Inspired by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (1796-1875) – Study of a landscape – Oil on wood – 10,79 x 16,14 inch

It’s still dark outside but Paulette is no longer asleep. Besides, she didn’t sleep at all. She keeps an eye on the slightest breath of the noisy mass lying beside her. She leaves the room quietly. No way to wake up this thing so early in the morning. She turns on the kitchen’s boiler, it’s freezing to death. Her reflection in the mirror terrifies her.Married at an early age, she had no other choice. Her parents, mortgaged to the hilt, promised her to the sharecropper’s son madly in lover with the young girl of barely 16 years old and involved with alcohol. It didn’t start right away, it came gradually, over the years. It has been going on for 40 years. Her little sister Madeleine noticed his habit at once. She cannot hide anything from her, she guesses all her thoughts even the most intimate. And regularly, they have the same discussion over and over agin. But what is there to do ? Paulette has only got him, no job, no earnings, fortunately no child. Leaving him, she doesn’t have the strength to do so. The … Neither! After new scratches, blisters, cracks, burns, breaks, her soul falls apart more and more.

Paulette notices Madeleine from the kitchen window. She greets her at the door right away and puts the kettle on. A hot cup of fresh coffee will fix things. Madeleine overreacts when she sees the swollen face of her big sister. There’s more, her left forearm is completely cooked and her hip dislocated. He crossed the line. The unbearable is no longer so. She catches the poker and rushes into the bedroom before her sister has time to react. The first shot will be crucial. She is aware of it but her arm is shaking. She misses her target, which rushes towards her like a psycho. Paulette is right behind, holding the steaming kettle. She throws the boiling water at the degenerate’s face. Madeleine takes the opportunity to hit him with a strength she didn’t even suspect. The blood squirts on the walls, the head crushes under the pressure, …

It will be cold this winter, the trees are bare, the land is hard. They had better put straw on the ground, to cover up the hole recently refilled.