The Mystery of Henri Pick by David Foenkinos

Author:David Foenkinos
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Pushkin Press
Published: 2020-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

7

José, becoming anxious, sent another message: he was coming to the library. Magali replied, apologizing for getting caught up with the inventory and saying she was on her way home. She gathered all her belongings and stuffed them at random into her bag, casting quick glances at the man she’d just made love with.

“So I’m an inventory,” he sighed.

“I have to go home. I have no choice.”

“Don’t worry, I understand.”

“Will you be here tomorrow morning?” Magali asked, although she already knew the answer. He was going to leave; he was the kind of man who left. Yet he replied, with intense conviction in his voice, that he would be there; he sounded very sure. He kissed her one last time, without saying anything. But Magali had the feeling that she’d heard words. Had he spoken? Her senses were confused, leading to these little hallucinations where she had to hold tight to her lover to be certain of reality. At last, he whispered: “Tomorrow morning, come before the library opens, and wake me with your mouth…” Magali didn’t try to understand the precise meaning of this erotic request, she just let herself be flooded by the happiness inspired by this carnal rendezvous; in a few hours, they would be together again.

She got in the car and, although she knew she ought to hurry home, just sat there in suspense for a while. She turned on the lights, then started the engine. Each insignificant gesture took on quasi-mythological proportions, as if what had just happened was spreading throughout her life. Even the way back home, which she’d driven every day for decades, seemed different.

1He did consider calling it something simpler, such as “Writing Day” or “The Festival of Writing”. But, in the end, he preferred to emphasise unpublished authors: it was a way not of celebrating amateurism but of empowering writers who had not received public recognition.

2If Magali had known Pasolini, she might have thought of his film Teorema, where the central character makes souls tremble with the simple power of his ghostlike presence.

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