I was sitting there on Elephant, rather reluctant to get off, when something happened that I shall never forget as long as I live. Lorenzo was mounted on Horse and I noticed he was unusually still, perfectly still, as if in some kind of trance. I thought at first this might be a sign that he was going to have a fit—I had seen them begin like this before, like the calm before a storm. But then he got off Horse, climbed down from the carousel, and started walking determinedly into the crowd of people, who parted for him as he came through. I followed him with Kezia. He was walking toward the mairie.
Outside the mairie I saw an old man standing there on his own. He was leaning heavily on a stick, watching Lorenzo coming toward him. Everyone in the square knew something very strange was happening. Silence had fallen. Lorenzo walked right up to the old man and looked him in the face. He reached out and touched his hair, his face, then smelled his fingers.
“Capo?” he said. “Capo?”
The old man nodded. There were tears running down his face. “Willi Brenner, Lorenzo,” he replied. “Or Capo Capo, whichever you like.”
Then Kezia was there, the three of them together, arms around one another.
I stood and watched. Before my eyes, the story had come full circle.
Kezia turned and called me over. I shook his hand. He was still tall, if a little bent. His hair was white, what there was of it. Lorenzo could not stop touching his face, his hair.
So I was there when Willi Brenner reached into his pocket and gave it back to Kezia, the scorched fragment of the icon of Saint Sarah. “I brought this back,” he said. “You must keep it now. It has looked after me, as I think you wanted it to. It is yours. It always was.”
* * *
And this is the true end of the story, the end of the road. With Kezia’s encouragement, and at Lorenzo’s insistence, I stayed in the Camargue, helped out on the farm, never went to college or university. I settled here and, many years later, I wrote this book. While I was writing, Kezia told me I should always keep their precious fragment of the icon of Saint Sarah beside me all the time—to guide my hand, she said.
So I had it with me when I began writing this some months ago, sitting on the beach in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, the beach where, I discovered, Vincent van Gogh had sat and painted his picture of the four boats, the same beach where Kezia told me they had found all those planks of wood. And I came back here today to sit on the beach, and finish it, to write these last words of my story, the icon on the sand beside me. This seemed the right place to do it. Full circle again. I like full circles.
I think it was no accident that Vincent van Gogh had called one of those fishing boats he painted Amitié— friendship. He had sought friendship all his life, and died from the lack of it. I have been luckier, much luckier. I followed the bend in the road that began in Watford all those long years ago, and it led me here. I have found friendship, a home too, and much more besides, here, in this wild and wonderful place of flying pink flamingos.
Also by Michael Morpurgo
ALONE ON A WIDE WIDE SEA
THE AMAZING STORY OF ADOLPHUS TIPS
BILLY THE KID
BORN TO RUN
THE BUTTERFLY LION
COOL!
DANCING BEAR
DEAR OLLY
AN EAGLE IN THE SNOW
AN ELEPHANT IN THE GARDEN
FARM BOY
THE FOX AND THE GHOST KING
KASPAR – PRINCE OF CATS
LITTLE MANFRED
A MEDAL FOR LEROY
MR SKIP
OUTLAW
PRIVATE PEACEFUL
RUNNING WILD
SHADOW
SPARROW
TORO! TORO!
Illustrated in full colour
PINOCCHIO
TOTO
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Morpurgo is the author of more than fifty books for children, including An Elephant in the Garden, Shadow, A Medal for Leroy, and Listen to the Moon. He is also the author of the New York Times bestseller War Horse, which debuted on Broadway and also became a film by Steven Spielberg. He has had several of his novels adapted for film and television. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Someone Called Vincent
Chapter 2: My Near-Death Experience
Chapter 3: The Long, Straight Road to Nowhere
Chapter 4: Renzo Renzo
Chapter 5: A Complete Flamingo
Chapter 6: How It Was, How We Were
Chapter 7: The Charbonneau Carousel
Chapter 8: Rousel Rousel!
Chapter 9: Fly, Flamingo, Fly
Chapter 10: We Live for That
Chapter 11: Occupation
Chapter 12: Be Proud and Carry On
Chapter 13: The Day the Music Died
Chapter 14: A New Dawn
Chapter 15: Not in Front of Lorenzo
Chapter 16: Grette Grette
Chapter 17: Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Chapter 18: Missing, Gone!
Chapter 19: Killing Dragons
Chapter 20: Agon Agon!
Chapter 21: Patience Is a Virtue
Chapter 22: An Accident, a Casualty
Chapter 23: Like a Miracle
Chapter 24: Flying Lessons
Chapter 26: They Will Be Back
Chapter 27: A Light in the Darkness
Chapter 28: A Knock at the Door
Chapter 29: Free at Last! Free Again!
Chapter 30: Old Years Pass, New Years Come
Chapter 31: Last Words
Also by Michael Morpurgo
About the Author
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by Michael Morpurgo
A Feiwel and Friends Book
An imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC
120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271
mackids.com
All rights reserved.
Feiwel and Friends logo designed by Filomena Tuosto
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018955769
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First hardcover edition 2019
eBook edition July 2019
eISBN 9781250107084