Page 59 of Where Do We Go From Here?
S: French lessons! Get you! Well, I’m glad we had this chat. Call me soon, OK? Don’t leave it so long next time.
W: Yes, I will. Got to go.
S: I miss you.
W:Moi aussi ! Au revoir !
Her French teacher isnotcoming up the path – not at 11 a.m. That, obviously, was a lie.Whydid she lie? Well, because all the lies she was having to tell to stay in the conversation were making her uncomfortable.
Her relationship with Sue has become so difficult to navigate that every time she does speak to her she remembers why she so rarely does so. Without honesty, it’s become completely hollowed out. But if she were to tell Sue the truth about how she feels she knows she’d never speak to her again. Sometimes she wonders if this wouldn’t actually be better.
Manon arrives at 5 p.m. on the dot, carrying the first of Wendy’s boxes of groceries.
‘You get them please,’ she tells Wendy, her tone unusually abrupt. ‘They are too heavy.’
So Wendy, after discreetly pulling a face, makes trips to the car for the remaining two boxes while Manon leans against the kitchen counter sipping water.
‘Are you OK?’ Wendy asks, once the groceries are stacked against the wall.
‘Oui,’Manon says unconvincingly.‘Ça va…’
‘You look tired,’ Wendy says. ‘Bad day?’
‘Not tired, worry,’ Manon says. ‘Too many worry.’
‘Too many worries,’ Wendy corrects. ‘With an “S”. Your brother?’
Manon nods.
‘Do you want to t?—?’
‘My father goes to pick him up this morning,’ Manon interrupts. ‘To take him to… I forget this word.’
‘The clinic? Rehab?’
Manon nods. ‘Rehab is easy. Like Amy Winehouse. I can remember it that way. And he is completely… Again… I don’t know this word. He had taken a lot of drugs.’
‘High?’ Wendy offers with a wince.
‘Yes, but more. In French we say he wascomplètement perché…’
‘High as a kite, maybe?’
‘Maybe,’ Manon says with a sigh. ‘Though this sounds funny. High as a kite, but not funny.’
‘Off his face, then,’ Wendy suggests.
‘OK, then. He was off his face. On the one day Papa will take him to the clinic.C’est un manque de respect total.’
‘It’s totally disrespectful.’
‘So he phone me from the car and Bruno is singing and laughing in stupid way. And my father he sounds so… I don’t know. Without hope. I hate Bruno. This morning, I really hate him.’
Wendy places the coffee cup in front of Manon and settles in an armchair with her glass of wine.
‘That’s hard,’ she says. ‘It’s really hard.’
Manon is glancing at her phone. ‘Maybe I don’t stay today,’ she says. ‘I don’t think I can think about words.’
