toilets, two bathrooms – it’s a bit like two separate flats. Having said that, Rodolphe spends most of his time in my half. What about you, where do you live?’
‘On the coast, in Nice.’
‘Are you married?’
‘Yes, I got married two years ago.’
He blushed, as if caught doing something wrong, as if he were cheating.
‘So you’ve come back for the funeral.’
‘That’s right. But it’s been put back because of the holidays … because of the weather … Long and short of it, I’m stuck here until the 27th. The reason I came round was to borrow a phone book. I need to call Emmaus to clear the flat.’
‘I’ll dig one out.’
There, everything was back to normal, life had resumed its ordinary course. They drank coffee and chatted, sharing minor gripes and moans. The marionettes were once again jiggling on their strings. Olivier put his cup down on the tray a little too hard and clasped his face in his hands.
‘Jeanne! Jeanne, do you know what this means?’
He had said the same thing twenty-five years earlier and, just like then, she could only reply, ‘That’s the way it is. There’s nothing we can do.’
‘What have you been doing all these years?’
‘The same as always, I think. The days, months and years followed on smoothly from one another. After you left, I was sent to boarding school and then I took an English degree. I’m a teacher. That’s all there is to say.’
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