Finn
The day after we went to watch the film, Philly said she would like to go back to visit the military graves in the cemetery.
She said she only had a few days left and there was something she wanted to do there before it was time for her to go home.
She asked if there was a flower shop nearby and Mum said there was a stall in the covered market.
Mum also said she would drive us this time and Philly said she would be very grateful for a lift because the walk was a bit much and she had been quite tired after we went the last time.
I think her leg was hurting again, because she was using her flowery walking stick, even just to come downstairs for breakfast.
I decided I’d go into the covered market with them this time because it was still too early for the tourists and I didn’t need to worry about getting pushed or having my toes trodden on.
I wore my ear defenders though, and I covered my nose when we walked past the fish stall near the entrance.
The flower stall is in the middle of the big hall.
It smells nicer. There was some lavender, so I stood close to it and sniffed it to take away the other odours.
While they were looking at the board, I decided to do another rubbing.
The Old Man was in the cemetery, as usual, and he’d stopped what he was doing and leaned on his rake to watch us as we put the pot of heather in front of the war graves.
I walked over to look at the headstones where he was working.
He’d already raked the gravel in that area and now he was setting pots of plastic flowers back upright on a big stone slab belonging to Famille Bertaud .
Then he turned to pull daisies from the cracks of a smaller headstone next to it.
I looked at the name, but it just said Inconnu .
That means Unknown . I wondered if maybe it could have been Marine David Moffatt, but then surely they would have known that because the information board said his body had been identified.
Then Mum came over and said it was time to go because she and Philly had some more work to do, and the clock was ticking.
There was no clock in the cemetery, but I think she meant her writing course is coming up quite soon and Philly won’t be staying with us much longer so there’s not much more time to get her story down.