Manon on the Asphalt

Elizabeth Marre
2007-01-01

5.8
15 min

On a day in early summer, two young men play squash, a lifeguard watches an indoor pool, a young woman shelves books at a store, another stages a puppet show for children in a park, an older woman cooks, and Manon gets on her bicycle to ride to a rendezvous with her boyfriend. She turns a corner. Something happens. As she lies on the asphalt, a crowd gathers around her and an ambulance arrives; we hear her voice, first confused as to what has happened, then telling us how her friends and her mother will receive word, and how her friends will gather to talk. As images move back and forth in time, she remembers recent events and expresses some small regrets.