The Cabin at the Bottom of the Garden

Léontine, little girl living in a remote hole in Ariège, with her parents

Ernestine and Eugène were far from suspecting that in the tool shed at

At the bottom of the garden, her father did unusual things, making her burst into tears.

One evening, while Léontine was watching TV in the living room, she heard the back door of the house slam with a loud bang. She didn't worry much about it, because her father went out from time to time to get wood for the fireplace. But when he didn't return, the little girl became curious.

Léontine slowly got down from her seat and listened to the silence in the house. Her mother had gone to dinner with a friend, leaving the kid alone with her father. But it seemed that he too had left. It was very strange for her because she knew that she was not allowed to stay alone in the house.

Léontine was barely twelve years old. She went to the kitchen while calling her father's cell phone. She heard a vibration coming from her dad's jacket and realized he couldn't be far away since he was wearing nothing but jeans and a t-shirt. Then she heard a noise coming from the courtyard. But what was happening here?

His heart began to race as he got closer to the back door. His Dad Eugene was just busy in the cabin. Léontine sighed with relief. But the latter was only short-lived: his father was not used to working in the cabin at this time. Léontine wondered what he was doing there and quickly put on her slippers. She ventured into the courtyard and let the door close behind her.

His father must have heard him since he appeared suddenly.

“Sweetheart, hey!” he said, walking towards his daughter.

“What are you doing in the cold? Do you want some hot chocolate?”

But Léontine was not stupid. She knew her father was trying to distract her, but she loved a good cup of hot chocolate. She followed her father into the house. He made her the best hot chocolate she had ever had and they both drank it at the table.

“What were you doing in the cabin, Dad?” she finally asked. His father shifted nervously in his seat and told him he was tidying up.

He probably thought that was a pretty boring reason to lose interest in his daughter. But what he didn't know was that Léontine had entered the cabin last week and found it clean and well organized. So his explanation raised even more questions. Why lie ?

A little later, Léontine's mother came home and her parents both put her to bed. She could see the cabin from her room. She sat at the window to see better. She looked at her alarm clock and since it was after midnight, she didn't expect to see the light on, but she still wanted to check. To his surprise, the light was on!

Léontine could even see movement inside. Her father had clearly gone back to the cabin while the mother was sleeping. Léontine slipped out of her room and went to her parents' room to make sure her mother was there, she was. So the little girl carefully went down the stairs and crossed the room through the back door.

This time, she had learned from her mistake and she didn't let the door close. Léontine stopped for a few seconds to make sure that her father had not heard anything and continued towards the cabin. She could hear her father bustling around inside while she was only halfway there.

He wasn't exactly discreet, but when she finally reached her destination, she noticed that he had hung trash bags outside the windows. She could only see shadows. It was impossible to peek from the outside because of the bags.

Léontine listened silently behind the wall, hoping to be able to hear what her father was doing. It looked like he was talking to someone, but she didn't hear any response. Was he on the phone? There were only muffled sounds and sometimes laughter. She was about to knock on the door to confront her father when he suddenly stopped speaking and another sound echoed through the walls. Hearing it, she lost her desire to stay around the cabin. So she rushed into the house, forgetting to close the door slowly behind her.

The door slammed as she ran up the stairs and jumped into bed. Léontine held her breath while listening to the sound of her father leaving the cabin before returning to the house. A short time later, the latter was in his room, silent. She stayed as still as possible, eyes closed, pretending to be asleep. She could feel his warm breath on her cheek as he checked to make sure she was really asleep. Then he backed away and left his daughter's room.

The next day, coming back from school, Léontine decided to enter the cabin. His father hadn't come home yet so it was the perfect time. Her mother was busy in the kitchen and wouldn't be surprised to see her playing in the garden. The kid went out into the yard and had a little fun playing the game.

When she realized that her mother was no longer paying attention, she stopped playing and slowly walked towards the cabin. Her heart pounded as she placed her hand on the handle and turned it down. Only, the door didn't move an inch, it was locked. But Léontine did not intend to give up.

She knew the tools were in the cabin. She came back into the house and asked her mother if she could use the little rake to play gardener. His mother saw nothing strange and told him that she could take him out of the cabin. When she informed him that it was locked, she was clearly surprised.

His mother went there and tried it too, apparently confused by the fact that it wouldn't open.

“Damn, Eugene,” she muttered, returning to the house to search frantically in the drawer.

Finally, the mother found the key and handed it to her daughter who ran to the cabin. She slipped the key into the lock and turned it just as her father pulled into the driveway. Should she still go inside or was it better to go home and hope her mother wouldn't say a word? She knew that the latter couldn't keep a secret and even less if she didn't even know it was a secret.

So, Léontine decided to enter the cabin. She pushed the door gently to avoid making any noise. His father got out of his car and walked towards the front door. She stopped for a few seconds and listened as he opened the door in question, then she rushed into the cabin.

The cabin was dark, but she was too afraid to turn on the light. She tried to walk with her hands outstretched in front of her, but she kept bumping into them. Then she felt a sudden pain in her foot and she screamed. She knew her parents had heard it and she quickly left the cabin just as the couple arrived in the garden.

“Leontine? What is happening ? What were you doing in there?” his father asked feverishly as he locked the cabin again. Léontine cried in pain while grabbing her foot. There was a little blood and her mother immediately took her back into the house. She inspected the wound and found a small nail.

“Eugene, weren’t you supposed to clean the cabin?!” the mother raged.

After this event, his father kept the key with him at all times. The mother did not notice him because he had attached another key with the same keyring to serve as a distraction. But Léontine was watching her dad. She knew she had to hurry because he might move his secret project to a different location.

Léontine knew that on Friday evenings, her dad drank a few beers. Each time, he fell into a deep sleep, sometimes in front of the TV. And so, that Friday, the kid was ready. She pretended to fall asleep until her alarm clock read midnight, then she silently went to her parents' bedroom.

She slowly opened the door and checked her father's side of the bed. But to her great surprise, she only found her mother there, asleep. The TV was still on, which was a good thing since she had just stepped on a squeaky floorboard.

She closed her eyes and expected to see her father but all she heard was a loud snore. She walked over to the chair and listened to her father's snoring. The key dangled out of his pocket, swinging on the key ring. Léontine held out her arm in front of her, but could only touch the object with the tips of her fingers.

Suddenly the key started to slip and fell to the floor. Eugene woke up but he was so sleepy that he headed straight for the stairs. As soon as she heard the bedroom door close, Léontine picked up the key and ran outside.

She stopped abruptly because the previous time she had stepped on something and she didn't want that to happen again. She turned around and grabbed her slippers. Once back in front of the cabin, she carefully placed the key in the lock and turned it.

She did not have a phone or a torch with her. The cabin was dark and cold. She had to wait a few minutes to give her eyes time to adjust to the darkness. Everywhere she looked, she saw something that scared her. She searched desperately around the door, but found no switch.

Later, something started crawling up her arm, she barely managed to suppress a scream. She had touched a spider web and the owner ended up on her arm. She waved it from side to side until the little creature ran away. In frustration, the little girl burst into tears.

The cabin was filled with miscellaneous items and gardening tools, but she quickly noticed something out of the ordinary. In the back of the cabin was an object with a white sheet over it. The sheet was stained red and it almost looked like blood.

Slowly, she approached it, carefully avoiding the mess so as not to fall. When she arrived, her hands were full of sweat from her anxiety. It was as if she had a little angel and a demon on her shoulders: should she remove the sheet or not?

Léontine gently approached the sheet with her hands and grabbed it firmly. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, ready to pull the sheet back. But something stopped him. No, I'm almost there. I will not give up. She started counting from 10, but once she reached 4, she suddenly heard someone shout her name.

“Léontine?” It was her father... she quickly dropped the sheet and hid behind the lawnmower.

She heard her father approaching and listened when he opened the cabin.

“Léontine?” he asked again. "You are here ?"

But she remained silent.

“She’s not here!” he yelled.

"No ? Where could she possibly be?” the mother shouted in turn from the house.

That’s when Léontine realized they were looking for her. First, she had to wait until her father was far enough away from the cabin. The door was slightly open and she could see him standing there, not knowing what to do.

Then his dad was heading home when his wife called him. Léontine quickly got up, but her eye was once again drawn to the white sheet. She turned around and tripped over a bucket, which fell to the ground with a loud crash.

“Léontine?” his father shouted again, returning to the cabin.

She rushed to the mysterious object and grabbed the sheet.

“Léontine, no!”

The little girl looked her father straight in the eyes and said:

“What are you hiding here, Dad?”

The mother was standing next to her husband now.

“Léontine, what are you doing here? Why aren’t you in bed?” Her mother looked at her and the red sheet in confusion.

“Eugene, what is this?” asked the mother, perplexed.

Sweat formed on her husband's forehead as he tried to think of an answer. Léontine was still standing near the object and when he failed to give his answer, she had had enough and pulled on the sheet.

The mother jumped and Léontine froze. Suddenly she started screaming and threw herself at her father, her eyes full of tears.

"Thank you dad ! THANKS !" her dad sighed and hugged her.

“You just ruined your birthday surprise, little monster.”

The mother smiles at her husband.

“I didn’t know you were riding his first bike. And in his favorite color too!”

She wrapped her arms around her husband and kissed him on the cheek.

“Okay, shall we go back to bed?” she said to her daughter once she had let go of her father. Léontine nodded, her cheeks were red as she turned to her dad to apologize for not having listened to him.

She had completely forgotten that his birthday was in a week and never thought that it was her present that he was hiding. It looked so scary that his imagination ran wild... only to discover that it was just a red bike after all.

Don't we say: Curiosity is a bad fault?

Anatole France said: “There is always a moment when curiosity becomes a sin, and the devil has always sided with scientists.”

As for Blaise Pascal, he indicated: “Curiosity is only vanity. Most often, we only want to know to talk about it.”

Guy Pujol says the l’ARIÉ…..JOIE