Читать книгу Hector and the Secrets of Love - Francois Lelord - Страница 18

HECTOR wanted to meet one of the friends of the masseuse who had run away with Professor Cormorant. The hotel manager agreed and told him that the masseuse was very good friends with a young waitress she had helped to get a job here, because they came from the same village. And so Hector found himself in an office with a shy young girl in a sarong, who gave him a charming oriental greeting, bringing her hands together and bowing her head, and another young woman from reception who was there to interpret. Everyone in that country was young.

The young waitress, who answered to the sweet name of Vaylaravanluanayaluaangrea, was a little intimidated at first. But eventually, lowering her eyes and giving another little bow, she said her friend had told her that she had experienced love as never before with the professor. But what sort of love? asked Hector. (Because there are many sorts of love, which we will explain to you as we go along.) Young Vayla blushed a little and eventually said that her colleague, who was called Not for short, had told her the professor was a tireless lover, which was not new to her, but more importantly he always sensed exactly what she wanted him to do at any given moment. This experience had so amazed the young masseuse that she had decided to follow the professor wherever he went. Hector learnt from her friend Vayla that Not was twenty-three and he remembered the professor was a little over sixty.

Had the professor discovered one of the secrets of love?

He thanked the young woman for all this useful information and went for a dip in the swimming pool. He thought if he tired himself out enough he’d be able to fall asleep without thinking about Clara.

A little later in his room, Hector wrote:

Seedling no. 6: True love is always sensing what the other wants.

At the same time, Hector remembered that this seedling could be quite dangerous. He had seen a lot of people who said to themselves: ‘If she really loved me, she would understand without me having to tell her,’ and it was quite untrue – sometimes the other person does love you but doesn’t understand you very well, and it is best to tell them what you really want.

Seedling no. 7: Love can be wonderful when the other senses what we want, but we must also be able to help them by expressing our desires.

Hector then remembered some women whose desires he had neglected a bit and who had still been very much in love with him. And then he thought of Clara, whom he had been very nice to recently, and who was now wondering whether she was still in love with him. A little angry, he wrote: You should never pay too much attention to a woman’s desires.

But writing such a thing made him feel sad and he crossed it out. That phrase threatened to upset the harmony in his little seed bed.

But what could he conclude? If you didn’t pay enough attention to their desires, they left you and if you paid too much they left you, too. And doubtless the same went for men.

He said to himself that he would like to have a little chat with the professor, and he went back down to the pool.