The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain

Author:Antoine Laurain [Antoine Laurain]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781908313577
Publisher: Gallic Books
Published: 2013-09-10T04:00:00+00:00

So Édouard disappeared from my life with the help of your hat. And I really mean disappeared, because I’ve heard nothing at all from him since. In the days following our split, I kept checking my answerphone, hoping he might change his mind or at least come back for a better explanation. Nothing. To this day, I haven’t heard another word from Édouard and I don’t suppose I ever will.

Thanks to your hat, I also wrote the story that won me the very prestigious Prix Balbec. You may not have heard of it, but it’s awarded every two years on the spring equinox in the Cabourg hotel immortalised by Marcel Proust. The jury was made up of local dignitaries, authors and journalists. Amid the crowd of people gathered round the champagne and trays of canapés, one man instantly stood out.

He had grey hair, white around the temples, was smartly dressed in a pearl-grey suit and, above all, was holding a felt hat in the same colour. My recent experience of hats immediately drew my attention to the only one present that evening.

I had been lying when I told Édouard I was seeing an older man who wore a hat and had given me one like it. It may seem strange to you, but this is not the first time one of my stories has come true. Indeed, I wrote ‘Change of Address’ (awarded third place in the ‘Many Words, One Town’ competition, 1984) four months before I actually moved house; and I firmly believe that ‘An Afternoon at the Harbour’ (recited at Le Havre Theatre Festival 1985), about a young woman sitting in a café awaiting the return of her husband, a captain in the merchant navy, prefigured my own brief fling with a fisherman, since six months later I found myself in that woman’s place, sitting in a café waiting for him.

This time, the character of the older man with the hat had come to me out of nowhere and yet, since the prize ceremony, I must admit he has become an important part of my life, and that my life is changing.

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