Читать книгу Suzanne - Anais Barbeau-Lavalette - Страница 11

Then, one day, you die.

Five years later. In the same small apartment where you annihilated me with seven winks.

We are nestled away in the country, this family my parents built, that is nothing like you. A close family.

Claire, the religious sister you would no longer see, calls to tell us you’re dead.

My mother leans against the wall. Her stomach is Hiroshima.

She is finally rid of your absence.

Maybe she’ll start being normal. A woman with a mother who is dead and buried.

But the soft voice at the other end of the line tells us that a few days before you died you wrote your will, and our names are in it. The names of my mother and her brother, then mine and my brother’s.

We are your sole heirs. So, finally, you are inviting us over. We have to go empty your little apartment.

We set out into winter to meet you. Through the storm. Archaeologists of a murky life. Who were you?