Description: One Marc Rochat pulled aside the lace curtains and watched the rain fall through lamplight and splash on the cobblestones of Escaliers du March. Tiny streams formed between the cobblestones and ran down to bigger streams of rain from Rue Mercerie. The two roads, narrow and angled at a steep slant, met just beyond the windows of Caf du Grtli. Rochat breathed against the cold glass; he drew a rawboned face in the quick-spreading fog. "I see you, I see you hiding in the rain. You can''t fool me. En garde ." He wiped away the face and turned back to the warmth of the caf. It was a familiar place to Rochat. He came here most evenings for his supper. He liked the round lamps hanging from the ceiling that glowed like full moons. He liked the photographs of Lausanne from longtimes ago hanging on the walls. He liked the chalk script menu above the bar that never changed. Monsieur Dufaux, the owner of the caf, washed the slate and rewrote the menu each day, but the letters were always the same and always in the same place, just like the patrons. Madame Budry with her sixth glass of Villette, Monsieur Duvernay with his Friday night filets de porc avec pommes frites , the Lausanne University professor and his wife who rarely spoke to each other but read many books, the Algerian street cleaners who stopped in each night for espresso and cigarettes. And Monsieur Junod, pushing through the curtains at the door just now, followed by his little white dog on a lead. Always at the same time, always taking the same table in the corner. And his dog always jumping on the next chair to look about the caf as if demanding service. Rochat liked to imagine the little dog dressed in a very nice suit, knife and fork in his paws, and eating sausages and-- "Still coming down, is it, Marc?" Rochat saw Monsieur Dufaux standing at his table, drying his hands on the dish towel tucked in his apron strings. "Pardon, monsieur?" "The rain. Still coming down, is it?" " Oui , and winter''s trying to sneak into Lausanne tonight. He thinks I can''t see him." "Who?" "Winter." Rochat pulled aside the curtain and pointed to the dripping dark beyond the glass. "Out there, hiding in the rain. He thinks I can''t see him, but I do." Monsieur Dufaux looked through the window. "Such an ugly night. And it''s cold. I feel it in my bones." "I can blow on the glass and draw him in the fog so you can see." "Who?" "Winter. Do you want to see?" " Non, mon cher , that''s all right. But tell you what: You see old man winter from the belfry tonight, you chase him away for me. Would you like a dessert, espresso?" "Non, merci." Monsieur Dufaux collected Rochat''s finished plate, pulled the white cloth from his apron strings, and pounded bread crumbs from the table. "You know, every time you have your supper, I ask if you want a dessert or coffee. And every time you say the same thing." Rochat thought about it. "I know." "I know, too. That''s the point. Surprise me sometime. This is Switzerland. We need surprises now and then. Keeps us from boring one another to death." Rochat laughed politely, not sure what Monsieur Dufaux meant, but very sure it was a joke. Monsieur Dufaux was well-known in the caf for saying funny things. And watching him walk among the tables, pounding bread crumbs to the floor and saying the same thing about Swiss people boring one another to death, Rochat knew he had guessed correctly. All the patrons laughed. A single chime rang through the caf. Rochat glanced at the old clock above the bar. Little hand between eight and nine, big hand on three. "Mustn''t be late, Rochat. You have your duties." He looked at his bill and read the numbers. He opened his wallet, carefully counting out his Swiss francs. He checked everything three times, making sure his calculations were correct. "Very good, Rochat. Numbers can be very silly things. Always moving about when you''re trying to read them." He tied a black scarf around his neck, slipped on his long black wool coat, and eased through the crowded caf toward the door. The patrons shifted in their chairs to let him pass. Monsieur Dufaux called from behind the bar, " Fais attention , Marc, the stones will be slippery in the rain." Rochat felt everyone''s eyes at his back, everyone watching his clumsy limp. He pulled his floppy black wool hat from his pocket, tugged it down on his head. "Merci. Bonne soire, mesdames et messieurs." He shuffled through the curtains and out of the door and into the rain. He checked for shadows on the cobblestones. There was only his own crooked shadow stretching from his boots. "On y va, Rochat." He shuffled to the bottom of Escaliers du March. The steep hill of cobbled-together and mismatched stones looked slippery in the rain, just as Monsieur Dufaux had warned. Rochat shuffled to the wooden staircase workermen had built in middles of ages. Rochat didn''t know who they were, but he was very glad they had built it. The wooden handrail was sturdy and the red-tiled roof would keep him from getting soaked to the bones. He grabbed the handrail and climbed. "Un, deux, trois . . ." The thud of his crooked right foot marking his pace. ". . . seize, dix-sept, dix-huit . . ." The old stone buildings along the hill looking hammered into place by the same cobblers who built the road. Skinny flats with painted shutters, empty flower boxes at the windows, small shops on the ground floor. An antiques dealer, a hairdresser, Vaucher the boulanger , a gunsmith, an Indian restaurant with funny statues at the doors, and the Place de la Palud bureau of the Swiss police, who, like all good citizens, closed up shop at night and went home. ". . . vingt et un, vingt-deux, vingt-trois . . ." He quickened his pace till the stone buildings began to bend in the corners of his eyes and he could imagine beforetimes . . . ". . . quarante-sept, quarante-huit, quarante-neuf . . ." . . . and another cobblestone road . . . ". . . cinquante, cinquante et un, cinquante-deux . . ." . . . and another stone house, with a garden at the back. The place he lived with his mother through the first ten years of his life. The place he learned to walk on his uneven legs. The only place in the world Rochat had known till a strangerman came knocking at his door. He was tall and had a bald head and there were reading glasses with no arms balanced on the tip of his nose. Rochat''s mother said the stranger had been sent by his father. Rochat had never met his father, only knew him from a photograph. Standing with his mother on a summer''s day on the Plains of Abraham above the St. Lawrence River. His mother wore a blue dress; she looked pretty. The photograph taken in the days before she changed. She grew tired and weak, she took lots of medicines. Then her hair fell out and she stayed in bed most of the day. ". . . soixante-quatre, soixante-cinq, soixante-six . . ." The man at the door shook Rochat''s hand. "Good afternoon, Master Rochat. I am Monsieur Gbeli. It is an honor to make your acquaintance." He came into the house and sat at the kitchen table. He opened his briefcase and removed some papers for his mother to sign. He helped her hold the pen steady. Then the man showed Rochat a small red book with a white cross on the cover. "Your father has secured this Swiss passport for you, Master Rochat, so you may go to live in Lausanne." Rochat trembled. His mother took his hand. "Don''t be afraid, Marc. I have to go away soon. Your father is a very nice man, he''ll take care of you. You''ll go to a very nice school with children like yourself." ". . . septante, septante et un, septante-deux . . ." The kitchen opened into a sitting room, and near the window there was a floor-stand globe of the world. "Tell me, do you enjoy studying the earth, Master Rochat?" " Oui , Maman shows me places and tells me about them." "Has your mother shown you Switzerland? Where your father lives, where you''ll go to school?" "Yes, it''s far away." "Pardonnez-moi?" The look on Monsieur Gbeli''s face made Rochat laugh; his mother laughed, too. The stranger removed the glasses from his nose and laid them on the table. He walked to the sitting room and returned with the globe. He stood it next to the table and gave it a spin to the west. "All this traveling has left me somewhat lost. I can''t quite find where I am in the world." "Because you made the world go backward, monsieur." The stranger looked at Rochat and smiled. "Very good, Master Rochat. Perhaps you could show me the correct way to see where I am?" Rochat looked at his mother. She brushed his black hair from his forehead. "Go ahead, Marc. You can do it. Remember how I showed you to see things." Rochat stopped the wrong-way world. He turned it slowly to the east and found a tiny dot along the St. Lawrence River. "You''re here, monsieur, in Quebec City." The stranger refitted his glasses for a better look, almost touching his long nose to the globe. "And this river on the globe would be the same river I see from your sitting room window?" "Oui, monsieur." " D''accord . How do I find Switzerland?" Rochat turned the globe eastward again till he found a small country curving around a slender lake in the center of Europe. "Switzerland is this place, the red one." The man set the index finger of his left hand on the dot by the St. Lawrence River in Canada and the index finger

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