Mathilde spends much of her time at her family's vacation home in Capbreton where she is looked after by Sylvain and Benedicte. It is August of 1919 when Mathilde receives a letter from a man she does not know who is dying in a military hospital. The former sergeant, Daniel Esperanza, had seen Manech in January of 1917 and wished to speak to Mathilde. Mathilde goes to the hospital to see this man.
Daniel Esperanza is not dying of wounds he sustained in the war; rather, he is dying from complications of the Spanish Flu. Thus, his speech is peppered with heavy coughing as he tells Mathilde of the time he met Manech. On January. 6, 1917, a Saturday, Sergeant Esperanza was assigned to lead five condemned men to a trench. He chose ten.....
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