While we were waiting for the results, in a little side room, Lucky Luke said that Marie had reminded him of the cyclist Bernard Hinault on a mountain descent in his last Tour de France: so fast, and always on the edge of falling. I hadn’t seen the race, obviously, but I got what he meant. Marie was with us, completely exhausted. Lucky Luke’s pills must have stopped working.
“You were amazing,” she said to me.
She couldn’t be doing all that badly if she still had the strength to poke fun at me.
“No, really, it was extraordinary, I’m not joking. I was wondering how on earth you did it…”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, you turned all fifteen pages at exactly the right moment. You were extraordinary!”
After we’d heard the results and the jury’s emotional promise of a great future career for Marie, I got into the Panhard. And then I thought she was probably right: you never quite know how extraordinary you really are. The Panhard started up.
“Now,” said Dad, “you need to have a shave.”
About the Author
PASCAL RUTER grew up in the southern suburbs of Paris. There is nothing he loves more than stories, especially ones where life’s misfortunes and difficulties are subverted by the absurdity and humour of everyday situations. A Friend in the Dark (Le Coeur en Braille) is Pascal’s first novel for Walker Books.
A Friend in the Dark (Le Coeur en Braille) was translated into English by EMMA MANDLEY. Emma worked for a long time in broadcasting before becoming a translator from both French and Italian. Like Pascal, she loves stories.
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the authors’ imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously. All statements, activities, stunts, descriptions, information and material of any other kind contained herein are included for entertainment purposes only and should not be relied on for accuracy or replicated as they may result in injury.
First published in Great Britain 2017 by Walker Books Ltd
87 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HJ
Text © Didier Jeunesse, Paris, 2012
English translation © 2017 Emma Mandley
Cover design © 2017 Walker Books Ltd
The translator would like to thank The Panhard et Levassor Club GB and The English Chess Federation for their invaluable help.
The right of Pascal Ruter and Emma Mandley to be identified as author and translator respectively of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-4063-7776-7 (ePub)