• Dear Diary,
    It's me again after such a very long time. I am so glad I have learned English because now if someone finds this tome of my history, they may be able to help me find my older brother. But, before I pick up in the present, I'd better start with my past.
    I was born into what could be called an average family. My father died not soon after, leaving my mother and my brother, who is three years my elder, to take care of me. When I learned to walk and talk, my brother took up a seemingly impossible venture according to my mother: learning how to ride a unicycle. He could already ride a bicycle. He took me for rides on it almost everyday on his way to school when he would race my mother. I was fascinated by how my brother could balance on the single wheel without falling over. So, one day I said, "Mommy, I want to do that."
    My mother was a little reluctant at first, but with convincing from my brother and plenty of pleading on my part she finally consented. And so whenever he trained on his unicycle, practicing turns and jumps and tricks, I trained with him. I was three years old when we had our first lesson together. I fell down and cried plenty of times, but in three months with lots of encouragement and hard work on my brother's part, I learned how to ride.
    Within the next nine months, we began to develop the art of unicycle jousting and sword fighting. We even devised a special technique of our own that could never be duplicated by any unicyclist before or after us. That's when they came, the traveling circus looking for new talent to join their caravan. Our family was hard on money at that time and my brother thought that he could make some money for he had heard that circus performers earn a good living. He left 4 year old me and my mother the next morning. My mother said that he had told her, "If I don't return by the time Marie (that's my name) turns eleven, give her this scarf and apply her for a job at Baratie." He hugged our mother and left for the dock on his unicycle.
    7 years past, and I the spring I turned eleven (My birthday is April 21st.) my mother gave me the scarf and repeated my brother's words to me. I immediately got the incentive that my brother would be waiting for me at Baratie, so when she said that Chef Zeff had offered me a job as a clean-up girl I practically leapt 10 feet in the air! That afternoon, a vessel with Patty and Carne at the helm arrived to collect me. My mother said goodbye to me in tears. I promised to return when I'd found my brother so we could once again be a happy family.
    My mother barely had time to slip me a French-English/English-French dictionary when the boat set off for Baratie, the bistro of the brine. I was silent the whole way, scared as much as excited at the possibility of seeing my brother for the first time in 7 years. Chef Zeff greeted me at the port; I am thankful he spoke a little French for I did not understand a word of English at the time, French being my first and native language. He showed me to my room saying that someone would be here to help me unpack my things and left.
    All alone in my room, I thought about what I had seen so far: not head, nor hide, of my brother or of any of what would become my colleagues tomorrow when I started my job. I was just starting to think about giving up hope when he appeared in the doorway. At the time, I told him to "go away" disturbed that such a random figure had intruded on me. "I just came to help you unpack," he said with a New Yorker accent. "Va t'en!" I said again, thinking he was a dunce for not understanding my French. "Huh?" he said confused. He noticed my French-English/English-French dictionary on my bed. He picked it up, looked up my phrase, and stared with wide eyes. "Oh, sorry. I didn't know you wanted me to go away. I don't speak French, so that's why."
    "Oh, je comprende." (Oh, I understand.)
    "And apparently, you don't speak English. I think I can help you with that."
    That was how Sanji and I met. I'll stop for now, but there's more to be told tomorrow. Goodbye for now.
    Marie