One Sunday, early afternoon

We are at the beginning of November. It's still warm for the season, the characters are barely seen in the picture.

In the background, a little blurry, a milky sky and trees everywhere: on the left of the recently pruned cypress trees form a hedge, on the right you can see the beautiful magnolia that grandma loved so much. Below, a large sunshade with past colors lets us guess the presence of a swimming pool which has already seen many summers go by.

The American plan doesn't show their legs, but the three characters sit on the small wall of the terrace, squeezed against each other. The little girl on the left smiles as she closes her eyes. She's 10 years old and already very pretty. Big black eyes, long brown hair, dark skin. Half Armenian, she has this typical beauty that will only blossom in the years to come, giving her this mix of sensuality and abruptness that will wreak havoc on the boys in her entourage.

Next to her, in the middle, a little girl laughs at the splinters, sitting on the knees of a man who holds her in her arms. You can feel it in the angels, between her two idols. She loves these two so much, so mysterious for her. She is five years old and has brown curls that surround her small round face with very white skin. She seems to be the happiest person in the world. With her right arm, she surrounds the other child and with her right arm, she holds the hand of the man on her left. She's looking up at the sky.

The man is in a white shirt with short sleeves. He'll be 40 soon. His hair is black, he's tall, thin and has this dancer-like hold. Yet he is the theatre he loves. We often repeat it to his wife, she married a very handsome man.

His gaze, though so often absent in other photos, is here imbued with a great sweetness, he is turned towards the little girl with curls and tenderly looks at her. She looks a lot like him, it's obvious that this is her child.

Nobody's looking towards the camera.

The moment seems suspended and the joy of the two cousins is pleasing to see.

But time went by.

Twenty-seven years exactly

The father left this world, the girls have lost all ties for years.

Reminiscent of this autumn afternoon in the grandparents' villa, an infinite playground and theatre where the decomposition of the ties that united them took place behind the scenes. However, this photo exists and with it the truth: at that time they were still a family.