HIGH MEGALOMANIA, a short story by Mathieu Besançon

HIGH MEGALOMANIA

Barks were sounding in the whole garden, security men were looking everywhere, searching in the whole hospital. Spots were lighting each bush and each tree but what they were looking for was hidden in the shadow, he had not moved for two hours, waiting for he best time. When he decided it occurred, he threw his cane and climbed the wall on the plants. He held his cane and walked in the dark streets, trying to forget his painful leg.

~~~

Gerald Pottsherd was walking in Victoria Street, tired and worried. The family is definitely what makes a man unhappy. The fog was cold on this morning and he wanted to arrive quickly in his office. But, suddenly, a dog ran toward him, he was surprised but kicked him. The dog did not give up and bit his leg. The man hit it a second time and the dog disappeared into a strange fog. The fog took every imaginable colour and floated all around him.

 He could not believe what he was seeing but thought it was a dream... strange creatures appeared and walked toward him through the fog. He was terrified by those vultures, jackals and hyenas, they were waiting for him to die, waiting to eat his corpse. And then, he saw them, he saw his wife, he saw his brother, he saw Melany, he saw the worker he forced to resign and finally, everything disappeared, he did just see a big judge, saying that the jury chose the death penalty...and then…the blackout.

The crowd began panicking. For an hour, it had been quite amusing to see that man hallucinating, crying and panicking but suddenly, he had begun to convulse, he vomited and stopped moving. 

But at the back of the crowd, a young man, playing with a cane (what was a bit bizarre for his age) was watching at the scene, uninterested in the people panicking all around him, he took a handkerchief and dropped it into vomit. Then he hid it in his pocket and stole some hairs on the dead man’s head, he left the scene.

Then a young doctor wearing white overalls arrived, touched the man’s throat. He was dead… seemed to be a heart attack...

Quickly, policemen arrived and asked questions to the witnesses. An hour later, the corpse was brought to the morgue. The case was given to superintendant Oliver Pagger, an old Scottish preparing for retirement in Wales with his wife and he was not really happy to be given that case. He just expected that the man died because he did not do enough sport, just like him.

“We have to wait for the autopsy, it will happen this evening” James said to his superior. He was Pagger’s assistant, in his thirties, brown-haired, a farmer’s boy who came to the capital city to earn what he couldn’t earn in his small town of Cornwall.

“Okay, I’m hungry, let’s go to the Sunset restaurant, my wife said me they have a terrific mushrooms soup. Then we’ll find a list of suspects.”

James agreed.

~~~

“Hello Mr Leek.” said Pagger, “you wanted to see us?”

“Yes, I finished the autopsy” the small legist answered, that’s a strange case and to my mind, it’ll be hard for you to decide if the man was poisoned or if he’s just a drugged man who did not think about what could happen to him…” Achilles Leek began.

“Please, sir, could you explain us WHAT he had before giving your opinion!” James interrupted, he was noting everything by Pagger or Leek said.

“Oh I’m sorry, I did not precise it, the man is or was Mr. Pottsherd, Gerald Pottsherd. He died of a heart attack as the psychiatrist guessed, who saw the death, but it’s not a natural one, all the blood-vessels were filled with cholesterol. In the hair, we found some Heparin, an efficient anticoagulant. We know thanks to many witnesses he convulsed before dying, it may be explained by his heart’s last move or by a toxin I did not find. In the vomit and in the blood, I found something interesting, a capsule full of cholesterol, so maybe he was poisoned with some but it would have taken a long time to kill someone like that. And, I found psilocybins, hallucinogenic mushrooms, it may have provoked the long delirium of the man, so men, I’m sorry but another corpse arrived and the autopsy cannot wait, he’s a famous biker who collided into a lorry which exploded, Mr. Moontanring, but I think he won’t be able to ride anymore” he laughed and left.                                                  

  ~~~

“Hello doctor!” He quietly said to the young psychiatrist.

“Edward!? Wh…why the hell are you knocking on my front door, it’s 11.A.M! I was sleeping, it’s my free day and…the whole hospital is looking for you and…your leg! You should not be able to walk, it must be painful!” the doctor was panicking as never, he might be accused hiding a mad man on the run.

“Could we just speak about that with a cup of tea in your charming house?” Edward quietly answered.     

  ~~~

Later, Pagger, talking to his assistant at the office: “James, don’t you think we ought to visit Mrs. Pottsherd now?”

They were long to find the small town near London and longer to find the “Brewery Cottage” where Gerald Pottsherd and his wife lived.

“Good morning Mrs. Pottsherd, I’m superintendant Pagger and here’s James, my assistant I’d like to ask you few questions about your husband’s death.”

“Oh, okay, what’d you like to know?”

And Pagger began the interrogation but, as James was writing down everything, he felt something sounded wrong…

“And so two months earlier, he had started a business with his brother, they were both working in the Sharl Company, you know, Gerald was manager and Henry, his brother, was his assistant, I think he’ll be promoted as manager now…”

“Mrs. Pottsherd, do you miss your husband? » interrupted James.

“James, please do not stop her, you’re not able to interrogate her and do not ask so stupid questions!” cut Pagger short, upset.

“Sir, I know you’re my superior but I estimate that you’re not able to be so anymore, if you just want to wait for your retirement, resign! So I decide to take initiatives, otherwise this case will never be solved.” the young farmer’s boy said, revolted and furious for three slavery years.

Then, Pagger did not add one more word, he just watched his assistant asking the last questions to the woman, quite surprised by the argument:

“So I repeat my question, madam, do you miss your husband, because I think you do not do so!”

“So please be gentle, could you please explain me why?” But both policemen felt she was getting stressed, it was hard for her to keep calm.

“But you perfectly know why, madam…” Then, James did just stare intensively at her. A long silence followed the last sentence and after several minutes which seemed to be years, this miserable woman, sweet but so unhappy, let the men see her eyes full of tears, so many years without a smile, without feeling love…

Suddenly, she hid her brown eyes in her hands and cried, cried for so long James began dozing.

After her last sob, she explained them the long story:

 She used to be a farmer’s daughter and there was not place enough for her to work in the farm. So she studied art in a college but she had no money to pay the last years to get a diploma. And then Gerald arrived, promising her a wonderful life and they quickly got married.

For six months, they lived happy, he’d been hired in a small IT firm which was going to be the world trust Sharl Company and she stayed at home, making oil paints she sold to museums. But quickly, the shareholders noticed his job and he got better and better jobs while the company was developing. He began being sexist, saying that she did not earn anything, just like women fifty years ago and when she protested, he beat her, first hitting was followed by apologizes but blow after blow, apologizes disappeared, so she learned to be quiet and to do the “woman’s job”.

“Okay madam, I understand how terrible it was but please, could you now tell me everything about your late husband’s health?”

“Sure, he did not sleep a lot, for a couple of months, he did just sleep three hours a half each night, I think he was nervous because of business. He did not eat, never at breakfast, he was not fat but usually breathless when he climbed stairs or when he had to move. One day, he was coming back at home but he had to stop walking in the garden because he was going to faint.”

“So he had heart problems…” Pagger continued.

“The doctor said he had to be a bit more sporty but it was strictly impossible! The easiest sport would have killed him.” Then the policemen left, they did learn everything they wanted. They had somebody else to see.

~~~

“Hello Mely!” the psychiatrist said (with a smile as relaxed as he could) “here’s Edward, my…my assistant!”

“Hi Jim, I think you’re not here for a sweet conversation, why to visit me?”

“Oh one day I’d like to make a conversation just for a visit, oh no a visit just for a sweet conversation… ” He was so confused he couldn’t add one more word and his face was as red as a tomato.

Mely laughed, kissed his cheek and left for the other room to begin an analysis.

She was that kind of girl who prefers authority to sweet feelings but Jim was that kind of guy who seems to have remained a child, she could not be as strict as ever to him.

Seeing that his psychiatrist was too stunned by love, Edward decided to ask what he wanted. He took his small note book and wrote down the motive of his visit:

“Could you analyse those hairs and that vomit to see what substances were absorbed by the man for 2 months?”

She read the message, stared at him strangely and asked:

“Are you blind and mute? Don’t you know how to speak?”

 “I don’t like speaking, it’s hard for me to be sociable, oh, I think Jim loves you but he’s too shy to date you.”

   At the moment, Jim, who was getting cooler and thinking about a compliment he could do on Mely’s haircut, got red and seemed to have lost language skills.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make your analysis, go to lunch” She gave Edward ten pounds. “Jim, I’d like to invite you in a restaurant I saw yesterday, and would you like to see my house?”

But she was not waiting for an answer, she took Jim’s arm and left…

~~~

When the two policemen arrived on Pottsherd’s work place, they quickly understood that Sharl’s company was not touched by the crisis, a new building was in construction on the east part of the factory, some workers were painting the front wall in dark blue and everybody was rushing.

They entered the manager’s office. Henry Pottsherd was holding something James could not see, as he saw them, he hid it under his desk.

“Good morning, Mr. Pottsherd, I’m superintendant Pagger and here’s James, my assistant, we’d like to ask you few questions.”

“Oh, I think you did not take any appointment?”

“No we did not because we have a lot of people to see and your job does not justify any favour.” James answered.

At that moment, the men’s voice began sounding cold.

“So how were your relationships with your brother?”

“There were good, we could work together because we knew each other very well.”

“Who worked as manager before Gerald’s death?”

“He did, he was chosen by shareholders, and I was his assistant. That was a hard situation: he had such boring health problems and I had to do the main part of his work, however, he was keeping the post…”

“So you killed him?” asked James, suspicious.

“ARE YOU ALL RIGHT GUY? DON’T YOU KNOW THAT I HAVE ENOUGH RELATIONS TO RUIN YOUR CAREER??”

“And do you know, Mr. Pottsherd, that any relation would be able to help you if I decided to take you in custody for insolence and for threatening two policemen?”

They were staring at each other under Pagger’s eyes; on one side, a farmer’s son, a policeman’s assistant and on the other, a businessman, a shark as powerful as the government, as rich as the Prime Minister…

~~~

The evening was beginning when Pagger and James came back to the police office. The street was busy and it was hard not to be stopped at each minute. But suddenly, a metallic and muffled noise made them stop. They looked at the top of the car, it was bruised. A second later, a man was jumping from the car to run in a small street. Pagger did not show any reaction, he was too old, too fat and too tired to catch a man fleeing.

But James was young and followed the strange guy escaping. They ran across the labyrinth of short streets, for a few minutes, James couldn’t see his prey but he finally found him in a blind alley. The man looked miserable, he was crouched on a dirty couch composed of straw covered by a jute cloth. This man was strange, shouting, panicking. James understood this guy was hallucinating. He wanted to force him to stand up but the man panicked, hit James and fled. When James came back to the car, Pagger was unconscious and bleeding, his arm was making a strange angle…

~~~

The room was full of metallic noises, among all the professional fencers, Edward and Jim Witson were training.

“Don’t you think should come back to the psychiatric hospital? You wouldn’t be obliged to hide.”

“I’m not obliged to hide because nobody’s looking for me.”

“Don’t be silly, the watchmen have called the police to make them arrest you, didn’t they?”

“No, I prepared my escape, the night before the D day, I stole and burned my medical file and I got back my identity papers. So, even if they saw me escaping, they cannot call the police until they don’t know who escaped that night, I’m free now.”

“Are you crazy? You perfectly know that…it may happen again, you may…you’re not able to live in a society!”

“I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! And I’m not obliged to live with this society, I can have a life outside.”

A long silence followed the last sentence, only perturbed by sword impacts.

“So what will you do now?” James asked cooler.

“I’d be pleased to solve this case. The man who died in the street, I think he was Gerald Pottsherd, he was poisoned, that’s what showed your dear Mely’s analysis. The problem is that I have not enough information, in his vomit we found greases and hallucinogenic mushrooms called psilocybes. It surely provoked hallucinations. We found Heparin and greases. But I don’t know how he died, I have to get the police’s informations…”

“But why don’t you help the police, you just have to do a statement, that’s why all the society created the police.”

“Go to hell, I read a newspapers’ article about the superintendant inquiring into the case, he’s an idiot! I can swear on your dear Mely’s head that he will never find the solution…”

~~~

Policemen were everywhere, hunting their prey, excited dogs, shouting, just like animals.

 But the prey was hidden in a bush, without moving, not so far from them. Every newspaper in London had written an article about that: a dangerous schizophrenic on the run for several years had been seen by an old lady in front of her house. The mad man was still in London.

He was searched everywhere in the Great London, maybe he was hidden by someone…

~~~

A short-hand typist was finishing the last copy of the interrogation as the man entered, wearing dirty clothes and stinking alcohol. His bloodshot eyes looked across the whole room, looking for what he had to take.

Finally, he held out a shaking hand and asked the file she was copying. She did not move, as far as she could remember, she had always been horrified by alcoholics, because of her grandfather.

The man waited, time passed but finally, without getting nervous and without adding one more word, the man took the file and went away. Then, she cried…

~~~

Meanwhile, James came back to Pottsherd’s office to ask a few more questions, he strongly suspected the mad man to be linked to Pottsherd’s murder so if he could show that Henry Pottsherd is hiding “Jack Charles”, the schizophrenic, and if the latter is the man who attacked Pagger, he would solve the case.

Unfortunately, Pottsherd had strong alibis. At the murder time and at the different times while Jack Charles had vanished, the businessman was meeting important traders from Eastern Europe.

But the young policeman did not give up, he thanked Pottsherd, left the office but entered Pottsherd’s assistant’s. He asked the same questions and the man explained different things. Pottsherd was lying…

He had to find more information while he was there.

 ~~~

“I ought to call the police” Mely shouted furiously.

“Policemen aren’t worth anything, I know that better than you” he answered higher. “I had to get this file, I need it if I want to be on equal feet with the police. Moreover, I did not steal it, I made someone do so.”

“Oh, so who had this incredible luck to help a mental on a case he didn’t have to solve?” she asked, ironic.

“An alcoholic who was leaving the hospital, he needed alcohol, I needed the file so I negotiated.”

“You’re a monster, maybe he’ll die because of you!”

“Or maybe it was the first time he could be useful to someone.”

“Go to hell Edward!”

And she left Jim’s house, she had to work. On the sofa, Jim had not said one word, he left too. Edward decided to read the file…

As he finished it, he took his note book, some money and left, he wanted to see Mrs. Pottsherd. While he was arriving in front of the cottage which seemed to be the one described on the file, he made the driver stop. He paid him and knocked on the door, the widow opened.

            He managed to make her believe he was a policeman, she was not so clever so not suspicious about this very young policeman. He could ask few formal questions the policemen had forgotten.

“Did you know Henry Pottsherd?”

“My husband’s brother, isn’t he? Oh I don’t know him very well but I’ve already meet him during parties or things like that. He has already come at home. Yes, I remember now, he’s working in my husband’s company and two months ago, they started a business. They bought old medicines and sold them to the Third World cheaper.”

“How did the business work?”

“I remember it was pretty good but we had an argument about it with my husband, it was… it was not very clear, moreover, he had problem in the company, he could not do as much business as he should have done because of his health.”

“Thank you Madam.”

He was leaving the home when a shrill pain tore his shoulder. A knife was deeply driven into his arm. He saw a man on his left, fleeing through bushes across the forest. Pain was unbearable, however, he followed him. They ran fives minutes but Edward was worried, he had lost his aggressor. He was going to give up when he saw a shanty in an unlighted small place. He entered and immediately saw the man, having a strange behaviour. Edward understood he was hallucinating, he was not dangerous but sadistically, Edward wanted to make sure he was not going to flee while he was calling the police.

~~~

James came back to the hospital, Pagger was allowed to leave at 4 P.M. The assistant had heard an interesting information in the Company.

“I learned that Pottsherd was often going to a night bar after working. A short-hand typist told me that it’s not the kind of building you would choose for a wedding.”

They decided to visit it at 9.P.M. but for the moment, James was receiving surprising information on his cell phone. A copy of the file had been stolen at the office and Jack Charles, the schizophrenic, had been found, stunned, in a shanty. When they came back to the office, Pagger identified Jack Charles as the man who broke his arm.

~~~

“Take these medicines” Jim said, too worried to shout. When Edward had come back to Jim’s house, he had slept for four hours. He had a terrible headache and pain was everywhere in his body. He could just remember he had beaten the schizophrenic like an animal, like a monster. Jim forced him to swallow sedatives and analgesics, he wanted to protect Mely from the boy’s anger. Edward slept again and then, when he could feel fine, thought that he had all the elements to solve the case, he just needed his logic. He took the file, his note book and began writing, this kind of unreadable writing nobody else could read.

~~~

The policemen entered the bar, introducing themselves to be customers. Quickly, they understood that the maidens who were giving them their tea were not only waitresses.

They talked to the barmaid into making her explain Pottsherd’s habits: “When he was quite tired, he went to the upper room to “sleep” with Melany you can see there.”

James made Melany believe he wanted to “sleep” with her and when they entered the room, Pagger joined them.

They showed their policemen’s card to the speechless girl who dressed quickly, very confused.

“Did you know Mr. Pottsherd very well miss?”

“Sure, Mr. superintendent, when he came, he stayed with me at least ten minutes.”

“Did you love him?”

“Oh…yeah, I think I did, he was so charming.” She cried, thinking about him.

“Stop me if I’m wrong but he was a married man, wasn’t he?”

“Yes I know that, the reason of his unhappiness was his wife! But I’m not responsible if he came at least three times a week!”

“Do you know if he took drugs or medicines?”

“I don’t think so…”

~~~

Jim was visiting an autistic before the lunch break, patients were given beans and mutton. He arrived in front of the last room where he saw the famous Jack Charles stunned by Edward.

 He looked miserable, shouting he wanted “flour”. Surprised, Jim called a nurse and asked her to give him what he wanted. When he was given the flour, he tried to inhale it by his nose. Edward understood, Charles didn’t want flour, he wanted cocaine, he was addicted.

~~~

Later…

“Please gather everyone.” Edward asked.

“No I won’t, I have to stay with Jim, he’s sick because of you!” Mely answered, furious.

“That’s wrong, you annoy him!”

In the bedroom, Jim was trying to sleep but listening to the argument too, his breathing was hard and his stomach was painful.

“But Jim’s health is not the question, you must help me, you just have to summon everyone in the hospital, in a room nobody uses.”

“Or you can have the behaviour of a normal guy and go to the police office to explain what you found!”

“You’re such a stupid girl!” he shouted, but he immediately felt he had gone off the limits. Two minutes later, he was outside, thinking about a solution…

Eight persons received a strange paper in their mailbox.

You are summoned to the 7^th room of the police station of Covent Garden between 9.am and 11am. This is compulsory.

Yours faithfully, Christopher Clapton

Fortunately, nobody saw Edward stealing the key on the reception desk of the police office. He arrived a quarter earlier than the appointment time so he had time to prepare the huge amphitheatre. That was amusing to see that only eight persons were going to be gathered out of several hundred seats. He took a big armchair and sat down in front of the wall so that nobody could see his face. He kept a mirror in his hand to be able to observe the whole room. He plugged a microphone, switched off the lights and started a huge projector he could direct anywhere. Everything was ready for the mouse-trap now…

Henry Pottsherd arrived first, perfectly dressed, just surprised by darkness.

“Welcome, Henry Pottsherd, sit down, please, I think we won’t have to wait too much time.”

Minute after minute, the other ones arrived, Jim and Mely, walking together, Mrs. Pottsherd, keeping anxious, Jack Charles, closely followed by a male nurse and finally, James and Pagger, quite surprised to have never heard about “superintendant Christoph Clapton”. Only two people knew this name, Jim and Edward.

“Do you know why I gathered you today?” Edward began.

“That’s precisely one of the important things which were not precised on the summoning.” Jack Charles answered. A lot of people were surprised by this sentence, a few hours ago, this man could not speak, he was savage and drugged and now, he had a strong, captivating voice.

“You’re right, Mr. Charles so I’ll precise you: I’d like to know who Gerald Pottsherd’s murderer is and how he proceeded. But firstly, I’d like Messrs. James Clayde and Oliver Pagger to explain us what they found in their investigations.”

Pagger and James explained together the different elements they found, tried to make a logical link and finally said they suspected the dead man’s widow or his lover.

“Both of them were not stupid choices, but both of these two women are innocents. So we will explain precisely Gerald Pottsherd’s death, I invited Mr. Leek, the legist but he’s not very punctual. So for the moment, we will listen to Miss Mely Yard, she’s working in a laboratory and analysed some vomit and some hairs from Pottsherd’s corpse at the moment of the death.”

Mely, who had perfectly understood who was speaking in the microphone, stood up and explained that she had found Heparin in the hair, the man was absorbing some for at least two months. In the vomit was found some cholesterol, whereas it should have been found only in the blood. She found massive doses of psylocybes too, it provoked the hallucinations.

“Thank you miss” Edward stopped. “Now, I’ll ask Jim Witson to explain us how Mr. Pottsherd died.”

Jim stood up and described, step by step, everything he could.

 “But, superintendant Clapton, he told me he was not drugged, did he lie to me?” interrupted Mrs. Pottsherd.

“No, he did not, he did not take drugs, he was absorbed drugs, so he was poisoned.”

At the moment, a small man entered, breathless.

“I’m sorry, I think I’m arriving a quarter later than what was written on the paper!”

“Don’t worry Mr. Leek, please have a seat, may you explain us what you found on the corpse?”

“Of course Mr. Clapton, let me take off my jacket, so Mr. Moontanring was a famous biker training for the “Tour de France”, I found strange scares on his left arm and I finally discovered he was taking heroin. He had massive doses in the blood when the truck hit him. The nurses had to take some bags because there were pieces of Mr. Moontanring on the whole road. I suspect him to have wanted to kill himself because…”

“Mr. Leek please!” Edward shouted, you’re not talking about the right corpse, I think there was a misunderstanding, were talking about Gerald Pottsherd, died of an heart attack!”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Mr. Moontanring is very famous so I thought…I was here for…oh, I’m lost, hum…Mr. Pottsherd, he was the businessman, wasn’t he? We found massive doses of Heparin in his hair, all his blood-vessels were full of cholesterol so his heart was too tired and you still know the end…But I can’t explain the other elements…”

“You can’t Mr. Leek? I’ll put everything in a nutshell. Pottsherd was given massive doses of heparin and of cholesterol, heparin was hiding the cholesterol’s effects so any doctor could smell the rat… And when he decided to kill him, the murderer suddenly stopped heparin absorption and gave Pottsherd some psylocybes, those hallucinogenic mushrooms the students use for psychotropic effects. The hallucinations panicked Pottsherd and his heart quickly went away. But there’s an important question I did not answer to: why? Was the killer jealous, was it a bad love affair? Pagger’s solution would have been interesting but you forgot something, these women are too stupid to kill like that, you have to be evil, you have to be a brain, you have to ignore human feelings.”

Henry Pottsherd, who had not said one word since the beginning of the meeting, interrupted him. “So who is the murderer!?”

“Please be gentle, Mr. Pottsherd, you perfectly know the answer but let the other discover it! So, to be as quick as possible, the main key was the business the two brothers started. They bought old medicines and began selling it to Africa and they began making profit.

But money turn businessmen into mad men and quickly, he wanted the whole profit, moreover, he hated his situation in the Sharl Company where both of them were working. Gerald did not know that but for each pound he earned in their business, he got worse and worse.”

“NO ONE TO MOVE! COME ON, SUPERINTENDANT CLAPTON, SHOW US YOUR FACE BEFORE JOINING THE HELL!”

Pottsherd was furious to be discovered but thought he could flee for Africa or South America, he was aiming his pistol at Edward. But he had forgotten something. There were two policemen behind him.

And both of them had their revolver. They were aiming at his arm but Pottsherd moved and was shot on the middle if his neck. He did not suffer…     

~~~

Mely and Jim were in the armchair, contemplating the fire flickering and warming the living room, without enough energy to talk, they had perfectly understood that one of them might have die because of that mad man. They were never going to forget what money turned that man into.

Edward was doubtless, he knew he ought to bring Edward to the psychiatric hospital but he did not have enough courage to take the freedom of a man who saved his life, so he stayed here, quietly thinking about marriage with Mely. But she was thinking about something else, without saying one word, she brought him to the bedroom and closed the door…

~~~

James and Pagger were tired of the harassing day. The superintendant was putting everything from his desk into big boxes. The time had finally come…

“When do you leave?”

“One hour left, I have to give back my revolver.”

“So…good retirement super, I wish you’ll enjoy Wales and, I’ll try do work as good as you…”

“Oh please James, don’t do the same work, be better…”

A man came, he had to change the placard on the door. Now was written:

SUPERINTENDENT JAMES CLAYDE

~~

The graveyard was empty, a thin rain was falling on tombstones. Grey light coming from huge clouds was showing this name:

CHRISTOPHER CLAPTON

1962-2002

   “I miss you, dad, I miss you so much”

Edward did not like speaking, except when he had to do so with his father… When he felt his legs were too painful to keep him standing up, he left the grave, entered a music shop in the street. A maiden was playing the piano, concentrated on the score. He smiled, when he was young, he enjoyed playing music with his father.

He took a guitar, plugged it on and played with the pianist. Maybe life was not rotten anyway…

Mathieu BESANCON.