with personal and economic freedom, then the light inside them will die. They won’t have the hunger to better their lives, or their family’s future. I didn’t have it easy as a child, but at least I had the chance of something better. I value that over everything. The coolies working on the plantations now, they have that, I imagine,” I said, surprised that I was going on as I was, but Marcelle seemed riveted. “That’s why they come south, I think. To make more money than they can in the north and then take it home to their families. That want for something more is an innate human quality, whether you are a coolie in Indochine or a poor girl in Virginia. I know, just as well as the men working for Michelin, how heartening dreams of a better future can be.”
“I admire you, very much,” said Marcelle, smiling. “I know we’ve just met, but we share a similar trait, don’t we?”
“I think we probably share many,” I said affectionately.
“I don’t doubt it,” she said. “But I’m thinking that at the end of the day, we could do many things to help ourselves, but to ultimately ensure our economic freedom, we had to marry well. That is the plight of women the world over.”
“It is,” I said. “But at least we had freedom of movement. We were able to have careers and move out of our hometowns and meet men of worth. We were able to dream about our futures and then execute on our dreams.” I let my mind wander back to Victor. “What would my world be if I hadn’t had the opportunity to better my lot in life? I want the men in Indochine, and the women, to have that, whether they work for Michelin or not,” I said, feeling rather emboldened.
“Sometimes I really think I’m the dullest person in Indochine,” Marcelle said with a half smile.
“You! You’re—”
“Intellectually,” she said, interrupting me. “I know I’m not dull, say, in conversation, but I never went to university. I barely finished lycée. My mother was happy to have me run off to Paris to model instead of attending classes, as she thought it would help me marry well. Annoyingly, she was right,” she said, grinning.
“Come,” she said, standing up. “You wild lady capitalist. We will only be able to better ourselves, and our positions in life, if we eat something. Starving women simply do not get ahead. Unless you’re a fashion model. Then that actually does help quite a bit. Even if the magazines insist that with these new silhouettes we’re allowed to have breasts again.”
“I don’t think the fashion world is in my future,” I said, smiling. I very much appreciated Marcelle’s self-deprecating nature. This morning, she seemed far away from the kind of person who would use something menacing against me.
“Let’s go have breakfast then,” she declared. “If we ask nicely, they will make us local food.”
“I like local food,” I replied as she started fussing with her hairpins. “I had my driver, Lanh, take me to a native restaurant last week, as all my cook prepares is French food. He ordered everything and it was delicious. Flavorful.” She nodded and assured me that my cook could make her own food very well, but that most likely no French woman ever asked her to serve it.
When her hair was restored, she sat up, and I watched as her back curled erect, her vertebrae just apparent, indenting her bronzed skin.
“We can change here.” Marcelle pointed to the small pool house a bit set off down another path. “Did you give your bag to the girl when you came down?”
“Lanh did,” I said, thinking how I’d barely noticed him handing it to a young woman.
“Good. They will have hung your dress here,” she said, gathering her things and heading over.
Dressed and with our still-damp hair pinned up under cloche hats, we made our way back up to the clubhouse in our flat day shoes.
“Do you like it better at this hour?” she asked. “The club?”
“I love it at this hour,” I said, looking out at the lavender planted to the east of the building.
“Just like Provence,” she said, following my gaze. “A slice of home for all the homesick colonials. But don’t worry. That will never be you.”
She had no idea how right she was. I might have started my time in the colony in a shaky way, but I was very grateful to be here. I had