Sundays in August by Patrick Modiano

Author:Patrick Modiano
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2017-10-18T04:00:00+00:00

Sylvia had a kind of obsession with putting the diamond in her mouth and keeping it between her lips, as if sucking a hard candy. Neal was sitting across from her and the gesture had not escaped him.

“Careful, it’ll melt.”

But he wasn’t only joking around. The moment Sylvia relaxed her lips and the diamond fell back onto her black sweater, I noticed the attentive eye Neal fixed on the stone.

“That’s a nice stone you have there,” he said with a smile. “Don’t you think, Barbara?”

She had turned her head, and she too was examining the diamond.

“Is it real?” she asked in a childish voice.

Sylvia and I exchanged glances.

“Yes, unfortunately it is,” I said.

Neal seemed surprised at my answer.

“Are you sure? The size is impressive.”

“It’s a family jewel my wife’s mother gave her,” I said. “It’s more of a hassle for us than anything else.”

“You’ve had it appraised?” Neal asked in a tone of polite curiosity.

“Oh, yes. We have a whole dossier about it. It’s called the Southern Cross.”

“You can’t wear it around like that,” Neal said. “If it’s real . . .”

Apparently he didn’t believe me. Of course, who would have? People don’t casually wear diamonds of that size and clarity. They don’t hold them between their lips before letting them drop onto their black sweater. They don’t suck them.

“My wife keeps it on her because we don’t have anything else we can do.”

Neal furrowed his brow.

“What else should we do? Rent a safe-deposit box at a bank?” I said.

“When people see it on me, everyone thinks it’s from Burma,” Sylvia said.

“From Burma?”

Neal didn’t know this argot for a fake.

“We really want to sell it,” I said. “But the problem is, it’s hard to find a buyer for a stone like this.”

He looked thoughtful, not taking his eyes off the diamond.

“I think I can find you a buyer. But first it’d have to be appraised.”

I shrugged. “That would be great, if you could find a buyer. But I don’t think it’ll be easy.”

“I can find you a buyer. But you’ll need to show me your dossier,” Neal said.

“I get the feeling you still think it’s from Burma,” Sylvia said.

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