The Republic of Miracles

Chapter 7, where Philibert is accused of having smoked too much devil's weed

"Come, it's here, in the staircase..."

Philibert rushed into the house, followed by Aliénor, Clothaire, and about a dozen of his cousins. The latter hadn't protested against their forced enlistment, too happy to be freed from their chores at the camp and to participate in a trip to the village. But when they arrived at the staircase, Philibert noticed that the secret door he had seen with his own eyes had disappeared. He descended the few steps that separated him from the landing and ran his fingers over the stone surface.

"I saw a door here, I swear it."

"It looks like a solid wall to me," Clothaire retorted. "I have a feeling you've smoked a bit too much devil's weed. That plant makes you have strange dreams."

Some laughter erupted from the top of the stairs where the group had gathered. Philibert began to kick at the wall. "There was a door here, I saw it!" Aliénor joined him and tried to reason with him.

"Come on, calm down. What exactly did you see?"

"An opening, Aliénor. A strangely shaped door," said Philibert.

He began to inspect the stones one by one. Having already concluded it was a false alarm, his cousins began to wander around the house. Several were already outside enjoying the sun. A girl, having placed her rifle against the wall nearby, attempted to play a melody on the out-of-tune piano in the living room while others cheered her on, clapping their hands.

"Look, Grandmother," exclaimed Philibert. "Here! Do you see this crack? It shouldn't be there. And it continues here, and there..."

He pointed out a fine line that seemed to run along the stone wall in an irregular pattern. Aliénor approached and ran her fingers over the surface of the wall. She was forced to admit that there was something intriguing there. Could it be possible that her grandson had finally found what she herself had been searching for all these years, without result?

"Clothaire," she called over her shoulder, "I must know what's behind this wall. Go get a sledgehammer."

This is the translation of my novel published in French on Wattpad, under the title "La République des Miracles". For this translation, I used Google and Chat GPT (among others). I don't claim to be perfectly bilingual, so any suggestions are welcome to improve it. THANKS.

*** All the illustrations that accompany this novel were created using Artificial Intelligence on the NightCafe Studio website.