Читать книгу Hector and the Secrets of Love - Francois Lelord - Страница 11

‘WELL,’ said Gunther, ‘we are all here this morning because we need to pick your brains. Our company is working on the drugs of the future. But we are well aware that we will only maintain our dominant position in the market if our drugs are really useful to patients, and who is better placed to know about patients than you?’

He talked a bit more about what wonderful people Hector, François – the old psychiatrist, and Ethel – the expert in love, were. Everybody had gathered, like at dinner the previous evening, in a big room made entirely of wood overlooking the beach.

Hector looked out of the huge glassless windows. The sea was grey that morning under a cloudy sky, giving the palm trees a melancholy air. He had realised the day before that if you went from the beach across the sea in a straight line, in a few days you would reach China. And, as previously mentioned, Hector had once met a pretty Chinese girl, and sometimes he still thought about her. But of course it was Clara he loved.

Actually, it was Clara who was talking now and projecting pretty pictures with a little computer.

‘This shows the increase in the consumption of antidepressants in Western countries …’

People really did take a lot of them, more and more, and women twice as many as men.

‘But, even so, half of all depressive illnesses still go undiagnosed and untreated,’ Clara went on.

It was true; Hector sometimes saw people who had suffered from depression for years without ever receiving treatment. On the other hand, a lot of people took antidepressants without really needing them. But of course the pharmaceutical company was less concerned about that.

As he watched Clara, who was such a good speaker, so confident and so elegant in her white linen suit, Hector felt quite proud that a girl like her had chosen him out of all the men who chased after her. When he remembered all the effort he had put into it at the time, and the crabs fighting on the beach, he resolved to write in his notebook:

Seedling no. 3: You cannot win someone’s love without a fight.

Clara talked about the new antidepressant the company would soon launch onto the market, which would be more effective and better tolerated than all the others. With this one even the most depressed people would be singing and dancing in the street.

Gunther thanked Clara for her ‘brilliant contribution’ and Hector noticed this upset Marie-Claire, the tall redhead, a little bit. But, well, that’s the way it always is in companies.

‘We have talked about antidepressants,’ said Gunther, ‘to give you an idea of how we see the future. But, in reality, depression will soon be a thing of the past, from our point of view, in any case. It will soon be just a question of monitoring people.’

The phrase ‘monitoring people’ sent a slight shiver down Hector’s spine, although Gunther wasn’t wrong.

‘… but depression is an illness,’ Gunther went on, ‘and people today don’t just want their illnesses cured, they want to be healthy, meaning they want to enjoy “physical and mental well-being”. Those aren’t my words – they come from the World Health Organization. In short, people want to be ha-ppy!’

And Gunther let out a big booming laugh that showed off his splendid teeth. All the young people smiled.

From time to time, the tall maître d’hôtel from the evening before and a young waitress in a sarong came in to serve them coffee, and Hector said to himself that they probably weren’t worried about being ‘ha-ppy’, but about feeding their families. He knew that the price of a room for one night in that hotel was equivalent to two months’ average wages in the country to which the island belonged and, at the same time, this provided jobs for a lot of people who could then support their whole family.

He also noticed that every time the young girl came in, the old psychiatrist, François, followed her tenderly with his gaze. And when she left François looked a little sad. Hector thought that one day he would be like François, and that made him feel a little sad, too.

‘They’re right to want to be happy,’ said Ethel. ‘That’s what life is all about!’

Ethel herself always looked happy – anyone would think she secreted the company’s new antidepressant in her own brain. During the night, Hector had gone out onto the balcony for a breath of fresh air and had seen a tall figure coming out of Ethel’s bungalow.

‘Well,’ said Gunther, ‘I think we all agree with that evaluation of happiness. So, what is it in your opinion, besides illness, accidents and financial problems, that most stops people from being happy?’

There was a long silence. You could tell that everybody had ideas, but nobody dared to be the first to speak. Hector hesitated, because he wondered whether it was a good idea to bring up his idea without first having spoken to Clara about it, since this meeting was important to her and he had to consider her, too. But he had his own opinion about what stopped people from being happy.

‘Love.’

Everybody looked at the old psychiatrist, François. It was he who had spoken. As previously mentioned, Hector liked him a lot.