A Short Walk Through a Wide World

In a marketplace in Siam, blood drips from Aubry’s nose. She hoped to stay here longer, but now she must leave. She runs through the market asking for a boat. She does not speak the local language but knows that someone will understand French or English. Blood pours down her face, and she convulses with pain. Finally, two children call to her in English, beckoning her to a ferry. Aubry swims to the ferry, and the children help her crawl onboard.

The two children, Sophie and Somerset Holcombe, and their parents are visiting from New Zealand. The father, Vaughan, orders the children away, afraid that Aubry has malaria. Aubry assures him that her illness is not contagious. The mother, Emily, recognizes Aubry from the newspapers as “the French lady” who has traveled the world since she was a young child (13). Sophie and Somerset ask her to tell them a story about her travels. Aubry says that she left her home in Paris when she was nine years old and that her illness came from a well.

Many years earlier, nine-year-old Aubry stands at a well in Paris with her sisters, Pauline and Sylvie. The well is made of smooth, gray stones and has a face carved into it.