1. The key
The man entered with his own key as Camille threw away her mother’s medicine.
He stopped in front of the empty shelves. He was holding a pie in a box whose juice had crossed an angle.
— Where's Suzanne?
— My mother is dead. Six weeks ago.
He looked down at the pie. Camille had already announced the news to forgotten acquaintances. None of them opened the door of the house.
— Who are you?
— "Adrien. She invited me today.
Sarah joined them, her adhesive roll around her wrist. He showed them a two-month-old message:
“Sunday the 13th, noon. This time, come. You always have the key. Suzanne.”
Camille recognized the signature. Their mother even signed messages where she asked them for bread.
— "We did not know.
He picked up his phone. Camille wanted to explain that they had not been able to prevent all their mother’s contacts. Then she wondered why she was justified in front of a stranger who seemed to know where to put his coat.
Sarah asked him to put down the box. He chose the end of the table near the window, and passed a finger over a notch.
— “That’s me.
Their father had always accused a mover. Camille was going to say it when Julien came down with a bag of linen. He stopped.
— What are you doing here?
— Your mother asked me to come.
— "She's dead.
— I just found out.
— Then you can go back.
Camille looked at her brother.
— Do you know each other?
— It's been a long time. Empty the house, it’s not the time.
Adrien stiffened.
— The attic too? There was a green trunk. A broken handle.
— “Under the velux,” said Sarah. She's there.
— They are my business.
Camille looked for an explanation on Julien's face.
— Did he live here?
— A few months.
— "Almost two years," corrected Adrien.
— "Before you are born," said Julien. Sarah was a year old when he left.
Julien was twelve years older than Camille. This gap had just widened to contain a stranger.
— Why didn’t you take your stuff?
— Your father made me leave without.
Their father had been dead for nine years. Camille had just packed her “Best Dad in the World” cup.
— "I'll get the trunk," said Julien. You're waiting outside.
Adrien placed his key near the pie.
— “Last time I waited outside while you decided what I could do again. This time, I'm going up with you.
2. The green trunk
Julien crossed the stairs. Camille waited.
— If it is his business, he takes it.
He ends up moving away.
On the first floor, Adrien slows down in front of their father's office. He touched the doorpost, then continued his climb. Camille understood that this room had been her room. She had never seen anything but binders and a printer.
In the attic, Adrien opened the trunk and squatted, his hands on his thighs. A sweater, shoes, a spiral notebook. In a box of biscuits: photos and a small boat without a mast.
He searched the bottom.
— My father’s ruler is missing. A folding one, in a brown case.
— "It's been almost forty years," said Julien.
— The shoes are there.
Camille sat down on a box.
— Have you ever come back?
— - Twice. Your father told me he threw it all away. Then he closed the door in my face.
— What about Mom?
— She was behind him.
Adrien was the son of Marianne, a cousin of Suzanne who died young. Camille knew a picture of herself; she didn’t know she had a child.
— “I was doing my apprenticeship in the garage,” he explained. Suzanne was hosting me during my mother’s hospitalization. After the funeral, she asked me to stay.
Julien picked up a Christmas decoration that fell from the cardboard placed on the trunk.
— It didn’t happen that way in the end.
Adrien closed the lid.
— "Tell them.
— There had been a theft.
3. One thousand francs
The handle gave way when Adrien lifted the trunk. They went back down to get a strap. Sarah had four drinks.
— "A thousand francs had disappeared in the workshop," said Julien. Adrian worked there on Saturdays. He knew the drawer.
— “Is that enough to accuse someone?” asked Camille.
— He wanted to leave. He was angry at Dad.
— Il He demanded a pension and free work. Yes, I was angry. And you, what did you say?
Julien crumpled the cardboard star between his fingers.
— “I was eleven years old.
— I don’t ask your age.
— I saw you in the workshop.
— "In front of the drawer," said Adrien.
Camille was waiting for further proof. She didn't come.
She knew that drawer. As a child, she had no right to open it. His father stored coins and an address book. She saw her hand closing on it when she entered the workshop, without ever having found this strange gesture.
— Your father called my boss. He kept me, but for six months I heard him lock the crate when I came in. I was sleeping at Denise's. She made me empty my pockets at night.
Denise, their aunt, had brought a terrine to the funeral stating that Suzanne had always had a big heart.
— “Why did Mom call you back?” asked Camille.
— This summer, she told me about the trunk. She said she was wrong. When I asked what, she wanted to see me. I work four hours from here. That date suited me.
He looked at his pie.
— I almost canceled ten times. My wife thought it was better that I didn’t come empty-handed.
— What about the key?
— “Suzanne sent it to me after your father’s death. I didn't come. But I kept it.
Julien stretched out his hand towards her.
— - We should get it back.
Camille pushed her near Adrien.
— We should finish this conversation.
4. The Red Bike
Adrien turned to Julien.
— - Your red bike. How long did you get it after?
— "Nothing to see. Mom gave it to me.
— In the past, your father refused. Denise told me about it when I was sleeping at her house.
Julien no longer answered.
— Why did you become all white?
Camille knew how to cut off discussions by screaming, and then come back to offer coffee. This time he was just looking at the distorted star.
— She didn’t know at first.
Sarah put down her drink.
— I took the envelope, he said. Fournier sold his bicycle for seven hundred and eighty francs. I thought he had loaned it to me. Dad came home earlier. He was screaming, asking who had gone into the workshop.
— And you said Adrian.
Julien nodded.
— I thought he was going to search you. See that you had nothing.
— He searched me. In front of you. And you added that I was able to hide the money.
Camille tried to imagine her brother at the age of eleven. She saw especially the one who had just accused Adrien.
— You knew that just now. When you asked him to leave.
— - Yeah.
Adrien went to the window. Sarah wanted to join him; he raised his hand. She sat down.
— “And mother?” asked Camille.
— "She found the two hundred and twenty francs in my room the next day. I confessed. She said she was taking care of it.
— Had Adrian already gone?
— - Yeah. She put the money back into the shop accounts and said the bike was her gift. For my birthday.
Adrian turned around.
— She knew the next day.
Julien nodded.
— “She had brought me clothes at Denise’s. She told me not to make things worse.
He put his hands on his face.
Camille looked at the medicine near the sink. For six weeks, each object reminded her of her mother’s absence. Now she wanted to go out and see nothing.
She stayed.
Sarah opened the window. The cold air lifted the paper from the pie box. Adrien stepped back to let her pass, then came back to sit down. Camille drew the carafe closer to him. She couldn’t find anything to say that didn’t sound like an excuse for someone else.
5. What to say
— Did you know? asked Sarah.
— Not by me. And I don’t think she told him.
Julien turned to Adrien.
— - I'm sorry.
— Did you tell it to whom since then? That I had stolen?
— I didn’t tell it everywhere.
Sarah raised her head.
— “After Dad’s funeral, Denise talked about it. The guy who thanked Mom. You answered him.
— It was better not to talk about it anymore.
— “Because you were ashamed of me?” asked Adrian.
— - From me.
— She must not have understood that.
Camille now remembered the meal after the funeral. She had heard Denise without asking who she was talking about. Someone had asked for bread; the conversation had continued. She had not known, but this ease in moving on suddenly seemed unbearable.
Julien approached his phone.
— I can tell him.
— "Now.
Camille held back the movement that would have made her take her brother’s phone. It was not for her to correct her sentence, to facilitate her appeal. Adrian was waiting. Julien finally unlocked the screen, sought their aunt’s contact, and pressed.
Adrien wanted to hear the call. Julien placed the device in the middle of the table and warned Denise that she was on speaker, with her sisters and Adrien.
— Marianne's son?
— - Yeah. The money in the workshop was me. I lied to Dad.
She had him repeated.
— But Suzanne assured me...
— "She knew. She found the rest the next day.
Adrien held his glass in both hands. The water trembled slightly.
— "Finally, Julien, you were a child.
— At Dad’s funeral, I wasn’t anymore. I let you continue. He never stole anything from you either. You made him empty his pockets.
A silence followed.
— Adrien? I didn't know.
— "I told you.
Denise began a sentence, stopped, asked if she could come.
— Not today. You can write to me.
When the call was over, Adrien dictated his number so that Julien could transmit it. His brother read the numbers with application. This tiny care, after all the rest, made Camille want to cry.
6. His father’s folding ruler
Sarah went up with Adrien to get the trunk. Julien went to the workshop. Camille followed him.
He opened a drawer under the workbench and took out the brown case.
— Did you know he was there?
— Dad was using it. I didn't think about who he was anymore.
Camille recognized the yellow meter. His father lent it to him for his construction. A joint carried a mismatched rivet.
Downstairs, Adrien and Sarah had tied the trunk with a strap caught in Camille's car. Julien held out the case.
— "The third joint," said Adrien, folding it. My father repaired it. He died when I was ten years old. I kept almost nothing from him.
He put the folding ruler in his jacket without saying thank you. Camille was relieved that he did not.
She remembered the snap of the folding ruler’s sections and her father telling her not to force them. The object had been with her throughout her childhood. Meanwhile, Adrien perhaps thought it had been thrown away with the shoes, the jumper and the photographs.
Julien proposed to wear one side of the trunk.
— "Take it under," said Adrian. The handle won't hold.
They loaded her in his van, among his tools as a mechanic. Before closing, Adrien opened the notebook. Camille saw plans of boats.
— Did you draw them?
— I wanted to build one. With these calculations, it would have sunk before the bank.
He showed her a page and smiled briefly.
— My grandson likes to tinker. We’ll see what he thinks.
His phone vibrated. He walked away to answer. Camille returned; the pie was still waiting among the boxes.
7. Four plates
Sarah pulled out a knife. Through the window, she offered Adrien a share.
He hesitated, then returned.
— Just one. I have a road.
The edges were blackened, the fruits piled in the center.
— I was the one who made it, he warned.
— “Then we will pay attention to what we say.
He smiled at Sarah. They sat down. Adrien put his elbows on both sides of the notch.
— “How did you do that?” asked Camille.
— I saw a support for my model. The cardboard underneath was not thick enough.
Julien looked at his plate.
— I had to watch where you cut.
— You were watching TV.
— - Yeah.
Camille went to fill the carafe. She stored the sleeping pills with the medicines to be brought back to the pharmacy. Sorting would wait.
— "Suzanne told you she knew?" asked Julien.
— “She said, ‘You didn’t do anything.’ Nothing else on the phone.
— Maybe she wanted to tell everything today.
Camille would have liked to believe it.
— "Perhaps," replied Adrian.
Julien did not insist.
Before leaving, Adrien accepted a share for his wife. Camille put it in a box. His brother was waiting near the door.
— “I don’t know what else to do.
— For today, let me go home.
Camille accompanied Adrien outside. He put the pie on the passenger seat, checked the trunk.
— The key remained on the table.
She went to get her. By giving her back, she almost told him to come back whenever he wanted. The phrase seemed too easy.
— Can I give you my number?
He took out his phone. She dictated the numbers. He promised to bring the strap; she replied that nothing pressed.
When Camille returned, Julien was getting rid of her. Sarah would put the plates in the buffet instead of packing them.
Camille passed the sponge around the notch.
— “Dad told us a story about a mover.
— “I know,” said Sarah.
A message came from an unknown number.
“It’s Adrian. That way you have mine.”
End
