Parque National Tierra del Fuego
Scene 5
One of the passions that Marie had developed since she had befriended Odette was the study of orchids. Somehow she had found out that Tierra del Fuego was home to a rare orchid, Codonorchis lessonii, «Palomita», «Dog Orchid», and had requested Maille to take photographs of the precious little flower.
«I will surprise Odette with it. It's the southern-most orchid in the world. Odette loves orchids more than anything else.»
Shouldn't I unearth the orchid and send it home in the diplomatic post?» he asked Marie, imagining, with more than a trace of malice, how eagerly the hot-cheeked Odette and Marie would open the diplomatic parcel, only to find a revoltingly smelly orchid slime inside it.
«Thanks, but a photo will suffice. Odette is a nature conservationist.»
«Naturally! How could I forget that.»
Marie's pragmatism was sometimes like one of those doors in animated cartoon films that slap naughty cats, aggressive dogs and stupid ducks bang on their nose – the impact of which instantly flattens the creatures from three-dimensional into two-dimensional beings. Maille also felt as though Marie had thrust him out of his geometry and turned the agent on a secret mission into an environmental conservation agency.