The Inseparables by Simone de Beauvoir

Author:Simone de Beauvoir [Beauvoir, Simone de]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473585430
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2021-09-02T00:00:00+00:00

***

Throughout the month of August, I received only two very short letters from Andrée. She wrote while in bed, at dawn, saying: ‘I don’t have a minute to myself all day.’ She shared a room with her grandmother, who was a light sleeper; any reading or writing she wanted to do had to wait till the light began to filter in through the shutters. The house at Béthary was full of people. There was the fiancé and his two sisters, a pair of languid spinsters who never let Andrée out of their sight, plus a complete set of Rivière de Bonneuil cousins. Even as they celebrated Malou’s engagement, Madame Gallard was matchmaking for Andrée; it was a brilliant season, with one party after another. ‘This is how I imagine purgatory to be,’ Andrée wrote to me. In September she was meant to accompany Malou to her fiancé’s parents; the very thought of it was oppressive. Luckily, she received long letters from Pascal. I couldn’t wait to see her again. This year in Sadernac I was very bored; the solitude weighed on me.

Andrée was waiting for me on the platform, in a pink cotton voile dress and a straw cloche. But she wasn’t alone: the twins, one in pink gingham, the other in blue, ran up and down the length of the train, calling out ‘There’s Sylvie! Hello Sylvie!’ With their straight hair and dark eyes, they reminded me of the little girl with the burned thigh who had captured my heart ten years earlier, only their cheeks were rounder, and they had a less insolent look in their eyes. Andrée smiled at me, briefly, but with such vivacity that she seemed to me radiant with good health.

‘Did you have a good trip?’ she asked, holding out her hand.

‘When I travel alone, always.’

The little ones looked at us sceptically. ‘Why don’t you kiss her hello?’ the blue twin asked Andrée.

‘There are some people you care for quite a lot but don’t kiss hello,’ said Andrée.

‘There are people you kiss hello and don’t care for,’ said the pink twin.

‘Exactly,’ said Andrée. ‘Carry Sylvie’s case to the car,’ she added.

The twins grabbed it from me and went skipping off towards the black Citroën parked by the station.

‘How are things?’ I asked Andrée.

‘Neither good nor bad. I’ll tell you,’ she said. She slipped behind the wheel and I sat next to her; the twins climbed into the back seat, which was filled with parcels. It was clear I had descended on a rigorously organised lifestyle. ‘Before you pick up Sylvie, do some errands and come back for the little ones,’ Madame Gallard had said. When we got home we would have to unwrap all the parcels. André pulled on her gloves, fiddled with the gears, and as I looked at her more closely, I realised she had grown thin.

‘You’ve lost weight,’ I said.

‘Maybe a little.’

‘Maman yells at her but she doesn’t eat anything,’ said a twin.

‘She doesn’t eat anything,’ said the other.

‘Don’t be stupid,’ said Andrée.

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