The Girl Who Didn't Know What To Believe

Meritxell was born at noon. Her head appeared
at the first deep boom of the big wooden-cased
clock in the hall. And at the moment
it struck 12, she took her first breath
which, as the sound of the clock still echoed around the
house, she let out in a despairing wail.
And in that moment she chose her own name, because
Meritxell is the word for ‘midday’ in the mountains of Andorra.
That was where her Mother had spent her summer
holidays, clambering over rocks, and rolling down grass
meadows so fast that she became quite dizzy, and gulping
down glasses of milk still warm from the cow’s udder. (And
if you have never been to Andorra, and think it is an odd
looking name, you can pretend the ‘tx’ is a ‘ch’, as if it were
‘Merichell’, and you’ll be doing just fine. Just don’t ask why
they didn’t use ‘ch’ in the first place, or we’ll never get on
with the story!).
Punctuality is not a bad quality, her Mother observed,
and midday is a very considerate time at which to be born,
as it gave the midwife time to have her breakfast beforehand,
tidy everything up afterwards, and be home in time
for tea. And as Meritxell grew up, consideration for others
was something that was very important to her. Indeed some
might say that she was a little too considerate. Meritxell was
so keen to please people she sometimes forgot what it was
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