Chapter 5 - Au Revoir
In the centre of the Meyer’s dining table stood two silver candlesticks. The flames slowly danced in the hot, summer breeze, and the net curtains moved in time with them. Outside, the orange sun had set and turned a bright day into night. The only light in the large dining room came from the flames at the end of the wax candles. They were slowly melting, and wax dripped onto the mahogany.
There were fourteen, high-backed chairs around the oval table. However, Eric and his parents only sat around one end. Mr Meyer was tucking into a meal of truffles, fine sausage and exclusive Foie Gras paté. His wife was nibbling on a lettuce leaf from her Waldorf salad and picking around the other ingredients. Eric was eating a beef burger made from maize fed, Argentinian cows. It was squashed between a freshly made, wholemeal bun covered in sesame seeds. According to the chef, who also worked in a five-star hotel famed for its food, it was a designer burger. This meant, as far as Eric could see, that the pickles and garnishes were artistically arranged, but it still tasted the same as every other burger.
The Meyers ate in silence. The only sounds in the room came from the cutlery as it scraped against the plates. Outside the dining room window, a quiet miaow could be heard coming closer and closer. A grey, Persian cat suddenly appeared at the window, jumped silently onto the table and then once more onto the floor.
Dark wooden panels covered the wall opposite the window. They stretched from the floor to the ceiling and hid the only entrance to the room. Slowly a wooden panel moved and the hidden door opened. A thick ray of light cast itself across the table. Andrea entered and stood in its glow as the cat bolted past her. She faced the Meyers and spoke matter-of-factly and without emotion.
“I am sorry to interrupt but I have good news. I have found someone who has won the competition. She also fills your requirements for the scholarship. She is exactly the same age as Eric, and I will infer from her puzzle entry, equally as intelligent. She lives with her grandparents in Paris, and they have agreed to let her study in Prague. I shall be collecting her the day after tomorrow, early in the morning before the flight. I will take Eric with me and then the three of us will journey to Prague.”
“Bravo!” cried Mrs Meyer.
“Vell done!” congratulated her husband.
“Pile of poo!” muttered Eric under his breath.
Andrea turned and left as swiftly as she had arrived. The door closed without a sound, and the thick beam of light retreated from the room. Spitting out a piece of burger that he had been unable to swallow Eric stood up. He leant forward until his lips could feel the warmth of the candles and blew. The flames struggled and fought, but Eric blew harder until they gave up and went out. A black sheet draped itself over the three diners, and Eric returned unseen to his seat.
“Just pretend I’m not here,” he uttered while straining to hold back his tears, “that shouldn’t be too hard for you.”
Mr Meyer asked his wife if she would like a dessert. She declined.
On top of one of the four apartment blocks, there was a large board advertising petrol. From behind it a glorious, red sun rose and white clouds, barely visible before the sun came up, turned to pink candy floss. The resulting light bathed Saint-Denis in a warming glow. Ursula looked down on her neighbourhood. She knew that she was going to miss it, in spite of its appearance.
Sitting on the roof, above the seventh floor of her block, she could look down and see it all. She was wearing her favourite clothes; her threadbare, black jeans, a yellow vest top and her greying, white trainers. Her feet dangled over the side and moved in small circles above her grandparents’ balcony. They were being watched by her Granddad and Mémé as they twirled in the air.
Both were standing still in their living room. The rose light reflected off their faces and spot lit their hands as they held each other tightly. Over the last two days, they appeared to have aged. Their backs had started to curve; their steps dragged; Granddad Benjamin’s jokes had dried up, and they both looked to have shrunk. Ursula had promised them that they could have all the money she had won, but no money could replace their granddaughter. They felt selfish and knew deep down that this was a wonderful opportunity for Ursula, but this thought did not help them to feel any better.
Thirty minutes earlier Andrea had called on them. She had brought, among other gifts, enough top quality medicine for the next two years for Granddad Benjamin. She gave them the video phone, set it up and showed them how to use it. She also gave them a laptop for email and handed over the prize money. After reassuring the elderly couple that their granddaughter would phone every night, she picked up Ursula’s luggage. It was a beaten, brown suitcase scratched by time. Originally it had been Granddad Benjamin’s and was so old that it was made of stiff card. The plastic handle was, by modern standards, like a razor blade, but Andrea did not notice.
Inside the suitcase were Ursula’s clothes and a few sentimental possessions - Fred, a silver outfit she had worn as a baby and a photo of her grandparents. Only one item of Ursula’s was not in the suitcase. It was too precious to be kept amongst her clothes and losing it was too big a risk. The object looked worthless but to Ursula it was priceless. Granddad Benjamin and Mémé had given it to her on her sixth birthday, and it was a small piece of rock from her parents’ last climb. Her grandparents had told her that it was the only item they had left from Ursula’s parents. All the other mementos and photos they had owned had been destroyed in the fire when Ursula was still a toddler. The little, coin-sized rock was her only link to them. It hung around her neck, turned into a necklace by Mémé as a leaving present, and Ursula promised it would always stay there.
The necklace swung in front of Ursula’s chest as she leaned forward to see what was happening seven floors below. She watched as Andrea left the block with the suitcase. Ursula did not know yet if she liked Andrea or not. Andrea seemed fine, but Ursula had thought that about some of the teachers at school who soon became monsters. From far below, Andrea looked up. Swinging her arm in the air she beckoned Ursula down and walked away.
This was the moment which Ursula had been dreading - the time to leave. Before coming up to the roof, to avoid an emotional scene in front of a near stranger, she had said a long tearful goodbye to her grandparents. She had then come up on the roof to say goodbye to her neighbourhood. On the road next to her block, she could see that Andrea had reached a silver Range Rover and had put her suitcase down on the tarmac.
Pulling her legs back up to the roof, Ursula stood. She pirouetted until there was no roof below her, and only her toes clung to the ledge. Calmly she took a deep breath in. With her eyes closed she tilted her head up towards the sky, and as she opened them again, she hopped backwards. She dropped like a stone past her grandparents’ window and caught the balcony before she fell any further. She had fallen two and a half metres. At the same time as her hands clenched hold of the railing she heard Mémé shout, “Wait!”
Six floors above the ground Ursula hung onto the railing. She heard the creaking, balcony door, followed by the shuffling of feet as her grandparents came outside. On looking up, Ursula was greeted by her Granddad’s smiling face.
“I’m looking forward to using this new video phone thing,” he said and grinned broadly. “Take care, my love.”
A hand appeared and pulled him out of the way. Mémé appeared in view.
“I’ll miss you, ma cherie,” she said.
“I’ll miss you too, Mémé.”
A tear fell from Mémé’s left eye onto Ursula’s forehead. It felt as heavy as an ocean. Unable to support the weight, Ursula opened her bony fingers, let go and dropped down to the next balcony, grabbing hold of the railing as she had done previously before falling further.
“You’re going to be filthy before you even reach the ground, and you know I worry to death when you do this,” scolded Mémé.
“Last time,” shouted back Ursula, smil
ed and let go.
She fell to the fifth floor, then fourth, third, second...
From his comfortable, office chair, Agent Hoover watched via satellites. Before Ursula reached the ground, he lost her. There were no working security cameras near the ground in Saint-Denis and too many places to vanish. He sunk back into his chair, adjusted the air conditioning and turned his head to scan the other small screens. That was when he saw it.
A silver glint caught his eye. It was on the screen marked strada Stadionului/Stadium Street, Sfantu Gheorge, Romania. As he watched, he saw a rusting bulldozer remove it from the ground. It was covered in mud, but it was unmistakably a silver bulb shape, approximately the size of a small car. It was the object he had been instructed to find. With sweaty palms, he lifted up the black phone on his desk and started to dial the number he knew by heart though he had never read, seen, heard nor been told it. Behind him, lurking in the shadows, a sinewy figure wheezed expectantly.
Back to Contents
***