Chapter 1
Another shitty day... It's raining, it's cold, the sky is all gray and foggy. The store is empty, the streets are deserted, people are fleeing this infernal winter weather. I've still got an hour to kill before closing time, and I'm freezing my butt off in my armchair behind the counter, from which my head barely protrudes.
My father bought the store a few months ago, when Madame Lavigne, the previous owner, retired. This was shortly after my mother's death last summer. He needed something to occupy his weekends and vacations, away from home, to keep his mind on things, and I was requisitioned to look after him the rest of the time, when I wasn't at school.
Did he ask for my opinion? Of course not! It had to be profitable, and I'm free labor! Of course, I tried to protest, but as usual, since Mom's been gone, he can't see me painting and does everything he can to annoy me and avoid my presence.
It's a small store, where you can find just about anything: from chocolate bars to socks and video games. Located on a small street that leads to the city center, we're not very well placed. There's no other store besides us, so there's no parking, the traffic is heavy and the sidewalk too narrow. Our neighbor across the street is the back of a dilapidated old hotel that's been derelict for a century. Suffice to say, my little shop doesn't get many customers.
Normally, when customers are scarce, I take the opportunity to revise my lessons, do my homework and prepare my revision sheets for the end-of-year exams. But right now, it's the Christmas vacations, the first without my mother. My father obviously didn't take a vacation, he canceled the Christmas dinner with Aunt Nadège and Uncle Joseph (his siblings) with whom we used to celebrate Christmas Eve every year, and Grandma Giselle didn't want me to spend a few days with her because I supposedly reminded her too much of Mom, so she sent me my present in the mail. As a result, I left my dad watching a soccer rerun and went to spend Christmas Eve at Andréa's house.
Andréa has been my best friend since kindergarten, when we first met. She's a bit eccentric and always overexcited, full of joy and positive in all circumstances. Her favorite color: rainbow. The more colors in her outfit, the better she looks. She mixes pairs of socks and dissociates pairs of gloves to get more colors and she always wears a headband with cat ears, unicorns, or other exuberant fashionable novelties.
On learning of my disastrous evening ahead, she immediately called her parents to ask their permission to invite me. Which they accepted without a second thought. They've always been my second family. For the occasion, Andréa had donned an assortment of red, white, green and black clothes. A real leprechaun. She added touches of gold to her make-up and jewelry. She even wore flashing Christmas tree earrings!
His entire family was there: grandparents, uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters, cousins. Twenty-one of us sat around the table for two days. My father had been invited, but once again he refused. He never set foot in the Giovanni home, and I never knew why.
Andrea lives in an old farmhouse that the men in her family have restored. They've converted the outbuildings so that they can welcome everyone for family gatherings, and the rest of the time they run a bed and breakfast. It's about a kilometer from my house, behind the hill on the outskirts of town. Slightly isolated, you can make noise, but it doesn't bother anyone.
Marcus, Andréa's older brother, who is also in his final year of high school following his own request to repeat a year, in order to increase his average grade (although sixteen in his final year is not bad, I think) and have a better chance of getting into the school of his choice, invited us to the party he's organizing just after New Year's Eve. Andréa convinced me to go, to get me out of my dark thoughts, which worked as long as I talked to her about it, until I resumed my usual routine.
I've still got two days left before school starts again, for once we've still got a few days off before going back to school! I should get back to my normal routine and do a bit of work, since I didn't do anything on vacation, just the homework. But I can't concentrate. Apart from the time spent with Andréa and Marcus, the days are gloomy. I knew that things had changed at home, that my father had become absent and silent. But to be able to cast such a gloom over the festive season was something I hadn't expected. But then, not at all.
I find myself dreaming of leaving here, of finding my own path like Marcus did, and going elsewhere... But even though I'm a good student, I have no idea what to do after high school. I'm completely lost and I can't count on my father to help me; if it were up to him, I'd grow old in his cold, dusty old store. What's more, we don't have any money; Dad has invested all the savings he and Mom made for my studies in this store, as if I didn't matter anymore. And if I want to leave here, I'll need a scholarship. The problem is, I've only got a few weeks left to send in the applications.
Andréa is going to art school a good hundred kilometers away, Marcus wants to go to architecture school, some of our class are going to psychology college, others to science college, and still others have already found a job... But I don't know where to go, I have no idea what my place in life might be and what role I'm going to play... I don't have any hobbies or passions apart from reading fantasy and romantic novels, and dancing, which I used to do with Andréa before my mother died, but which I couldn't take up again this year because of my father, so how is this going to help me?
I'm just wrapping my head around all these questions when my phone rings. Andréa's photo comes up:
- Hi, baby! How are you? shouts my best friend's cheerful voice.
- Hi, seahorse! I'm as fine as can be on a rainy day, in an empty store, where the heating refuses to work above 18 degrees, and you?
- Oh, my darling, I feel so sorry for you! I'm bored, but I'm warm, so I'm not going to complain. What time do you finish?
- 7 p.m.," I whispered.
- Well, listen, it's our last weekend before school starts, so I'll get my mom to call your dad and have you come over. Plus, there's Marcus' party this weekend.
She hangs up before I can answer, then calls back a few minutes later.
- It's settled, I'm coming over to your place with Marcus, to pick up your stuff before coming to pick you up!
- Brilliant! But how did you get my father to agree? I should have been running the store tomorrow, and you know how he is at the moment...
- My mother is just very persuasive...
I can just imagine her mischievous smile and the wink she'd have given me if I'd been in front of her.
- Thank you, I love you! See you soon!
As I hang up the phone, my heart is warm, my smile is glued to my face and my spirits are lifted. This weekend will do me a world of good.
