The Long Summer of Monsieur Loiseau

"It's been 60 years, and it still hurts occasionally." Prudence pointed to his right leg, "Sometimes it's because of bad weather, sometimes it's not. It's mostly psychological, it has nothing to do with the bones, and it's been fine for a long time. When I was living in Oxford I used to play tennis every weekend and never had a problem - did you play tennis Mr Rivers? Would you prefer baseball? Great game, pity I never figured out the rules Dr. Wilkins said I was lucky, a few hours later and we both would have died of hypothermia. That's the word he used, 'lucky', I guess because he was ashamed to use more Harsh wording."

"It was Martha who noticed we were missing, and even if she wasn't sure at first, she fully understood when she saw the stables were empty. The baron and the fat policeman led a hastily assembled search party all the way from the polo grounds to the beach ...their initial concern was that we had sneaked through the barbed wire to play on the sandy beach where the mines were buried, but the barbed wire was intact, taller than a man, and even if two boys could climb over it, the foal was absolutely impossible. They Also went to the 'tree house', the little chapel that was blown up, but there was no one there either. It was completely dark by this time, and they decided to go back to the mansion first. The flashlights were not enough, and the gardener prepared some old-fashioned torches to soak the water. Strips of kerosene wrapped around sticks. Three cars set off: the Baron's Land Rover, the police car, and the green pick-up van borrowed from the post office."

"A farmer gave a lead, claiming to have seen two boys the previous afternoon near the collapsed mill, while he was repairing the stalls, far enough away to see very well, but a fine pony was easy to stay Impressive. The mill is surrounded by a dozen miles of uninhabited wilderness. If the children continue eastward, they will have to walk to the Laikenston Railway Station to find a place to spend the night. No one has heard of this station. The farmer simply pointed in the direction and told them that a switchman lived at Lakenston Station, and that perhaps old Carl had seen the two missing boys."

"The convoy drove past the mill before midnight, found the railroad, and kept going along it, and if there hadn't been some accident along the way, we'd have been at the station before daylight; the post office van had a flat tire, you see, River Mr. Si, the country roads were in bad shape, with sharp little rocks all the way. They tried to patch tires in the wilderness, and finally gave up, leaving the van where it was to be disposed of later. All crowded into the remaining In two cars, set off again and split to the train station at breakfast."

"At that time, you had already spent the night in the trap." The reporter said.

Prudence nodded: "I have a fever, there are only two feelings left, cold, and pain. I don't know who is more scared between us, it should be Alex, because I'm not sober anymore The switchman told the fat policeman that the boys had gone to the widow Megan's farm, so they spent an extra 10 minutes to get to the farm, and Megan came out to meet the strangers with two dogs and a pitchfork. Said that he had never seen a boy or a foal, and that the only visitor yesterday was a badger, which was killed by a dog."

"'If these two little fools are coming from the train station,' Megan went on, 'it's dangerous, there are still a lot of old fox traps in the pasture.'"

"'Take us there,' the Baron told her."

"There are four fox traps in total, and weeds are growing all over the place. Even Megan took a while to find them. Fortunately, Mercury never left, and they saw this faithful pony from a distance. The dogs ran past first, and I can still clearly remember the two sheepdogs, who looked to me like monsters from a nightmare, barking and baring their teeth on the edge of the trap. Megan arrived later and shouted at her The dog, took one look at us, cursed loudly, and threw the rope down."

The reporter frowned: "How did you climb up?"

"We didn't. The Baron climbed down, first tied the noose around Alex's waist, and let the fat policeman pull him up. As for me, they took a lot of time. The original plan was to build a rope ladder and let the The Baron carried me up, but they finally decided not to take any chances. The gardener borrowed some planks from Megan's barn, tied them together to make a makeshift stretcher, moved me onto it, and tied the ends of the stretcher with ropes to hang it. Up. Meghan graciously lent blankets and the truck while complaining about silly kids and busy strangers ruining her day. The gardener coaxed Mercury into the truck with strips of cloth over his eyes. We were back where we started before dark, and the adventure ended."

The nurse knocked on the door and came in with medicine in a small plastic box and a glass of water.Prudence opened the labeled boxes one by one, poured the pills into the palm of his hand, swallowed them, and winked at the reporter, as if to say look at how an old guy lives.The nurse put away the empty pill boxes and cups and asked if they needed anything else.

"Hot tea will do, thank you," replied Prudence.

The nurse went out, still like a ghost, without footsteps.The recorder on the coffee table made a thin beeping sound, indicating that the battery was too low. The reporter almost turned the bag upside down before finding a spare battery and replacing it.Prudence got up from his rocking-chair, went to the hearth, drew two pieces of pine from the wicker basket, and threw them into the fire.Outside the window, the sky looked like cloudy ice in the middle of winter.

When the nurse came in for the second time, he didn't knock on the door, and put down the teapot wrapped in a wool warmer.The reporter thanked in a low voice, the nurse nodded and closed the door gently.

"They never asked why," Prudence said, turning his back to reporters and watching the fire.

"Who?"

"Everyone. The Baron de Loiseau, the fat policeman, Martha, the gardener, the cook and the young maid, never once asked why Alex and I ran so far in silence, they behaved Nothing like this has ever happened. Dr. Wilkins had me bedridden for three months, which seemed like a century to a little boy. Alex was stationed in my room - he nearly put ' The whole tree house moved here, with books, or picture clips, a box of pinballs, and all kinds of food stolen from the kitchen, and once even brought a sparrow, which was rescued from the mouth of a wild cat. The poor bird struggled for two days in a biscuit carton lined with cotton batting and did not survive."

The reporter leaned forward: "Actually, apart from the most well-known chapters in Acts [-] and [-], "The Long Summer" also has a passage that is often discussed——"

"Kiss in the sunroom."

"Is that true? Do you understand what it means? M. Loiseau describes it as a game, a naive imitation of adults by children, but if it is not important to the author, why take so long? "

Prudence returned slowly to the rocker, shook the blanket over his lap, and clasped his hands.

"I said he was the more gifted of us, and the gift was that he was persuasive, not the defense lawyer kind, but, it may sound weird, but I think it's like a landscape painter. Alex changed the tone, added a tree where you didn't notice, added a shadow, and left a stone, which is not very eye-catching, but when you see the sky again, you will feel Alex's The color fits better."

"therefore?"

"So I must regret to tell you that it was just Alex's imagination. The 'game' he wrote, cute as it sounds, didn't happen, we were all just kids, a couple of playmates, more To be precise."

"So, pure fiction?"

"Before Alex set out to write this paragraph, we had a—to put it mildly—unpleasant argument at the height of our relationship," Prudence said, glancing at the old letter in the small iron box. , as if looking for confidence from there, "at a low point. He wanted to find me in 1940 in this way, and he liked that me better. He thought I would never see this manuscript."

"Do you like your past self more?"

"What a delicate philosophical question." Prudence smiled, stared at the rain outside the window for a while, and shook his head, "Sorry, Mr. Rivers, I don't know."

"Do you mind if I ask another question?"

"do not mind."

"Did you find your mother afterwards?"

"Never." Prudence lowered his gaze, smoothing the folds of the blanket. "On September 9, two Stuka bombers leveled the street where my house is. No one knows whether she went to the bomb shelter or not. We couldn't find her body either. Officially, she is missing. The last time we saw her was when she put me on the train."

"I regret that."

"Thank you."

The recorder indicator blinks silently.

"Mr. Rivers."

"Yes?"

"At this point, do you see any missing characters in Alex's story?"

The reporter pursed his lips and tapped the notebook lightly with a ballpoint pen: "Mother?"

"Yes. There are photographs of her in the study, but the Baroness of Loiseau was never mentioned. I only heard about her later - ten years later, when I first returned to Cornwall from Oxford." Er - all fragmented and contradictory, with some saying she lived in Brighton, others insisting she was in fact in London, living with young lovers, lovers, plural. Alex's The story is that the Baroness has a lung disease, so she has lived in the 'north' for a long time. He never said where the north is. Maybe he didn't know it at all. Maybe the word 'consumption' was made up by George and Lyra to comfort him. Anyway, I I only saw her once, at George's wedding, she made a quick appearance and walked away without speaking to anyone."

"Like a shadow."

"Like a shadow." Prudence poured himself a cup of tea, steam rising from the cup. "Where are we talking? Broken bones, sparrows, October. Alex and I's first Summer is over and winter is coming sooner than we thought."

tbc.