maybe they didn't even sleep. Maybe they ran away from the camp before even going to sleep. They knew before us. They knew that we had lost. That the others had won. They listened to the radio before us and they fled because they knew that the war is game over. They deserted the camp without even waking us up. Remember they tried to wake us up but we didn't wake up. I mean me because of the jama-jama and the whiskey. Why you? Why didn't you wake up when they maybe woke you up? Because of what commanding officer did to you yesterday? I mean they fled so let's leave. There's no one left. Even Goofy, the commanding officer's dog, isn't there anymore. There's only the two of us here. Leave. Let's leave right away. Let's leave right now. I'm telling you. Let's leave because if the others catch us we are done done. He said the war is game over. You heard me like me? And you know what it means. You can't not know what that means but you do. You heard it. They aren't going to kill us. They aren't going to kill us in prison. They're going to put us in a rehabilitation camp. It's like he said. You hear that? You think that that means nothing to you. I mean maybe you prefer to be in a rehabilitation camp than the war. But do you even know what a rehabilitation camp is? Do you know what rehabilitation is? You don't know it's because you've never read The Adventures of Lucky Luke before. Rehabilitation is when you catch a horse for the first time. Not just any horse. Not a horse like Johnny Jumper because Johnny Jumper, Lucky Luke's horse, he broke him the first day because they became friends with good. Rehabilitation is when you catch a wicked wild horse. A horse that no one can ever mount except for a person who caught it first. A Mustang. Oh do you know who the champion is? It's Tex Willard. Because Tex Willard jumps on the back of Mustangs and then the Mustang gets angry and kicks up dirt and the Mustang cries and it's rising its hooks to the front to throw Tex off and it balances its two hind hooks to knock Willard off into the rocks. But Willard Willard claims to the Mustangs back screaming Yeehaw! Yeehaw! And Kit Carson, Tex Willard's friend Kit, go! Toss in his hat in the air. The Mustang phones it from out like the animals and the people who were drinking in the river that we poisoned being we executed the burning river plan. The Mustangs run all over them. All over like the towns people run in away yesterday when we came into the visit and into the force to evade their town. The Mustang thrashes and thrashes to the point of exhaustion. And then the Mustang stops and walks hand in hand with Tex Willard. And this day on, he's become a nice domesticated horse because Tex will retain him. That's the way they're going to rehabilitate us. They're going to shut us up in a rehabilitation camp to tame us the cowboys the way the cowboys and everyone else tame the Mustang. You know that cowboys really, really, really really exist in? They're going to put us in a rehabilitation camp because they want to treat us like wild children who need to be tamed. They won't have me in their fucking rehabilitation camp I'll tell you that because I'm not a child. And I'm not a savage. The Savages? Oh, those are Mustangs. Those are the Wildcats, the Battlecats, he meant friends. The Savages? Those are the suit Indians who attack the cowboys in the west. They can't take us for savages. Hmm? That's all we need to leave without waiting any longer. And he didn't say anything to the guy at the radio. He had something coming. And I'm telling you he didn't say everything. If you don't know I'm telling you that then I'm telling you that because that's what's going on and that's how we're going to put us in a rehabilitation camp. They're also going to put you through drug treatment. You heard that, honey. Through drug treatment. They'll put us. Hmm? Make us never take the Jama Jama again. And so we run crazy when we see Jama Jama or even whiskey. See, I know what I'm talking about. I saw it in a movie. You shut someone in a room where they can't take any more powder like the couscous flour powder that the commanding officer takes morning, noon, and night. You would imagine the commanding officer without his powder for one day. He'd go crazy to command an officer. I mean he's going to kill all of us, the commanding officer. Like he killed Danny the Rat and the couscous flour gets angry and starts screaming, hey fuck you, hey fuck you. Afterwards, the man who's taken the powder like couscous flour powder starts trembling like the enemies often did when he pointed weapons at them. The man who's taking the powder like couscous flour powder, he starts crying like the women who cry when we got caught them in the river. And the man who's taken the powder like couscous flour, he starts to swear what he has done in the movies. In the movies, they get the drug treatment, the grown-ups. But now they're going to do that to us in the rehabilitation room. It's not fair. It's not fair because they only do that to kids in rehabilitation camps. They're not even going to put us in the army like they're going to put the grown-ups who turn themselves into lioness bosses that put both arms in the air like Billy the Kid when Lucky Luke catches them. They're going to put those cowards in the army when you realize that. And then they're going to put real uniforms with real ranks and real salutes. And they're not even going to throw us in prison because they know that if they throw us in prison, we're going to escape like the grown-ups. They're not even going to judge us like the way they've judged the grown-ups. You know, they know that they're guilty or not. Even though we all know they're always guilty. If they catch us, they're not even going to say you have the right to remain silent and to use against of you, you have the right to blah blah blah They're going to treat us like kids. Me? I'm not a child. Me. I'm a grown-up. Grow up and become little again. Maybe grown-ups stop growing up. They grow up. They become grandparents. White hair. And they no longer have teeth like commanding officer who doesn't have all his teeth even though he's not a grandfather. We call them little kids again even though we already have cues. Yep, I already have cues around my little dango. I'm telling you, if you don't know. Even you have cues. You didn't know that I know that you have cues already around your little babadi. I already saw them. The cues on your babadi. And they went to take us for kids and they were going to send us to the rehabilitation camp. And through drug treatment, even though you and I already have cues, we're not going to let them go. We're not going to let them go. You and I already have cues. Do kids smoke cigarettes? Do kids smoke jama-jama? Do kids know how to make a war? Who was it who brought the major avalanche that had a sergeant sapata? Who wanted to be the commanding officer in the first place but in honor of the commanding officer like Vazir is no good, wanted to be the caliph in the place of the caliph? See, they want to take me for a kid even though sergeant sapata was a grown-up. But I brought his home, his head. I took his head off and I brought it back to last week, the commanding officer for his birthday. See, I don't want them to take me for a kid because I'm not a kid. Me. The kids? That's Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Uncle Scrooge's nephew. I'm not a kid. A child pees in the bed. A child shits their pants so that the grown-ups clean their poopy from their butt. A child drinks their formula and milk while grown-ups drink whiskey and beer like us. A kid, yeah, they suck candy or their thumb or pacifier or their mother's breast. But grown-ups? Yeah. Grown-ups, they suck the breast of girls like the commanding officer was sucking your breast yesterday. He was crying all the time. A child. You ever seen me cry? Me. Even when I hurt my forehead. Even when I'm sent to the force labor camps by the commanding officer to punish me. Did you see me cry? Hey, stop crying and tell me if you see me ever see me crying. You're crying because you want me to make believe that you're a child, but I know that you're not a kid anymore. You're crying because I just said that I saw your body. And I saw your penis. And I saw the commanding officer sucking my breast. He's not a good kid. You're crying because you're a girl. Girls cry all the time. Like kids. But I never want to cry again because I'm not a kid anymore. I don't want to be a kid anymore. Never ever. Review. Stop. Memories in fragments. Like an heir of nostalgia. Since I was little, I can't stand being taken for a child. And the grown-ups always repeat it that a grown-up isn't a child. They like to repeat that when they're bragging. Even Uncle said, grown-up isn't a little kid to brag about like a brother grows. He added that even when a little person grows up, it's not for sure that he will grow. As professor calculus who taught us at school, that you say big for big in size and that you say little for little in size. We would say giant or tall like everyone here says. We would say short or midget like everyone here says. Do you also say giant or tall? Do you also say short or midget? Even the commanding officer says tall or giant. Even the commanding officer says short or midget. We. We are tall. The moon golly golly. That's actually how they recognize the moon golly golly. That's how they recognize before even knowing that there's light with dark so we're hungry. Before getting close enough to see their scars on their face, they're short first of all. Before listening to them to know that they speak like us, they're short first of all. They are short. Us. Tall. They're even the shortest. We. We are even the tall tall. Them. A marker. A trigger. But it seems that the giants are the trees. Like the trees on the Amazon where the Sue Indians hit to attack Tex Willard. And they're the rivers like the long Mississippi or the Missouri and on the ventures a lucky loop. It seems that the shrubs that are short and the midget people are like the second short guys who they found in Snow White's home. Professor Calcutta's he took himself for gyro gear loose even though he hasn't invented anything to speak of. He took himself for wise even though he knows nothing. He said the giants don't exist because he hasn't read a book of David Crockett or Kerry Crue or Ryan or Tarzan or Corn in the By-Grand Grand. He said that you shouldn't treat your commanders and your comrades who are short like mentions and punish us when we made fun of them because he hadn't read Snow White in the Seven Doors. Growns don't like to read children's books because little I like to read grown-up books. Uncle's books when he forgot to read in the outside way the ones with a big read. They're called cartoon. Professor Calcutta's he didn't read children's books. It's why he didn't know that giants and dwarfs existed. One day he said that grown-ups are big people and that children are little people. And another day he said that grown-ups are people big in size and all children are short people. Another day he said that grown-ups are people who are big in size like the ancient saddle and children are people short in size like the piggies. Even though all the grown-ups aren't big in size and all children are short in size even though grown-ups when they get old they become short again like Oh Medevo Mapa Zabak, our healer that they call Genifex even though he never prepares the right Gaelic magic potion. Professor Calcutta said he says that a child could become big and dwarfs like Mickey they wouldn't grow more and he would never be tall like David Crockett or Conan or Carthage he didn't even know that there were grown-ups with little names like Lil John Robert Hood's best friend even Uncle took himself for a grown-up even though he was little man I've been grown-up since I was little big in every way. Not big like Uncle who loved to say he was a big person even though he was little like Joe Dalton it's because he was short like Joe Dalton that I nicknamed him Uncle Joe Dalton I mean, Goner didn't tell me anything he never would have known that I called him Uncle Joe Dalton in secret and he would have never beat me like he beat me the day he found out I was calling him Uncle Joe Dalton in secret What do you want, Uncle? I wasn't even going to call him Uncle R. Marvill is tall and dumb but Uncle was dumb and not tall he was dumb my uncle because he should have been my dad or my real uncle but Uncle wasn't my real uncle or my real dad I grew up with Uncle because Dad refused to be my dad that's what Mom told me if I hadn't asked her she would have never told me and if Goner hadn't told her that Uncle wasn't my father I wouldn't believe that Uncle was my real father and it's not for nothing that I nicknamed Gomer Gomer Gomer Goof he didn't look like a real Gomer Goof because he was short like Uncle but he was always about to goof up like Gomer Goof Uncle wanted me to call him Dad even though he was Uncle Gomer Goof's dad and even if Uncle Gomer Goof was playing with John Dalton and he hit Uncle Gomer Goof when he said that he wasn't his father I knew it wasn't true the problem is like they hit their children through nothing nothing but because of their brother he had a child who would tell lies I told him hit Gomer because it told the truth Uncle wanted me to call him Dad even though I knew that he wasn't Dad and he knew that I knew that he wasn't Dad I didn't even know why I were here and now I still call him Uncle even though he was not my Uncle but Uncle Joe Dalton he was mean as a gardener if he wasn't mean then why did he refuse to let me watch certain movies and he let Gomer Goof watch them we mean I was I wasn't allowed to watch movies but I wasn't allowed to watch the other ones I wasn't supposed to watch the movies where there were little graphic circles at the bottom of the screen that said PG-13 even though Gomer Goof could watch those with Mom and Uncle hmm so I would go to my room to read comic books but wasn't my mom about me Uncle wouldn't let me watch the movies because he said I was Dad so I went to watch the movies when I was 13 even though I knew everything that was in those movies because he let this cabinet open I watched the movies of PG-13 in the circle at the beginning of the movie one day I even saw a movie where it was written 17 and under not a day in the movie there were some grownups that did some strange things they were white they were in a room there was a man and a woman and they took off their clothes and they started doing an officer she went to the man while yesterday you wanted to run she smiled and afterwards she started to cry it made a strange sound what it was she was pretending to cry I know she was pretending to cry because tears didn't run down but when you were really really crying yesterday the tears ran down a lot a lot Uncle came home quickly I didn't hear the sound so when I pressed the remote instead of pressing the stop button and the image where the man and the woman were stuck together stayed stuck on the TV yeah I never saw him so late he forbade me from watching TV till summer break and he never let this cabinet open why didn't Uncle want me to watch those movies why didn't he want me to wait 8 years just to see a movie even though there are children like you you know we're doing the things that grownups do in the movies restricted for those under 18 years old even though you'll be 18 in 8 years very good he wouldn't let me watch those movies and he wouldn't buy me a Game Boy he said the Santa Claus was going to come and bring me a Game Boy Christmas even though I know the Santa Claus doesn't exist and that it's him who leaves the presents under the pillow at Christmas I would pretend to snore even though I wasn't sleeping like Homer Goose snoring even though he was sleeping me? I wanted Homer Goose Game Boy and in a gift written with my name on it there was a red horse and I tried to trade Homer Goose the Game Boy for the red horse and he didn't want it Uncle didn't give me the Game Boy because he was mean he was very mean because it's his fault that Mom isn't hearing anymore Mom's belly she started to blow up a lot a lot and I asked Mom why her belly was blowing up like the stomach of Patrick Star and she told me that I was going to have a little sister and then one night Mom started to scream you know Uncle took her in her car that night he stole her car and he came home late that night crying and he would often told me that when we cried a man doesn't cry you need to be strong very strong me I had known for a long time that I was strong very strong because Mom won't come home she won't come home ever again why won't Mom come home why won't Mom come home ever again she's dead she had a difficult birth and the doctor did a cesarean when he said cesarean when he said cesarean I thought of Julius Caesar the evil Julius Caesar in the adventures of asterisk what did Julius Caesar do to Mom the cesarean is an operation to remove the baby from the stomach do you know what a cesarean is if you don't know I'm going to tell you Julius Caesar sliced Mom's stomach open with his sword like an orange and took out my little sister but I don't know what to deal with it am I little sister or indeed you will never see her again the days passed there were a lot of people in the house people in all black like a poor mother after two days they put Mom in a casket and they placed me in the middle of the living room and when they opened the casket I asked Mom I knew that she wasn't dead until I lied to me he had lied to me even though he hit us Mom wasn't dead she was sleeping do you smile when you're dead no, you smile when you have a good dream Mom was dreaming and I wanted to run to Mom don't lie to getting anybody the grown-ups who were running there they always would throw themselves in front of me to prevent me from going to Mom's arms I don't go say that Mom was a corpse that wasn't a corpse it was Mom my mom I mean a corpse is like the mummies in the tune that look like Mom's casket in the adventures of Tintin and the pharaoh's cigars a corpse is like those things you see on TV or in movies written with PG-13 a corpse is it's like the moon golly golly that we killed Mom wasn't a corpse corpses have blood all over all over it corpses have their tongues hanging out of their mouths they're even corpses who piss and shit in their pants when they die lies all over them corpses are ugly the mom was pretty she looked like Snow White that's why I wanted to wake her up she often called me little prince I just wanted to give her a kiss like the prince who wakes up Snow White but giving her a kiss it's uncle who prevented me from waking her up because he knew that Mom wasn't a moon golly golly like him he wouldn't let me near Mom because he would mean like all the moon golly golly he's lucky that I haven't seen him again now that I'm 12 maybe it's even him who stole Mom into witchcraft become a big person not big in size because that's impossible that you become big in size a big person in this country I'm sure that even the doctor who did the cesarean or mom was a moon golly golly the moon golly golly's won the foot under your hands they are the shortest, they are the bigger ones in the country but they are already for anything to become even bigger it's the commanding officer who was ready it's here that everything begins it's here that everything ends the end of the game the beginning of I there were only three people in the house Uncle John Dalton Goer Coot and Lucky Luke oh I didn't tell you about Lucky Luke yet oh uh Lucky Luke was me I'm Lucky Luke it's me it was what my friends at the school of champions called me Lucky Luke even if I don't have a horse named Johnny Jumper or the dog named Rankham Tamplan I shoot quicker than my shadow even Goer Coot called me Lucky Luke because like Lucky Luke trapped in the Dalton when they escaped the prison I often trapped Goer Coot when he escaped but Uncle locked us in that he wouldn't leave us after him but this time Uncle he didn't leave the two of us locked in the house like he does when he goes out a lot he locked himself in with us for ten days Uncle stayed locked in with us all day it'd been like a month since Uncle had gone back to work but for ten days he didn't go to work even though he wanted us to come back to the house and even though we wanted him to go to work we couldn't be alone in the house so he stayed we were supposed to take Chris's vacation soon but for ten days we didn't go to school even though me I wanted to go to school even though Group didn't like school but he wanted to go to school before the like days where there was no school we wanted to go to school because we hadn't gone to school for ten days but for ten days we couldn't play anymore like during vacation for ten days we couldn't play at our houses like during vacation for ten days we couldn't go to the carousel or to the movies or to the park or to the zoo like during vacation for ten days we were shutting inside and he would say everything is dangerous it's dangerous to make noise it's dangerous to open the window even if it's hotter than the Sahara Desert it's too dangerous to go to school I had to go to school to be big well, didn't you? yes it wasn't so dangerous to go to school but it wasn't so dangerous to want to be a grown-up so I'm not going to become Prime Minister when I grow up anymore now, boom it would be dangerous for you to go to school and become even the least of the ministers since it's dangerous to go to school why can't you I can't watch TV with you anymore why is it dangerous for children to watch TV these days? why is it dangerous for children to see what the grown-ups see on TV these days? because children can have nightmares if they see what grown-ups see on TV these days if you sleep with the lights on like before you won't have any nightmares I strictly forbid you from lighting that light above all that night because it's dangerous because they will know that we are here and that uncle didn't respond the Jiu-Jitsu? there are more things dangerous than the Jiu-Jitsu you're lying! I didn't say that directly to you I said that to myself I spoke it in my heart because you should never tell the grown-up that they're lying but that what they say isn't true grown-ups never lie it's just untruths that's from their mouths now go join your brother in the bedroom I want to watch the news I love to go to bed my brother was lying even Gomer knew that my father was lying and he had been saying that for 10 days which wasn't true he was hiding something from us no one could be more dangerous than the Jiu-Jitsu you know what the Jiu-Jitsu is all kids know about the Jiu-Jitsu I was afraid of the Jiu-Jitsu even a kid if they've never seen a Jiu-Jitsu he knows the Jiu-Jitsu they're large like Denver the dinosaur giant like King Kong ugly like Shrek with long claws pink with a white line green skin like Teenage Reunion Ninja Turtles pointy ears like King Piccolo big eyes like Spider-Man big red lips like the Blacks and the Adventures of Tintin and the Kongo teeth that resemble the swords of the Knights of Zodiac and mouths that spit fire like Dragon I've already seen the Jiu-Jitsu and not in the dream in reality really really really a lot of Jiu-Jitsu's invaded the forest and were chasing they started chasing me and I'm not afraid of them I open fire ratatata ratatata the bullets bounce off their chest and they have the power of superheroes they launch blazes of light at me like street fire boo and I slip away like World Combat jump to the left bounce to the right and I continue to fire them ratatata the Jiu-Jitsu knocked me out of my back hitting from behind out of cowardice I wasn't afraid of the Jiu-Jitsu because he was afraid of the people that were more dangerous than the Jiu-Jitsu he would go out sometimes even though he said that the dangerous people could pop out of anywhere hit and disappear in the forest he went out alone he locked us in first he didn't lock us in the living room maybe more but in the bedroom by pressing our ears to the bedroom door we heard him close the living room door and afterwards we heard him open the door of the living room and then open the door of the bedroom and he often came back with rice and peanut sauce he always came back with rice and peanut sauce only rice and peanut sauce rice and peanut sauce every day but before we'd been locked up uncle he didn't know how to cook like before he made the same thing every day rice and peanut sauce and then rice and peanut sauce was no longer good like rice and peanut sauce were before one day the peanut sauce was all black and one day there was only rice and no peanut sauce any minute since we developed because we were no longer eating Because, you know, we were no longer eating morning, noon, and night, but only at night. And one day, we were like two days without eating. And we drank water that tastes like well water. Every day, Uncle Chetley opened the window, looked out close to quick. Uncle often watched TV alone. He listened to the radio alone. And as soon as he said, I want to lurch the news. We ran into the bedroom. His bedroom. One night. The 10th night. The last night. Uncle had finished listening to the news. Uncle had finished watching the news. We had finished praying. We had been in bed for a while. When I wasn't sleeping yet, even though Goma Booth was sleeping like uncle. I was having nightmares with my eyes open. Even though Goma Booth was having nightmares with his eyes closed. He always had nightmares with his eyes closed. He always had nightmares with his eyes closed. He always had nightmares with his eyes closed. Goma Booth. He was always like, waking up, screaming, Goma Booth. Well me, I have had nightmares, but my eyes open, but I don't scream. In my nightmares, I saw 17 jujus entering the road of the evil one by one. See, I heard them with my own eyes, like I see you. Firecrackers! Ha! Sudden firecrackers! Did we fart at the firecrackers? We heard the firecrackers. Everyone jumped out of bed. Uncle John, the daughter, Goma Booth, and me. All of a sudden, the jujus don't like growth. They come out when there are kids, but they hide as soon as the growth is even there. No more jujus in the room. What? The firecrackers didn't stop. We heard them in the night. Boom! Boom! Boom! And the screams of men left and right. Pow! Pow! Pow! And the screams of women and children. Woo! Saw me Christmas? Open the window slightly and venting to see. Well, we too, we went in behind him to see what he wanted to see. We saw him. We saw what he saw. Even though he closed up really quickly, so we didn't see what he saw. I want to see me too! I love fireworks. Not there! There's also screams of children. Yes, there are children like us who scream with the rumours. Goma Booth is in the eyes of my children. My poor children. That glow that your innocent eyes saw. Not fireworks. But houses on fire. The houses that the rumours set fire to in the city. That which are innocent years here, those aren't firecrackers, but gunshots. They are in the process of killing people with machine guns. They are in the process of cutting people up with machine guns. They are in the process of burning everything in the neighborhood. The screams you hear, those are the screams of people who are afraid. Men, women, children. Yes, children like you. Even smaller children than you that the rebelos are massacring without a care. If they find us, we are lost for good. Only baby Jesus can save us. Goma tries to cry. He's a real chicken, Goma. You both be brave. I don't know why he told him that both be brave. You both be brave. Just be brave, uncle should have said. Because me, I wasn't crying. I wasn't afraid. I was never afraid. I'm fearless, like John the fearless and Valiant like Prince Valiant. You know, uncle took us in his arms and he carried us to the living room. The sounds of the firecrackers only got closer. Uncle raced to one of the walls of the house. And there were framed photos of the whole family. He took down pictures of the family. He took down his photo, he took down a photo of Goma and took down a photo of all four of us. Him, Mom, Goma and me. And he left two photos next to one another on the wall. The one of Mom where she was smiling in the dark in her teeth. My photo was the most handsome in the parade. He took out the photo out when we approached him. The noises, they got closer to the house. My son, his hands trumped. You are the only chance of surviving. Even his voice trumped. You alone can save it. How do you say that to me? Uncle, when he just said that only baby Jesus can save us. So I'm more powerful than baby Jesus. Besides, baby Jesus is powerful. That's why he doesn't like fights. He said that if somebody slapped you with your right cheek and you offered him your left cheek to slap you again. Me? If somebody slapped me on one of my cheeks whether it was the left or the right cheek, I'd slap him too. And I beat him good like I beat up Pinocchio that day. When he hit me with his left hand on my right cheek. The school champions, they call Uncle in to do so. My son said they don't find anyone they will burn the house with regret. If they find you with us, they will kill us all. Believing that you were like us. They find you alone without us. All three of us have a chance of surviving. But Gomer started to cry again. And Uncle picked up Gomer and they ran into the bathroom. Whatever happened, they were alone. The noises were already at the front door. And they started to bang on the front door. The noises on the door wasn't knock knock but boom boom! And then the door cracked. Cracked, cracked, and two men into it. One had a machine gun. And the other, a machete. One of the two had a big can of petrol. And the one with the machine gun he looked like Captain Haddock with his beard. And the one with the machete he looked like Popeye with his big arms and lots and lots of body hair. He didn't have a pipe but a cigarette. It smelled bad. They had military pants ripped up, ripped up, and old dirty clothes. And I saw them clearly in the dark. Them, they didn't see me in the dark. It's why they turned the light on the living room. They saw me frozen in the middle of the living room. And I looked at that. They thought that they may be at 3. They started looking everywhere. In the bedroom they pulled everything up. They knocked everything down in the kitchen. They pushed everything over in the living room. They chucked everything out. And when they wanted to go to the bathroom I placed myself in the middle of their block and they lifted me up and just set me to the side. And there was no one in the bathroom. Uncle and Gomer had disappeared. I know where they were. They were in the ceiling. They lifted up a piece of the ceiling and they entered and closed it up. I knew the time was fine. Gomer, he never knew that I knew it. Even Uncle never knew that I knew his hiding spot. Where are your parents? Mom was dead, I said to myself. Dad refused to be my dad. I said to myself. Uncle Joe Dahl is hiding in the ceiling but he's not my dad. I said to myself. So, I don't have any parents. This is why I didn't answer. I looked at the photo of Mom. She told me not to be afraid. Not to answer. They looked at the photograph at the same time. Mom was smiling. Popeye, he took it down. He took the photo of Mom and I thought they were going to hurt him. I was ready to jump up and protect him. But Mom just continued to smile. She was mocking me. They looked at the photo. They looked at me. He said something strange. Like in a strange language. Oh, language I didn't speak. I didn't hear. But I understand very well. They looked back at the photos of Mom and me. They looked back at me. They are out. One said to the other with the weight of the butter. I didn't even say there's no doubt about it. Why are you alone? I'm lonely here. I'm with Uncle Joe Dahl and going to D. But I said nothing. Oh, you stupid old one. Can't you see he's a bastard? What's his mother? Well, answer for God's sake. Your mouth smells. I said to the other one without speaking. And I cut off my breath. Like when I'm in the spoon with him. He doesn't care about us. Tell him, kid, is it possible that you don't give a fuck about us? Yes. I said it in my mouth. And I stuck my tongue out without opening my mouth. Like when I make fun of Gover sticking my tongue out. Is he dead or new or bold? He's just brave. I won't even believe it. There's a true son of Kibibi in his place. A little who got God would already be crying for his mother. One said to them, they said it to each other and they were opening a bottle. I wanted to tell them to not touch that bottle because it was one of the bottles that Uncle only opened when he had real guests. But I said nothing. I knew what was going to happen to them. They started drinking. And outside there were still firecrackers drinking. Outside there were still screamers drinking. Outside there were still fireworks drinking. And when they had already drunk two bottles they started to speak like Grotto speak when they drank a lot of crazy water. When Grotto drank a lot of crazy water they started talking about things. Even Uncle became foolish with his guests when he drank a lot of crazy water. This young Kibibi live alone what do you think? His mother works nights, no doubt. I'll go even further. A Kibibi, all alone with her son and parents like this she can only be a good type girl. Tell him you're the son of a whore. That's the head you don't want to assist her in this country. I'll go even further. They want them all to become sluts. Luckily we give it to them good that sluts sisters before we trap them. The first one was becoming much crazier than the other four and pulled me towards him. Come here little man come drink a little. The first one said to me he opened my mouth and I clutched my teeth strongly to try not to drink. I didn't want to become crazy like them and pressed my cheeks together and I opened my mouth and I opened my mouth and I closed my mouth tightly very tightly. The first one he had dropped the bottle which broke out he started to blow on his finger and I laughed at my heart without moving my lips and the second one lifted his machete He's a great Kibibi I would go even further I said to myself at the same time I said I know my heart while he said it out loud I knew that's what he was going to say I would go even further because that made me think too much of there I would go even further like Thompson and Thompson who were called Thompson twins and the adventures of Tin Tin he would make it really good Revolved said the first one he's now feeling my arm as he squeezed my arm like a papaya I would tighten my muscles I would comb them up there Second fool his telephone was like my school friend of Lix's military body he started to say things that I didn't understand he was speaking in a language he spoke at the beginning the language that my mother often spoke about the journey the language that my dad knew would be my dad I could only understand loyalists army repeated many times they're coming do we burn the house or do we burn the house we don't burn anything his mother was one of all I would go even further when she returns she would know that he's alive and he could come back to share his exploits with her later after he carried me over the shoulder I fought back him he ran as if I wasn't fighting they ran in the same direction as many of the men dressed like them with machine guns and machetes in our neighborhood many of the houses were burned all over in our neighborhood our neighborhood no longer smelled like orangey as a wet earth like our neighborhood our neighborhood smelled like when mom burned off the fur the bush meat that she sometimes prepared there was no longer people walking in our neighborhood there were no longer people running around in our neighborhood there were no longer the dirt in our neighborhood the dirt had become red in our neighborhood there were people sleep all over it all over the red dirt of our neighborhood we crossed the whole neighborhood we ran a long, long, long time we had to go to the forest and when we finally got there in the middle of the forest we stopped running when we arrived it's nighttime in the middle of the day in the forest they started to walk then they started to laugh then they started to sing when they sang raising their fists in the air they sang raising their machetes in the air they sang raising their machine guns in the air there were even children who sang with them children who were like them the other children they cried the other children that they had captured that were like me were crying there were my friends from the neighborhood there were children I'd never seen before. Boys like me, girls like you who were crying like you were crying again. You, that you had in the right day. Everyone was crying. I didn't know why they were crying. Oh, grown-up laughs when grown-up, another grown-up laughs without knowing why they laugh. But a child cries when another child cries without knowing why they cry. That's why I also began to cry. I wasn't brave, I'm never afraid. It's because the other children were crying when I cried. Yeah, but that was a long time ago. I was still a child. You know, first days they brought me before the commanding officer. Play. Like a poker game, or solitaire, or checkers, or where whoever loses wins. War is like a game, the commanding officer said the first day. It's a game when you get hurt. It's also, and above all, a game of kill or be killed. War is a game, but it's anything but a child's game. As you know, every game has rules. First rule, I don't want to hear that you are children ever again because you are grown-ups. The commanding officer, he said again and again and again marching before Rose, like Bugs Bunny, the director of our school who marched with Cus, every Monday morning to check our uniforms to make sure they were clean. And the names embroidered on our crown was our basic shape and so that we were worthy of singing the national anthem. If an adult shoots at a kid and the bullet hits him there in the forehead, what happens? A kid in the front row, you know, commanding officers moving towards him, looking for an answer. If the kid shoots at an adult and the bullet hits through the chart, what happens? He dies? I answer is looking at the man. He's looking at him, the image of the man smoking a fat cigar in a red coat. The man who looked like Jesus but with a beard and wore a beret with a stalk. You know that the bullets of a child kills like that of a child and an adult. In a week and most, you will become soldiers. You will hear it said that you are child soldiers but remember that you are not child soldiers but real soldiers because war is an adult affair. You are fearsome rebels ready to defend the conveyorly cause. Is that clear? We all gave commanding officers stampede in unison. That was the first day of our military service. The first day of our military service, I shot a gun for the first time. First day, I fell with a shotgun. The second day, the shotgun fell and I remained standing with it. The third day, the man shaped target fell. Very good, good! The commanding officer said standing up to the target. I fired and the target fell. Five times, the commanding officer stood the target up. Five times, commanding officer moved the target further away. Five times, the target fell. Good, very good, perfect. Wonderful! The commanding officer said slapping me so strongly on the shoulder like he did with Captain Haddock when he showed him the finger that I bit. The commanding officer said that we would become soldiers in one week. I became a soldier in three days. And after three days, the commanding officer said I was ready. He even said, good to go. While others wasted more and more bullets firing in the air of the shooting range, he said that I was the soldier. He gave me a military uniform because not everyone could be e-mailed or coded in the shorts and the bare chest. It was never cold or afraid of huge mosquitoes in the forest. He gave me boots because not everyone could be Tars and or Mowgli or Kerrikoot. Walk barefoot among huge thorns in the forest and never pray. He gave me a shotgun-like-looking loops because not everyone is brought in the sun of the Stone Age and lives in a forest with only a little hybrid cutlass to protect themselves from huge animals like mammoths and nasty-like saber-tooth tigers. All that was left and all that was missing was a name for me. When I told the commanding officer that my name was Paul, he told me that that was a biblical name and that I should have raised that first name for my name because he liked Paul in the Bible but Paul in the Bible disappointed him because he stopped killing people and becoming a posse. I needed a soldier to name the name that resonated, that was explosive, killing people. A name that gave courage, that fear, strokes, and others. I told him that at school, school champions, you know, people call me Lucky Luke. The commanding officer laughed. Listen, little one, if you're as thin as a Lucky Luke and as thin as most of us, it's because the Kimbellilies are naturally thin. It's because of most of the Moongan gollies who starve us while they suck their faces. Luckily for you, that's almost over. Thanks to the British soldiers like me. He also said that there was a warning for me and we should talk about it here. One day, we attacked the first move in Golly Village. It wasn't a little village that looked like the Smurfs Village, but when they saw us coming out of the grass, screaming. We, here behind them on the Kimbellilies, chasing them or something, they had to scream and follow them and commanding officers and the war. This is as easy as a love. I mean, you advance like in Star Wars, avoiding obstacles like in Mario Brothers. And you know, the one with the rocket launch or fire at the wall and the center blocks disappear like the walls of Zulu. And the wall tumbled down like in Tetris. And you just push a button and someone falls down like the target fell in the shooting range. The difference has been the blood for a dollar. Poor thing. Not like the cartoon characters who never die when they fall in the building. When we returned home singing the song that they had taught us, we found a commanding officer who was waiting for us at camp because he didn't take part in the battle. He never takes part in the battle, commanding officer Stampede. He always sends us with Captain Haddock, who really is a captain, but is a named Captain Haddock. The war name of Captain Haddock is Captain V. Ellison. Captain V. Ellison told commanding officer Stampede that I killed three men. Commanding officer was very proud of me. He opened a bottle of crazy water. And that's the first time I judge this. That's the day I'm running the crazy water. You know, she's strong. That's the day that I smoked for the first time. That's the day that I knew that Jama Jama makes you brave. But the cigarette didn't stay stuck in my mouth like what the new cigarette that stayed stuck in his mouth was in his face. My cigarette fell out as soon as it opened my mouth. Then, then, then the Captain, Captain V. Corporal, picked up my shotgun that shoots one bullet at a time like what he used shotgun. And he gave me a Klaus Schnauzgerkopf that fires many bullets at once. He said that from this day on, my name is Corporal Foy. And since that day, I have a Kalash while the other soldiers who are there before me still have the shades and shotguns. The ones that Leonardo the Genius, our blacksmith, Micheal, makes me suffer. You know that the Kalash is up to here to do it. It doesn't ban you. And that's why you have to obey when I tell you that we're leaving or else I'll duty you when I do a lot of the moon golly golly girls when I trap them. You wanna know what I do because of the moon golly golly girls when I trap them? You know that I got stuck together with them. I never got stuck together with them like the certain rebels. I can't define myself getting stuck together with the moon golly golly. I did to them what I did to the moon golly golly bull because the enemy is, we are the enemy's enemy. And who are our enemies? Every moon golly golly is without exception. Boy or girl, big or small, elderly or baby. I mean, that's what they wanna do, what? You, you are part of them. So if you're not with them, you're against them. If you are against them, you're with us. Even though we're alone, you and me. Let's go. Okay, I'm gonna give you three seconds and I'm gonna count the seconds starting now. Three, two, one. One time, just one time, just one time. Boy killer was supposed to shoot and he didn't shoot. Boy killer was supposed to beat up the moon golly golly but he didn't beat them. It was a year after I became a rebel though. And I'd already killed a lot of resisted moon golly gollies. I already slid a lot of moon golly gollies broke into a bench uncle Jeremy. I'd already done a lot of moon golly golly women the way Julia Seusser did my mother. And one day we attacked a truck like the Dalton's Attack the Stage Coaches. Then it was night. The truck pulled a moon golly golly refugees and they fled into the forest and we chased them into the heart of the forest. We were in the forest, we were in the forest of Cargill, locally and we looked for them. We looked for them a dead or alive one of the two. Those who are alive, you have to make sure they're dead so their brothers don't fight them alive. And we trapped them all in there. But we didn't just kill them right away. There's no more record or need to record the every decision to kill a moon golly golly when you kill them, echo nothing. You don't know what to say that day. And further, the life of a moon golly golly is worth the price of a car treat. Ha ha ha. We turned it chop chop padded, thinking it would be head down with the shed. You know, save the cartridges? We hang them from the vies that come from the trees like the cowboys hang them on it. We didn't hang them ourselves. We ordered somebody else to hang them. Some prefer to hang themselves. We executed them all because it was necessary to kill them all. I looked it on the top of the grass. We were ready to leave. And I heard a small sound in the bushes. I stumbled upon a child sleeping. The child got up slowly and locked his ears in the night. He was short and he was thin, very thin. He was the only survivor. He was looking in the eyes. And when he was in the eyes, he smiled even though he had tears. I didn't smile. He looked at my collage. The collage looked at him. The tears started to run down his teeth. And he struggled by the knee. He took two steps back. He started to run. Turn around, he fell down. He got up. He started to run again. He fell down again. He got up again. He started to run again again. And he fell down again again. And he got up again again. And he started to run again again again and speeded them as always. And he didn't fall down again. Shoot, shoot, shoot for the love of God. Shoot the God. Captain Gales about screaming from the distance. I didn't look my way. What did you do, poor fool? Captain Gales about curled. He reported to the commanding officer Stampede. The commanding officer Stampede gave him the gun. Boy, kill him. Their moon, Gale Gale, is that you've left except will kill you the first chance they get. The commanding officer said. He decided from that day on that his dog Goofy would always accompany us to make sure that we none of them would ever escape. And since that day, the commanding officer's dog Goofy, you know, the commanding officer's ugly dog who looks like the commanding officer, accompanied us on the race. The commanding officer put us on duty. Put me on duty. It's like disobeyed order. I didn't shoot, but I should have. But I couldn't shoot. Even though I could have. I recognized it. You recognized me. It was him. It was Goofy. Goofy grew up, my brother, like Uncle said. My brother, like mother said. With Goofy and we were like Tom and Jerry. It was my brother, even if he wasn't an idiot. You, you're not going, so don't be an idiot. I'm looking at me like Alice. We're not in Wonderland here. Follow me or else there'll be trouble. Let's leave from here to go where? You're asking yourself, I know. I don't know myself, but let's go away anyway. I don't know anywhere. If you don't come right away, I'll do something to you that they do in PG-13 movies. In the movies, where it's written PG-13, the actor kills his brother in arms with the enemy that doesn't have to fight him a lot. That's when the brother is wounded and he can't run anymore. And it's because the wounded brother himself, it's him who asked the actor to kill him because his foot is wounded and because he can't run anymore. And the actor kills him, crying. But me, I can't kill you because you didn't ask me. And even if you asked me to kill you, I can't kill you because you're a girl and you're a Kimbin Billy. But even if you didn't ask me to kill you and even if you're a girl and even if you're a Kimbin Billy, I'm going to kill you all the same if you don't follow me, so follow me. The game is over, so stop your little game or else it will be game over. Makes you thirsty, the thirst of a hunger, the hunger falls on him. Do you want me to get upset? You know that I'm already upset? I'm not going to get even more upset if you don't stop right away. Just stop spitting, I tell you. Stop spitting like my mouth stinks. You're gonna look at my teeth. Do I have yellow teeth? Me? Do I have teeth like a commanding officer? My mother hit me morning and night to make me brush my teeth so they wouldn't turn yellow like the yellow teeth of the commanding officer who doesn't have teeth at all when I saw him kiss you with his mouth and with his yellow teeth. So stop acting as if I stink and stop acting like you're gonna throw up. Even if you wanna throw up, I forbid you to throw it up. Stop, stop throwing up, it's disgusting. A girl, it's disgusting. A girl who throws up, throw up. Fine, go up. Throw up if you want to. Throw up, but then don't even think because you pretend to throw up, I'm gonna leave you there. I can't leave you, I can't leave you there. I'm setting out for, I don't know where, whether you want it or not. I know what you're doing and I know what you're doing then because you want me to get pity on you. Me? I don't pity you because I don't pity anyone. I'm a rebel, even if I hold you. You hold your stomach like you're holding your stomach there. I know that you're pretending to be sick to the stomach. If you really, really, truly are sick, take a dump and stop making me shit or else it's on your stomach that my collage is going to piss. I'm turning so that I don't see you shitting but don't do anything, stupid. Because when a boy killer says he'll shoot, he'll shoot, he's gotta miss it, he never misses it. So it's in your interest to shit while I'm pissing because if it doesn't come, you're coming. So is it coming? I don't hear anything. I don't smell anything. You've gotta feel me if you don't shit. I know what you're saying to yourself. You're saying that I want to take you far away because you're a girl and I want to get stuck together with you because boys always want to get stuck together with girls. It's because you think that I want to get stuck together with you like commanding officers that you're pretending to be sick to the stomach for what you want. That I get stuck together with you. But I don't want to get stuck together with you because I'm a hero and heroes don't like girls. The girls who love the hero. And heroes always want to wait for the girls who love them in the end of the movie or in Cartier. Because a girl, when a girl falls in love with a hero, she wants to get stuck together with him all the time and he can't hear your hero because he has to get stuck together with her like chewing gum. Well, sometimes the wife of the hero is even taken to the movies where it's written PG-13 and the hero can no longer save the world because he has to just save his wife. That's why Lucky Luke as soon as a girl falls in love with him, always by the way in the end, sing it, oh boy, oh boy. Oh boy. Even like the rock, always runs away from girls who fall in love with him. Only Nicky Varsimov's girl. The girl fell in love with him. Only Tarzan has a wife named Jane that's like Clinton. Jane from the Adventures of Lucky Luke, but me? I don't like the Adventures of Tarzan like I like those Adventures of Lucky Luke from Clinton and Clinton. So I can't get stuck to you. I'm not the commanding officer. You think that they killed the commanding officer? They are. Who was supposed to kill the, it's me who was supposed to kill him the day when he was supposed to go and do the thing again, the thing that the grown-ups do in the movie that are forbidden for under 18. Maybe the commanding officer knew that I was gonna kill him in a random way. I was gonna be my entire philosophy. Today, even. I was gonna come back to show his nuts for all the revelos today, even. And the other revelos were going to be even more afraid of me because they were going to know that if I cut off the commanding officer's nuts, then I had to figure nuts with him and now I'm going to put it together. That my magic is more powerful than the commanding officer's magic and that now the power of the voodoo that is more powerful than all the voodoo had been added to my voodoo. Captain Yeltsin was going to be happy because he was simply detested to commanding the officer. But the commanding officer didn't know that even though I did. He detested the commanding officer because he was afraid of them, even though me. I detested the commanding officer but I wasn't afraid of them. It was me who was going to decide who would become who and no one was going to dare to do anything about it or to take it. I was going to become his right-hand man. I was going to become the tenant in the place of the tenant. Chop, chop. He died yesterday as a cat. And no one would ever dare touch you. That's what was going to happen today. Like the war that's gaining over and no one will ever dare touch you because you are with me. And I'm there for you. But don't think that it's to do what the commanding officer was doing to you. And don't think that's because you're a girl. Don't think that's because I'm a gentleman. Don't think that's because you're a positive man. I don't want to get stuck together with you. You're the most beautiful girl in the world. You're the most beautiful girl in all the world. You look like my mom. That's why even though you're the only girl on earth, like Smurf Beck, you're the only girl in the Smurf village. I could never get stuck with you. You're my sister. I'm your brother. Yes, you're my little sister and I'm your older brother. I know it the first day. First day I saw you. My little sister who left with mom. I didn't know what she looked like but I know what you look like and I think you look like her. I know you look like my little sister who left with mom. I'd never seen you but I recognize you as soon as I saw you. You came back to me. It's Harry Potter. My friend who left the village joined the Revolos because they wanted to kill him accusing him of being a child wizard. He's one who first told me of being a clinician. He told me that one day when a baby dies it only becomes that. It comes back to a different family and that's why he wanted to die to be born into another family. He died the other day on the ballot box. But he's not dead. He's not dead to me. He's left to be born into a real family. You, the family where you were born into isn't your real family. It's me. I'm your real family. I'm your only family. And you, you are now my only family. You know what I'm talking about? I made a wish one day when I saw a shooting star in the sky. You only have to make a wish when you see a shooting star in the sky. You get a shooting star as like a Latin's magic form. You make a wish and the star in the sky. You make a wish like a real genius. Don't you know that? Shooting star? I had my little sister come back and let me fight her. That's what I said to the star. And the next day, I saw you in the area that the Lungavikali had just attacked. We were coming in there to rescue you and they had been left there before we got here. And you were hiding in that abandoned house, the old one. You were afraid. You thought it was them again. I saw you. Shaking, you were crying. And I knew it was you. I knew that it was my little sister and I caught myself. That brought you to the forces of Captain Yelteva? Come here or I'll shoot. I said, pointing to Colossus, shoot. I could have been fired even if I couldn't. I couldn't have fired my little sister. I'm the Lungavikali. It's them who killed their kids on their parents or their brothers or their sisters with witchcrafts or thinking out the houses of theirs to become the kids of Alibaba with 40 keys. Lungavikali sold mothers to witchcrafts to become like Scrooge the Duck. Watch over your little sister, Lungavikali. That's what she said in the morning when the birds came out. That's why they're Lungavikali. You know I could. That's why I can't leave you there even if I wanted to be. Because now, I'm your big brother. So we are like him, but only he. Bartholome, Lungavikali. Nothing else can happen to you. I'm killing you all to try to kill you. What would say to you? What would say to you? This is what you're starting to do. What would say that that's not creepy? It doesn't smell like creepy. Let me see your mother. Lift up your stomach. Lift up your dresser. Show me your stomach, little sister. I mean, you refused to eat the barbecue yesterday. You hadn't eaten since the day before yesterday even though you cook every day with the other girls in the camp. You hadn't eaten, but why is your stomach the way, the way like you eat a pot? Why is your stomach bizarre, bizarre, like mom's stomach that became like Patrick Starr's stomach? You're not gonna, you're not gonna, you're not gonna do that to me. You're not gonna do that to me, little sister. You're not gonna do it too. Who's gonna take care of you here if you do that? There's no one left in this camp. There's only the three of us here. You, me, and my collage. You're not even gonna, you're not even camping anymore that I can turn into you. Or turn myself into the loyalist forces of the human helmets because they're gonna wanna take away my collage and me, and I'll take life over anyone who wants to take away my collage because it's straight to reform school for me, and I don't wanna go to reform school, and I'm not gonna go to any other camp. I know what we're gonna do. I'll hide my collage here. I'll hide my bag here. I'll hide my soldier uniform here that you won't tell anyone at all. And not even in a dream. And I'll take you to a place not far from here, to a refugee camp. There's lots of people, refugees, you know, from the war that go into hiding. Children, grown-ups too. We were never in the war with us. It's the war that affected us. But we were running away so the war can't continue to affect us so much. I never killed anyone. We're running away so that no one killing us. You're pretending to be afraid. Me too. I'm pretending to be afraid, even though I'm not afraid, I'm never afraid. What makes me mad is that we'll be mixed, mixed. Moon golly gollies and Kimberbillies mix together in the same camp, like we're mixed together in this country. That's why we never attack the refugee camp to kill other Kimberbillies. We'll be safe there because the Moon golly golly won't attack us either or else they would be killing other Moon golly gollies. What's more is if one or two of the camps are attacking the other refugee camp, the UN would get really, really angry and create security council to place you in security. The UN, oh, it's a mixture of all the countries in the world. The security council is the meaning of all the counselors who give counsel at the UN, the security council of people who keep the world secure. And when the counselors of the security council give the UN counsel mad, the UN get super ugly mad. And then they said, white, black, yellow, red, Matiso militaries that are called new helmets. They're the ones who guard the refugee camps. They are sophisticated weapons that fire a thousand bullets a second from the U because all the countries of the entire world enter the fight on the side of the UN to make a world war. The USSR, Russia, Belarus, Lebanon, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, the Vatican, Sudan, Vietnam, Vietnam, East Germany, West Germany, South Germany, North Germany, the North Pole, the South Pole, South Africa, Asia, minor, Asia, minor, the Queen of England, the King of Morocco, the King of Spain, even general, the Gaul, and all the Gauls of the war, even Tex Will as America will join the war, even Rome, Julius Caesar's country will join the war, even Jerusalem, the country of Jesus of Nazareth will join the war, the Chinese will conquer the Indians with the arrows, the Mexican with the stellaros with their sombreros, the blacks with their machetes, the pirates of the Caribbean, the cowboys, the samurais, the Vikings, the hunters, the red tunics, the red verets, the dragons, the juju, the Martians, sun, goku, Spiderman, Batman, Iron Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Thor and the Avengers, the Planet of the X, and the World War will become the Star War. The war zone, like the ones who show up in the war, that say that the war is game over them too, the commanding officer strictly forbade us from touching them because, like he forbade us from touching the attacking refugee camp, he says, we can't attack the journalists because the journalists are not in the war for making war, but for commentating on the war, and for saying he's winning. You know, like journalists who are commentary-less, soccer matches, to say he's winning. When the war is game over, like he said, and when the journalist who said the war is that, it's game over, that's what they mean, that it's game over. Oh, game over, that means no more Colossians, no more surprise attacks, no more face-to-face, no more John Majama, no more whiskey, no more money, no more perfume and jewelry. The things that I was going to start to keep from today are from my little sister after the pillage. But the refugee camp, how it's better than the notation camps, you'll see. The refugee camp, instead of the arcade, there are red crossbuckets. Those who wear clothes with the crosses which isn't like the cross before Jesus that the freeze-like fire trucker wearing yesterday. But across it's red like the blood of the revolution, even though they're not revolutionaries. Them too. You should never attack them or the UN station. Because they aren't in the war to shed blood. But they feel that people with blood aren't. I'm going to tell them not to give me this opinion. Like, you aren't going to die. They said that they take care of people who are 100% for nothing, for nothing without paying anything like in the hospital. They cure the wounded and sick. And they bury the seven-lighted hip hop. And they get to survive or something to eat. And at the end of the kids, they can go back to school after this. It's game over. But the game isn't over for us. We're going to restart the game. We're going to start a new game because it's over now. We'll look after you. But we will have many, many children. We're going to translate this play of Edward of these ruma coming to us from Cameroon. And before we started talking, before we started rehearsing the play, we asked Edward a question that I think you'd all be interested in too. How he was inspired to write this story. Even though child soldiers are not a regular occurrence in Cameroon, there certainly are elsewhere in Africa. I told you what the soldiers were going to talk about about the children of the soldiers. And then they were asked to go back to school, yes. Speaking of the children of the soldiers, I must say, I always remember that I didn't meet any children of the soldiers. He hasn't met a child soldier himself. But I'm sensitive to this question because I like children, I was a child. And I always wanted to write a play that dealt with this subject. So because having been a child himself and like in children elsewhere, he really wanted to deal with this subject because he takes it very much to heart himself. And then I was also passionate by the man who drew the drawing of all the others. So that's all that brings me to this writing. And then with everything that's going on today, that's a problem. When I started this writing project, the Cameroon didn't know the expectations today or the children that are going to be exploded. So that's what motivated me to go deep into this project. So having been inspired by cartoons himself, he was thinking about the realities of the possibility of child soldiers. Before he, when he first started writing this, he hadn't known, there hadn't been a lot of major issues going on in Cameroon, including suicide attacks that are now happening in the northern part of the country. And I can add that also the west part of the country is trying to, fighting to secede from the rest of the country at the moment, there's a lot of violence. And so putting these two ideas together really inspired him towards this. So I'd love to address some of the questions that you might have for Edward. Hello. Thank you for being here on Cameroon's way to talk about this. I was wondering, where was the choice made that the male character would be telling the story and talking to the woman versus maybe speaking just to the audience? So she asked, why did you choose to have the male character, to talk to the woman and not just to the audience? Yes, because it's already the form in which I decided to present that. And also, because... That was just the structure he decided to use, and also... Because that's really a double project of writing. It's about writing about the children, soldiers, but also the question of the rape that I wanted to bring out. And it wasn't the audience that allowed me to address this question, because in the end, the children, the boys and the girls, and they were used differently. So it was through the address of the young girl that the question of rape could also come out. So it's a double project that treats child soldiers and also rape of girls, because in war, both boys and girls are involved. And through this, he was trying to address both topics through the connection of one to the other. Yes, I wrote the story of the girl and it's very particular, because at first, as I said, I gave the word to the boys, and I didn't even think that there would be a sequel. After having written this first text, I realized that maybe it would be interesting that the girl has a word and I wrote the story of the girl. So when he first started out, he didn't think about the fact that he would be really interested, motivated to rate the perspective of the girl. And maybe he did, and he wrote a second play that does address the perspective of the girl through the baby experience of war. Melty, thank you, thank you very much for the work. I'm thinking about, of course, the premise of the boy understanding the world through comic books and through fantasy, but in particular, certain Hollywood fantasy and American Western hero fantasy. And I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that in your work and does it exist in other parts of your work as well? It's not just about the world of Disney, but in fact, the characters of the Western, the Disney, the Hollywood, and all that, does it influence other projects as well? No, no, no, this project is separate. This is a separate project so it doesn't necessarily influence this other work. Yes, I've already written the story of the girl. The story of the girl, there are no references to the anime. They are not part of the other play that takes the perspective of the girl. Where was it performed before? Where was the piece played? The piece wasn't played yet, so it was much more read. So it hasn't been performed yet, it has been read, and I should add that it has received two prizes, which we probably should have sent at the beginning. But yeah, I think really recently, did you get the prize with the piece? No, the piece won the prize in 2016 and there was 2016. So that was a lot, it was read, well, in Africa, in the cabaret, in Guinea-Conakry, and it was a lot read in France. It was at the Avignon Festival, and also on the radio, so it was on RFI and on France Culture, so there was a lot of reading. So it's been done as a radio play as well via Radio France. It's also been read in Avignon at their famous international festival and it's been read in Cameroon, Guinea-Conakry as well. It's set in a specific country or a fictional country and are the antagonists identified with specific groups or again fictional groups? Is it based on reality or is it fictional? It's a totally imagined story, that is to say the characters, the context, but there is reality. I was inspired by what was going on a little bit everywhere. There was this tragedy where there were always two big groups where we had a manipulation of stories like that in Rwanda, Liberia, Congo, Jampas, and we have stories like that in the North of Cameroon, today, in the region, why Ramsevi or the young girls were removed and these girls were sent to be exploded with stature. So that's what I'm inspired by, of reality, but it's really a story. It's a non-ethnic story that doesn't exist. There are a lot of imaginations that are still part of reality. So it's completely his imagination. Kimberlili and the Mugalli Galli are the made-up ethnicities and Deacon Berries, the town, mentioned that they've already taken, but it's fictive. However, of course it's based in some sort of inspiration from the truth, from ethnic wars in Rwanda and Congo and Libya, but also recently in the northern part of Cameroon, the story of the girls being abducted by Boko Haram. Maiduguri, the town that's now infamous in Nigeria, where the girls were abducted from and then sent to blow themselves up in the marketplace, is a town that is right next to Cameroon. And so Cameroon has been directly affected by this too, and that's part of what's being reflected in this in my play. How long did it take you to write this work? And when it was performed in the other settings, was it performed in the total, like, long version of it? So it hasn't been performed yet. And we actually did, we cut a little bit, but it's quite a long play for a one person. And how long did it take you to write it? So how long did it take me to write it? Well, I mean, in general, I've been writing for a long time, but I also wrote very quickly. That is to say... Right, very quickly. Before entering the real writing, for a long time, I wrote the piece in my head. It could be in the marketplace, in the marketplace, I don't know, whatever. I have small pieces that I take a lot of notes from, but here I'm really in writing. I already have all the scenes made, but when I go back to writing, it goes very quickly. Which means that I've been writing the piece for, maybe a year or more, but I've written in less than two months. So the actual writing process was about three weeks, but it was about one year when he was writing in his head, no matter what he was doing, a little bit thinking on it all the time, and then when he sat down to actually write it, it was about three weeks. So final question. My question is this. In the play, the boy killer mentions that he has cut many women's children out of his stomach. So this is something very rarely mentioned in a war, because it happens to many women in war, and it's rarely a topic spoken about. What made you decide to include it in the play? So it's about the fact that it's necessary, and then the game between, because he doesn't himself understand the difference between his mother having a Caesarean that went wrong and the actual act. So the fact that the soldiers often cut the stomach of the mothers for the baby, for the nigger. And is it, is it, what made you include this reality in the story? Well, I include this reality, just because when I was thinking about the subject, when I was doing research or looking at documentaries or reading studies, so in reading, seeing this in documentaries, or reading about this reality in the newspaper and elsewhere. So it's part of what Adam was talking about, about reality. Do I get inspired by reality? So looking at it or reading studies, I see that there are situations of women because of the treatment in the war, the treatment of the different girls treatment of the boy. Returning to the earlier question about how this is based in reality, he felt that there are so many of these realities for young girls in the wars that don't, can you say a few words about this as well? Yes, it's not often the same. And it's really that too, that pushed me to write a sequel, because the boy takes himself for a hero, they are trained like that, while the girls are not even soldiers, they are slaves, they are a person, they are domestic slaves, they are there, sexual slaves who prepare for the bosses, and that was really one of the things that pushed him to write the companion piece, because these boys, child soldiers, and any soldiers, male soldiers, they take themselves as heroes in a way, and then the girls are not even involved in the war, they're dragged in and then become sex slaves, and so you wanted to give that a voice too. In the end, more? Oui, donc voilà, et c'est justement pourquoi avec les femmes, ils vont le plus loin possible, c'est-à-dire que c'est le viol, lorsqu'elles sont enceintes, parce que la haine vraiment va au niveau extrême, ou voilà. They really have to are faced with the worst of all of this, with the rape and with murder like this, yeah. It's sort of a heartbreaking play I find in the way that it uses humor to deal with these real issues. Thank you so much, Edward, of this ma... Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's all... It's all... Good. Thank you, my hello. Thank you, my hello. It's okay. Okay. Thank you. So much. Right here. I was here the other day, but your plan, I wanted to get your picture of you together. You don't mind. Pardon me. With a moment. That's okay. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Yes. It's wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Okay, we're going to start with... What is that there? That there? That there? Yeah. All right, so we start with you. Over here... Thank you. You have to have the tchicld. Who will be in the sun? Will we ever take it to the moon too? We'll see you in a minute.