Can a man take fire in his bosom,
and his clothes not be burned?

(Projector whirring.  Film begins.)  Close-up of hot pink anthuriums, upside down heart-shapes tightly rolled.  Time lapse of slow unfurling.  Safara in front of the flowers.  Lots of greenery.  Grégoire knocks.  He enters, takes her hands, kisses them.  "I want you so much, butyou're too young."  Breezes shake the leaves.  "No, I'm nottoo young.  My father had already welcomed a king bearing three sacks of koala nuts.  He was rich and very handsome.  But I did not love him."  She's still, yet he raises his hands to ward her off: "For me, it would be a sin.  We will wait until you are fourteen."  Flowers half-opened, fluttering.  Scene  suffused with pink glow.  "I will stay my passion, content myself, knowing I've saved a princess, my princess."  "Grégoire, my darling."  "Safara, kiss me once; I willremember your lips for the next two years."  "Two years?"  she says.  "Virtue will be rewarded."  He kisses her.  She returns his kiss and he leaves.  Freeze frame of totally opened flowers.(Film ends.) 




Christy Sheffield Sanford, Copyright © 1996.