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Back The Martins Save as PDF
Contents (99)
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  93. EPILOGUE
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Jérémie Martin. Nothing new. I hope he at least got a good mark after my help.

Lola Martin. I don’t know if our relationship can get any worse. She called me an idiot. Which I think is unfair. I simply tried to do what she asked me to do. Clément was annoyed by our meeting. Understandable: he doesn’t see why his desire to have sex with Lola should be subject to my approval. Consequence: he dumped her. Maybe this is a tragedy or maybe it’s a stroke of luck – who knows?

74

The next day was very strange. It was as if my characters were all having a day off from me. I waited to hear from them, but never did. In the end, I sent a message to Valérie, who sent me a terse: I’LL TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT LATER. I have to admit one thing: there’s a time for action, and a time for narration. I had to let the Martins live before transforming them into chapters.

At a loss (since the rest of my life was on pause), I went to visit Madeleine. She was fully focused on organising our expedition.18 She didn’t want to forget anything. She looked up at me then and said: ‘This is probably the last suitcase I’ll ever pack.’ I can’t think of many sentences that could move me like that one did. So there comes an age when every action, however banal, is accompanied by that thought: this could be the last time.

I told her to pack as much as she liked: I would be there to carry her luggage. To be honest, she didn’t seem to be making much progress. She kept taking clothes from her wardrobe, then putting them back five minutes later. Madeleine was clearly anxious about what would happen in Los Angeles. The imminent reality had overturned her initial excitement. Now all she felt was apprehension. She was being buried under an avalanche of questions. Foremost among them: what does one wear to meet the love of one’s life for the first time in sixty years? Surely he would be shocked by how old and wrinkled she was. It didn’t even cross her mind that he was suffering the same anxieties.

Yet again, in this endless echoing of love stories, I could understand her fears. How would I dress for my reunion with Marie? Simple and casual, to look relaxed. But maybe that would be understating the importance of the occasion. So … a little smarter? Shirt and jacket? But that risked looking a bit pretentious. It’s never a good sign once you start dithering. I should just follow my instincts. Besides, was this meeting ever actually going to happen? She still hadn’t texted me, after all. Perhaps our nocturnal conversation had been merely a mirage.

  1. 18. For some people, packing a suitcase takes longer than the trip itself.

75

That evening, I had nothing new to write about my characters. Valérie hadn’t called me as she’d promised. Something must have happened after the episode of the burned curtains … but what? I felt like I’d come to the end of Season 1 of a new series, and I was going to have to wait weeks to find out what happened next. This is the great paradox of our era: since we have become used to getting everything we want immediately (there is no longer any delay between the desire and the fulfilment of that desire), the great modern enterprise consists in creating frustration. In fact, that is precisely what excites the consumer most: experiencing withdrawal symptoms. I was in exactly the same state. Desperate for my next fix of the Martins.