In the middle of the morning dew

Dear French friends,

No sooner have I written those first words than an intense emotion comes over me. In front of me, on the working table, an elegant ink pen is lying on a wooden support among other pens and pencils. I used this ink pen just once, the day when I wrote the last page of Candy Candy.

I had bought it on purpose, in Paris.

For four years, month after month, Candy Candy manga (illustrations by Yumiko Igarashi) had been published, when finally came the time for the last delivery. The importance of this moment choked me.

This scenario, which had also become an anime, and all those beloved characters… Since I had to say farewell to them, I wanted to do it in a place that was worthy of this moment.

Why did I choose a Loire valley castle, in France? Well… Probably because I had seen the picture of a castle that I loved. Thus I decided to go to this castle to write this last chapter of Candy Candy.

How brave I was, wasn’t I, given that I did not even speak the language! But I had no hesitation at all.

I arrived then in Paris, where I began by buying this ink pen in magenta color and engraved with gold, elegant like a lady. And some ink of course. I had brought from Japan my writing paper (at that time, laptops did not exist!)

Then, my equipment under my arm, I left for Lyunes, close to Tours, in a hotel set in an old stately house, the Domaine de Beauvois.

Autumn was ending.

The manor was plunged into the deep green of the surrounding forest, nestled on the top of a hill that overlooked a lake. I was exactly in the world that I had imagined for Candy Candy, like in a painting.

With my heart racing, I came into my room… the emotion was so great that I had to keep from crying.. The people of the hotel probably wondered what was happening to me! Imagine : on the wall was hanging a painting that represented a fox-hunting scene! (Ah… Anthony!)

And then, a half-moon shaped window. And a little balcony. And then, an antique desk, so pleasant for writing, that seemed to wait just for me! And before anything else, I began to display my ream of writing paper, ready to write.

I spent several days at the hotel, going out hardly ever, and writing all day long.  I even took a few walks. The lake at the base of the manor, the hill… I remember still the noise of my steps in the yellow leaves in the forest covered with morning dew.

During my walks, I never met anybody. But Candy and her friends were always with me and we talked (in my heart, don’t worry!). I thanked them, I apologized for all that I had done to them, we talked about their future, about fate…

Snatches of these conversations are in Candy, the novel that you are going to read. And all that I had not been able to include in the scenario of the manga, at the time. At that time, by the way, Candy had to be a manga only, I would have never imagined to make a novel of it! And, above all… Above all! I would have never dreamt this novel could be translated in French!

So, as you might imagine, I never thought to have one day the opportunity to tell you this memory of the last chapter of Candy, written in an old mansion in France.

So much time has elapsed since the manga, then the anime.

So much time and yet, you haven’t forgotten her. How can I thank you for this, all of you, and all those who made this book exist.

In my heart, the forest dew in which I walked that morning when I put the finishing touches to the last chapter of Candy, this dew is still there.

With love and gratitude,

Thank you, really.

Keiko Nagita