Читать книгу Hector and the Secrets of Love - Francois Lelord - Страница 14

JUST after lunch, Hector and Clara went for a walk on the beach under the still cloudy sky.

‘You looked sad just now,’ said Hector.

‘No, I wasn’t sad,’ said Clara. ‘Or maybe I was, seeing your elderly colleague. I found what he said moving.’

‘Yes, so did I.’

They had come to a small family of crabs. The struggle continued: fighting, mounting each other, fighting.

‘We should show him these crabs. That would confirm his opinion: love, what misery!’

‘Let’s keep going,’ Clara said, with a shudder.

They walked for a while in silence. Hector was worried; he sensed Clara wasn’t her usual self.

‘Is everything okay?’ he asked.

‘Yes, of course!’

Hector realised this wasn’t the time to interrogate Clara, but he tried asking a different question.

‘I had the feeling Gunther and Marie-Claire were looking at me in a funny way. As if they had something planned for me.’

Clara stopped and stared at him. She looked angry. ‘And you think I wouldn’t tell you if I knew?’

‘That’s not what I’m saying. I’m telling you what I felt.’

Clara pulled herself together. She thought it over then let out a sigh. ‘It’s possible. I was wondering the same thing.’

‘Anyway, if I’m right, we’ll soon find out. I’ll try to be a credit to you.’

Clara smiled, but Hector thought he glimpsed traces of the sadness she had displayed earlier.

‘Is everything okay?’

‘Yes, yes. Oh, look, a weird crab.’

It was true: one crab was bigger than the others and was moving very slowly, pausing from time to time, as though observing the others scuffling around him. But he didn’t try to fight, or mount any females. It looked as if he were watching, and then he moved off again with his slow, rather sad gait.

‘It’s your old colleague,’ said Clara.

They both laughed because it was true, the old crab did look like François. Hector thought that life with Clara was wonderful for many reasons and one of them was because he and Clara laughed at the same things.

As a result, they began looking for Ethel among the other crabs, and they found her: a lively little female who kept scuttling from one crab to another.

Then Hector noticed a formidable-looking male with two huge pincers that the other crabs didn’t even attempt to attack when he mounted a female.

‘That’s Gunther,’ said Hector.

Clara smiled, but she still looked sad, Hector was sure of it. Suddenly he wondered whether he, too, wasn’t about to become very unhappy because of love.