Franck wavered when he got to a junction without any signs. There were three options, but he used the sun like Lise had said and took the right-hand turn, and he recognised the Limogne road five kilometres later. The right turn took him directly south.

‘Hey, Franck, is this a joke? Isn’t there any signal here?’

‘It depends, Travis, not everywhere. In some places there’s no signal at all. None at all …’

Franck could see him in the rear-view mirror. He hadn’t taken his eyes off his phone for quarter of an hour and was looking increasingly worried.

When they arrived at the access road, Franck purposely turned sharply onto it and drove aggressively up the slope to shake them up a bit.

‘Bloody hell, where are you taking us? To some kind of hole?’

‘Well, no, you can see we’re going up … It’s the opposite of a hole.’

Once they got to the top, Liem and Travis glanced at the view, and were impressed by the spectacular panorama despite themselves. They soon noticed the tall dog running behind the car. Franck was driving slowly along the track over the crest and the dog was trying to see what was inside the car; who Franck had brought back.

‘So you’ve got a dog then?’

‘Yes.’

When they got out of the car, the dog came up to Franck and greeted him excitedly, visibly delighted to see him. But he quickly got Liem and Travis’s scent, sniffing their shoes and calves. Neither of them seemed particularly comfortable with the dog.

‘Can we stroke him?’

‘You’ll have to ask him.’

The large animal’s inscrutable expression did nothing to reassure them. However, Franck could tell they were genuinely happy to see Lise again as they kissed one another, and in the natural way they behaved around her. Watching them hug her warmly, he thought of two children reunited with their mother. He quickly did a calculation. He realised it was possible, however crazy it might seem, that he and Lise could be the parents of those morons. He despised them even more because of it, though it moved him too. He again admired Lise’s poise and her openness in welcoming them, her way of being there for other people. She helped them get their two large bags out of the boot – one each, as if they were planning to stay for a fortnight, the idiots. Lise invited them to sit down and make themselves comfortable. Then, at exactly the same time, they looked at their phones and noticed the same thing.

‘Hey, there really isn’t any reception!’

‘No, not here.’

‘Hang on, haven’t you got Wi-Fi either?’

‘Don’t worry, I’ll take you somewhere you can go online.’