Читать книгу Isobel and Emile - Alan Reed - Страница 8

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Emile is in a city. He is walking down a street. There are streetcars on the street. There are people walking by him. They are wearing long coats and they have hats on their heads. They brush against him. They do not stop walking. They brush against him and they keep walking.

He is smaller here. He is walking down a street.

In his hand he is carrying a suitcase and he is wearing a knapsack on his back. There are shops along the street. There are restaurants and bars and shops that sell clothes. It is late. The shops that sell clothes are all closed. The people who are walking by him are coming out of the restaurants and bars and going into other restaurants and bars.

He stops. He is standing in front of a bar. The people walking by him do not stop. Someone bumps into him. Emile goes into the bar.

There are people in the bar. They are drinking. There are not many people in the bar. It is not a night for people to go out to bars. But there are some people in the bar. There are people sitting at the tables and there is someone sitting at the bar. There is music playing.

Emile stands in the door. He looks at the people in the bar. They are drinking. He looks at each of them and then he looks away.

He goes to the bar.He sits on a stool. There are stools in front of the bar. He puts his suitcase down beside him. He takes his knapsack off. He puts it on the stool next to him.

A bartender comes over to where Emile is sitting. The bartender stands in front of Emile. He puts his hands on the bar. He looks at Emile.

Emile says: ‘Gin and tonic, please.’

The bartender nods his head.He walks away. He comes back with a glass. He puts the glass on the bar in front of Emile.

Emile takes some money out of his pocket. He puts it on the bar. The bartender takes the money. He walks away from Emile.

Emile sips at his drink. He looks around the bar again. He says: ‘Excuse me.’ He says it again. He says: ‘Excuse me.’ The bartender comes back.The bartender says: ‘Everything all right?’

Emile says: ‘Yes.’ The bartender is about to walk away again. Emile says: ‘Is Nicolas here?’

The bartender says: ‘No, he hasn’t started yet.’ He looks at his watch. He says: ‘He ’ll be here soon.’

Emile says: ‘Thank you.’

He picks up his glass. He sips at it. He puts it down on the bar.

He waits.

There is a straw in Emile’s gin and tonic. It is pressed up against the side of the glass. The ice in the drink is holding it there.

He touches the straw with his finger. It moves slightly.

He touches his finger against the straw again. It moves again. It does not move as much. It does not move as much because the ice does not move. He presses harder. The straw does not move. He wants the straw to move. It is frustrating.

Emile presses against the straw so that it moves around the ice. The ice moves. The straw moves forward. It does not move forward very far.

He was away from the city. Now he is back in the city. He walked down the street to get here. He did not remember what it was like to walk down the street here.

He needs to make sense of it. He is going to make the straw move to the other side of the glass. It will help him to make sense of it.

He is bent over his glass. He is concentrating. The door to the bar opens. Nicolas comes into the bar. Emile does not hear the door open. He is bent over his glass.

Nicolas moves easily. He looks older than Emile. He looks more confident.

Nicolas says: ‘Emile?’

Emile’s head jerks up.He is very young. He turns around on his stool. He looks around the bar. He sees Nicolas. Nicolas is wearing a fancy scarf. He wears it like he is very pleased that it is a fancy scarf.

Emile says: ‘Nicolas.’

He stands up slowly. He is smaller than Nicolas. He does not stand as straight. Nicolas walks over to where Emile is. He opens his arms. He hugs Emile.

Nicolas says: ‘It’s good to see you.’

Emile says: ‘It is good to see you too.’

Nicolas works at the bar.

He is not wearing his scarf anymore. He has an apron tied around his waist. He is standing behind the bar. Emile is sitting on a stool across from him. Emile is drinking another gin and tonic.

Emile says: ‘I was on the train all day.’

It is dark outside. The street lights have come on. It is late now. In the morning Emile got on a train.

He stood on the platform of a train station. The train pulled into the station. It stopped. The station attendant walked down the platform. He opened the doors to the train.

There were people who got off the train. After they got off the train Emile got on the train.

He had his suitcase and his knapsack with him. He went up the steps and into the train. There were seats there. There were people sitting in some of the seats and some of the seats were empty.

Emile took off his knapsack. There was a rack over the seats. It was where people were supposed to put their luggage. He put his knapsack on the rack above the seats. It was with other people ’s luggage. Some of the other people had knapsacks for luggage and some of them had suitcases.

Emile did not put his suitcase on the rack above the seats. He sat down in the seat under his knapsack.

He tried to put his suitcase under the seat in front of him. It did not fit. He put his suitcase under his seat instead. He did not like having his suitcase under his seat. He took his suitcase out from under his seat.He put it on his lap.He held it with his hands.

The cushion on his seat was red. All the seats had red cushions on them and the walls of the train were painted brown. He was sitting next to a window.

He looked out the window. The train was still beside the platform. It had not yet moved. He sat in his seat next to the window and he looked out at the platform.

There had been a girl standing on the platform.

The train started to move. It was moving along the platform and then the platform was gone. Where the platform had been there were things moving past the window. First there were the fields by the station and then there were other fields. The train stopped at a town and then it went past more fields.

There were sheep in the fields. They did not look up at the train. They ate grass instead.

Emile did not look at the sheep.

The train went past another town. There was a station at this town. The train did not stop. The train went through the station and then there were not as many fields. There were buildings where there used to be fields.

The buildings were small and old. Some of them were abandoned. Then the buildings were larger and not as old.

Emile did not look at the buildings. He looked out the window but he did not look at the buildings.

The buildings got larger. They came closer to the tracks. The train kept moving. The buildings were up against the tracks. The train kept moving. There were buildings up against the tracks and then there was a building in front of the tracks. The tracks went into it.

The building in front of the tracks was a station. The train had gone through other stations. It had stopped at some of those stations. Those stations had been platforms built beside the tracks. People waited on the platforms for the train to come.

Those stations were not like this station. This station was larger. The train went inside it. There was a ceiling high up overhead. The ceiling was made of panes of glass. There were pigeons living under it. It was filthy.

Emile looked out the window. He was not looking at anything on the other side of the window. He did not want to look at anything.

He was in the city again.

The train was not the only train in the station. There were other trains here. They were moving. Some of the trains were moving into the station and other trains were moving out of the station.

The train Emile was on went into the station. It stopped. It waited. Emile looked away from the window. He held on to his suitcase. The train waited and then it moved towards a platform.

The train stopped. Emile stood up. He took his knapsack from the rack over his seat. He had his suitcase in his hand.

He tried to get off the train. He could not get off the train. There were people in the way. They were the people who had gotten on the train while Emile was looking out the window. He had not seen them getting on the train. He had been looking out the window.

There were too many people on the train.

Everyone was trying to get off the train. They all moved slowly towards the doors. There were too many people to move quickly. Emile was in the middle of them. They all moved slowly.

They got off the train and they were standing on the platform inside the station. The light coming through the glass ceiling was muted and dirty. They walked off the platform and into the station.

Emile went with them. He had no choice. There were too many of them.

There were more people in the station.

There were people from other trains walking into the station. There were people in the station walking out towards the platforms. They ran up against each other. Emile thought they would slow down. They did not slow down. They sped up.

Emile had forgotten how people walked in the city. It was hard to keep up. The people around him were walking faster. He had to keep up. He walked out of the station and into the street with all the other people walking out of the station and into the street.

Emile was in the street. He had to catch a streetcar.

Emile walked into the street. He went to the place where the streetcars stopped. He waited. He stood with his knapsack on and his suitcase in his hand.

It did not take long for a streetcar to come.

Emile got onto the streetcar. He stopped in front of the fare machine. The fare machine was at the front of the streetcar. It was beside the driver. He put some coins into the fare machine. The driver of the streetcar gave him a ticket.

He went to sit down. There was nowhere to sit down. He put his suitcase between his feet. He held on to the handrail over his head. He tried to look out the windows.

He was looking for the street with the bar on it.

Nicolas puts a stool upside down on top of the bar. Then he puts another stool upside down on top of the bar. He puts stools upside down on top of the bar until all the stools are upside down on top of the bar.

The chairs by the tables are already upside down on top of the tables.

Someone else is mopping the floor. It is the bartender who made Emile ’s first gin and tonic. They are the only people in the bar.

The bar is closed.

Emile is standing outside the bar. He has his knapsack on his back. His suitcase is on the ground beside him. He is rolling a cigarette.

Nicolas is doing the things that need to be done to close the bar. When he has done the things he needs to do he says good night to the other bartender. He comes out onto the street. He is wearing his fancy scarf again. He locks the door behind him.

Emile hears the door open. He looks up from his cigarette.

Emile says: ‘Are you done?’

Nicolas nods his head. He puts the key to the bar in his pocket.

It is starting to get cold at night. Emile wishes he had a scarf with him. He has his collar turned up.

Emile lights his cigarette. He passes it to Nicolas. Nicolas starts to walk away from the bar. Emile picks his suitcase up. He walks away from the bar with Nicolas.

They walk to the next block. It is where the streetcar stops. It is where Emile got off the streetcar on his way here. They go to the plat form in the middle of the street. They wait for a streetcar to come.

They pass the cigarette back and forth between them.

A streetcar comes. It stops in front of them. They get on it and they put their fares into the fare machine. The driver gives them tickets. They sit down on the streetcar and the streetcar moves again. They sit on the streetcar for a while. Then they get off.

They are standing on a platform in the middle of another street. There are shops on this street. They go to a door between two of the shops.

Nicolas puts his hand into his pocket. He takes some keys out. He opens the door.

He says: ‘Welcome home, Emile.’

There are stairs on the other side of the door. They walk up the stairs. Nicolas is walking in front and Emile is walking behind him.

They go up one flight of stairs and then they go up another flight of stairs. They are at the top of the stairs. They are standing in front of another door.

Nicolas still has the keys in his hand. He opens the door. They go inside.

They are in an apartment. It is dark.

Nicolas turns on the lights. Emile puts his suitcase down by the door. He puts it down carefully. He takes his knapsack off. He puts it down beside his suitcase.

There is a table in the middle of the apartment. It has four chairs around it. Emile sits down on one of the chairs.

Nicolas takes his jacket off. Emile rubs at his eyes. He is tired. He rubs at his eyes because he does not want to be tired.

Emile starts to make a cigarette.

Nicolas looks at Emile making a cigarette. He says: ‘I’m sorry.’ He says: ‘I need to get to bed.’

Emile says: ‘Oh.’

He stops making the cigarette. He says: ‘Do not worry about me.’ He says: ‘I remember my way around.’

Nicolas says: ‘Okay. Good night, Emile. I’ll see you in the morning.’

Nicolas goes into his bedroom. He closes the door behind him. Emile is still sitting at the table.

He remembers the girl on the platform. She did not wave goodbye.

She was standing on the platform. The train was going to leave. She was wearing a dress with frills around the collar.

She raised a hand to push her hair away from her face.

She did not wave goodbye.

Emile says: ‘Good night, Nicolas.’