Description

A twelve‑year‑old narrator recounts his childhood on the banks of the Marne during the early years of the Great War, a time when the war felt like an endless vacation for boys his age. In the quiet town of F…, he experiences the first stirrings of desire, penning a shy love note to a classmate named Carmen, hoping to bridge the gap between boyhood and something more tender.

The note triggers a cascade of reactions at school. The headmaster, half‑amused and half‑outraged, calls the boy into his office, scolds him for the audacity of his affection, yet oddly praises the flawless composition of the letter. His peers whisper, dubbing him “Don Juan,” a nickname that both inflates his ego and deepens his embarrassment, while the principal promises to keep the matter hidden from his father.

Caught between the thrill of being seen as bold and the fear of adult reprimand, the young narrator wrestles with his emerging identity. The episode exposes the fragile line between innocent curiosity and the moral expectations of a world already strained by conflict, setting the stage for his coming‑of‑age journey.

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