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Meet Antoinette
Her
name was Antoinette Amboise, or so she said. Somehow, they became
friends. Somehow, because it never made sense. Maybe Axel’s
embarrassment that night allowed her to share glimpses of
fragility, something she’d never reveal to a client, not even
Lucien. Over the coming months, she and...
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Meet Lucien
The
darkness would emerge, but this night, he was all lightness. He
enveloped the café. His laugh commanded attention. It was like a
bass lilt. He listened as well as he talked, which created a whirl
of animated conversation. His gestures spoke of generosity. He
needed to touch, forming...
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Meet Salene
A
decade earlier, there was a short movie called Histoire d’une
obsession. Mona Lisa keeps smiling quizzically while the hero
is pursued by images of her everywhere. She smiles at him in a
museum, at a bookseller along the banks of the Seine, in the
streets, at a café. Enough to drive him...
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Meet Axel
Whenever he could,
Axel would walk back and forth to school, relying on the Metro only
if it rained or snowed. Partly, this was to economize. A forgone
round-trip would finance an evening drink, but mostly, it was to
explore the city.
In
the morning, it was a determined and charted walk to the...
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Meet du Maurier
He was as tall and austere as de Gaulle and acted the same. Yet,
once they were done with a lesson, du Maurier became an endearing
uncle who would insist on buying Axel a sherry to cap the
afternoon. Then he would sidle to the bar and capture any
unsuspecting patron with stories of the Free...
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Meet Messier
He was somewhere near fifty-five years old. Over drinks at La
Joconde, Axel had gathered patches of his life. He had no formal
education and grew up somewhere west of Sacre Coeur. He had no
father, and his mother died of a drug overdose when he was a young
boy. An alcoholic grandfather raised...
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Meet Violette
There was a sadness to her movements. Over the weeks, Axel realized
her day took on a mechanical sameness, virtually by the clock. When
she cleaned the bar top, washed the glasses, and walked next door
to the charcuterie for provisions. She would murmur or declare
identical phrases to identical...
