The Man of Their Lives

by Françoise Bourdin

  “Let’s go inside,” Grégoire said. “You can tell me everything in there.”

  He walked into the apartment and Frédéric followed. Once in the living room, Grégoire settled into his favorite sofa and quietly waited for his grandson to take a seat. Frédéric sat on the couch next to the sofa.

  “Does your dad know you’re here?” Grégoire asked.

  “No,” the teenager mumbled.

  “What happened? You guys had a fight?”

  “Not really…”

  The kid looked so out of sorts that Grégoire decided not to press him. He sat back, rested his feet on the ottoman, and waited. In a low voice, Frédéric said, “I left school at two… And I took the train here.”

  “Yeah. I figured you didn’t walk down to Paris. So, what’s the story?”

  “This morning, Dad told me that Francine was going to come over for supper tonight with Romain.”

  “And?”

  “And I can’t stand them!”

  “Both of them?”

  “You know how it is, Grandpa. First it’s tonight, and soon it’s going to be every night. I know what Dad has in mind. One of these days, he’s going to tell me that the Capelans are moving in!”

  “Come on…”

  “No, I’m telling you! When we’re at the house alone, just the two of us, you should see him. He’s all distracted and always in a hurry now. He can’t wait to see her! And he’s playing some sort of game with me. He’s talking about her like she’s no big deal but I know where he’s coming from.”

  Frédéric’s comments were filled with bitterness. Grégoire made sure not to interrupt him.

  “You know, I don’t care if he’s got a girlfriend. I just don’t want him to mess up our lives overnight.”

  Still silent, Grégoire looked at his grandson, then down to his feet, and back at his grandson.

  Frédéric continued, “I know I’m being selfish, but it’s my father, my house, and I’m not going to share any of this with that bastard! Why didn’t Dad find a woman with no kids?”

  “Hold it!” Grégoire suddenly said, right hand raised. “Before you go on, I have to tell you something, and I hope it’s not going to make you upset.”

  Taken aback, the teenager looked intently at his grandfather, wondering what he was going to say next, a little scared.

  “What?” he said.

  “You’re my grandson, the oldest of my grandchildren, and you’ve always been my favorite. Whatever you do, I’ll always love you. Even if you killed someone I’d tell the police that you and I were watching TV when the murder was committed… But there is someone I love even more than you: my son. That bond is stronger than anything else. I know your father feels it for you. I was actually thinking of your dad earlier today when I was coming back from…from the park. I was thrilled thinking that maybe he was going to be in love and make a new life for himself. And I wouldn’t want him to miss out on that. I didn’t have that chance, Frédéric, after your grandmother died. And I’ve suffered because of it.”

  Frédéric sprang out of his chair and began pacing the living room, out of sorts. He didn’t realizing that at that moment he looked just like his father.

  “Why does he need a ‘new life’ ?” he said. “Of course he’s got the right to go out with women! Francine or anyone else, I don’t care. But it’s no reason to have everyone living under the same roof. It’s driving me crazy just thinking about it. I’m telling you, if Romain moves in with that stupid guitar of his, I’m going to shoot myself. Could I come live with you guys?”

  “Sure. But it’s a little early for that kind of talk, don’t you think? I mean, you’re getting all riled up over something that might not even happen. I’m sure your father is thinking about everything and he’s worried sick about it.”

  “Not you, too… I’m so tired of hearing about all his sacrifices, that he’s a model father…”

  “Is that not the case?” Grégoire asked dryly.

  A heavy silence followed. Grégoire looked at his watch and said, “What time do you usually get home?”

  “Five-thirty.”

  “Is he getting worried right now?”

  “No. Not yet.”

  “Call him. Tell him you’re with me. If he gives you a hard time, hand me the phone.”

  Frédéric glanced at the cell on the coffee table, then at his grandfather.

  Grégoire smiled at him and said, “After that, we’ll chat some more. And your cousins are going to barge in soon. You can spend the night here if you want. Go on, get that phone call out of the way.”

  Torn between his anger and guilty feelings , the teenager hesitated before punching the numbers. Louis picked up on the first ring.

  “It’s me, Dad,” Frédéric said, swallowing hard.

  “Where are you?”

  The way the question came out, Frédéric knew his father was agitated.

  “A certain Élise called a few minutes ago,” Louis said, “asking if you were alright. She thought you were sick after you left school in the middle of the afternoon.”

  Frédéric was stunned. Élise? She cared about him that much? That was great, even though her call had worried his father.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “Not as much as I am. So, where are you?”

  “In Paris. At Grandpa’s.”

  “Is there a good reason for you to go down there by yourself on a weekday?”

  “I…I need some time to think things over.”

  Frédéric knew it sounded odd, and he tried to explain himself.

  “You know, all this is bothering me. It makes me upset and…”

  “What ‘all this’?” Louis said. “Did I do something wrong, Frédéric?”

  Not “Fred” or “buddy” or anything like that, but rather “Frédéric,” with the three syllables overly enunciated…

  “You’re all going to be better off without me tonight,” the boy said, almost shouting into the phone. “You and Romain can talk about music like experts. You can even give him a private lesson!”

  “Enough of that!” Louis barked. “You’re not talking to one of your friends, you know. I’m not impressed with running away from your problems, like you did today. I never thought you’d do something like that. Your jealousy is totally unfounded. You’re trying to punish me for what exactly?”

  “Don’t shout,” Frédéric mumbled.

  “I’m not shouting!” Louis screamed.

  Grégoire gestured at Frédéric and said, “Give it to me.”

  As his grandson just stood there, pale-faced and stunned, Grégoire snatched the phone away from his hand.

  “Hey there, Louis,” he said, good-naturedly. “You need to calm down a little, son. Things aren’t so bad.”

  “You think so? If you ask me, the kid needs a couple good smacks upside the head. I should’ve done it a long time ago. But it’s never too late to do the right thing!”

  “There’s a good idea,” Grégoire said. “Physical violence is always the best way to go when your child is in crisis…”

  Grégoire’s comment, both humorous and sarcastic, forced Louis to pause. And then calm down.

  “What do you think I’m supposed to do, then, since you’ve got all the answers?” Louis finally said.

  “Nothing. Do what you were planning on doing tonight and don’t worry about things. Frédéric is going to spend a couple of days here with us.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding. He’s got finals next week!”

  “So? He can study here. I’ll make sure he does the work. Besides, he might change his mind tomorrow and go home. But for today, I think you two have said enough to each other. Now you know where Frédéric is and—”

  “Fine!” Louis said, and hung up on his father.

  “Alright then,” Grégoire said to Frédéric. “It’s settled. And now he’s mad at me as well as you. Some of the pressure is off your back.”

  Frédéric seemed relieved, cracking a smile.
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  “Can you believe that she was worried about me?” he said.

  “Who?”

  “Élise.”

  “Élise...who’s that?”

  “I didn’t know she had my phone number… It’s not even listed. I want to call her. Where’s your laptop? I need to find her number.”

  Stunned, his grandfather frowned at him. The kid cared much more about this Élise girl than his dad being upset.

  “Kids,” he sighed, shaking his head.

  * * *

  When Francine left the principal’s office, her cheeks were on fire. She’d just gotten an earful and wasn’t given the opportunity to defend herself. How could she explain the ruckus during lit class these past few days? Sitting in the back row, Frédéric kept making wisecracks and asking inane questions. The class kept laughing. He was taunting her, knowing that she had to put up with his antics. He took out his frustrations on her instead of his father. It didn’t take much for a classroom to get out of control,Frédéric had taken the lead, and they took full advantage of the situation.

  Worst of all, her classroom was adjacent to Antoine’s on Thursday mornings. He’d come over twice to see what was going on, claiming he couldn’t run his own class properly with all that noise.

  Until now, Francine had never been faced with such a problem. She wasn’t afraid to deal with misbehaving students, even the worse cases. In these circumstances, she didn’t know what to do. No matter what she said or did, Frédéric’s resentment only seemed to grow. She wondered how far he’d go if she took extreme measures with him.

  Francine walked down the hallway, trying to calm down. Who’d alerted the principal? Antoine? He wasn’t above doing such a thing. He was still holding a grudge and dying to making life difficult for her.

  When Francine saw Romain waiting for in the parking lot she remembered they had a supper date at Neuville House. Louis had thought that a visit during the week, without the rest of the family around, might help bring Romain and Frédéric closer. Maybe...But what about her? Francine wondered. What was she supposed to do in Frédéric’s presence? Say nothing? Bring up his behavior in class while his father was present? This might simply add gas to the fire.

  “You don’t look too happy,” Romain said when she reached the car.

  He kissed his mother on the cheek and picked up his school bag.

  “Something wrong?” he insisted.

  “Nothing serious,” she said opening the car door.

  Once behind the steering wheel, she peeked at herself in the rearview mirror. Maybe they should stop by the apartment so she could freshen up. But sitting on Louis’s veranda with a glass of wine was so much more appealing. Besides, he’d asked her to arrive early, and she didn’t want to disappoint him.

  “Dad said you had problems with one of your classes?” Romain asked in as pleasant a tone as he could muster.

  “He told you that?”

  That topped everything. She felt anger rise inside her all over again.

  “Your students are giving you a hard time? You usually run a tight ship.”

  “It’s the end of the year and they’re stressed out. And so am I!”

  “Mom? What’s going on?”

  Romain had put a hand on her arm, as if to prevent her from driving off before she told him what was bothering her.

  “What else did your father say?” she said. “That being with Louis was the worst thing that could’ve happened to me?”

  “Mom,” Romain said. “Richard told me what’s going on. It’s Frédéric, right?”

  He wanted to know everything. He adored his mother. As soon as they started living on their own he’d felt like he should be protecting her.

  Overwrought, she leaned back against the headrest and felt her eyes fill with tears. She was exhausted thanks to the sleepless nights with Louis. And because of all the unanswered questions that burdened her.

  “You want me to talk to that jerk?” Romain suggested. “I can take him aside this evening and tell him what’s what.”

  “No, please. That’s the last thing I want you to do.”

  Taking ahold of herself, she smiled at Romain and started the engine.

  “Let’s try to have a pleasant and quiet evening, okay? First I want to make sure that you’re fine with this, that the situation is bearable for you.”

  “You mean Louis? I have nothing against him.”

  “But do you like him?”

  “Oh, yeah! But...”

  There had been a trace of regret in the boy’s voice. Francine realized that for him to like Louis was, in a way, a betrayal of Antoine.

  Still, he continued. “I have a lot of admiration for him. I did even before you guys met. And he’s nice. I get why you’re attracted to him. He’s a good-looking guy, and you two make a nice couple. It’s becoming serious between the two of you, right?”

  Instead of giving him a straight answer, she preferred to ask, “Would that bother you?”

  “No, Mom. Pretty as you are, it’d be a shame if you were all alone. And I’d rather see you with one man who really likes you and who’s nice to you than with a bunch of boyfriends.”

  Francine felt like laughing, but fortunately she managed to control herself. Romain very seriously continued, “I imagine that you and Louis are talking about the future?”

  She had no answer for this question, at least not now. Frédéric’s attitude wasn’t going to make matters easy.

  “You’d like to live over there?” Romain insisted.

  “Well…”

  “He’s asked you or not?”

  “Yes, he has. But it’s out of the question.”

  “You don’t want to? He’s got a great place!”

  Francine could see he was feeling her out. She wasn’t about to fall for it.

  “What about you? How would you feel about the idea?”

  “I’d rather be happy in a small place like ours than feel like a stranger in that house. Besides, I’d want to strangle Frédéric after five minutes.”

  His tone of voice had been as firm as could be, but he tenderly added, “Of course, I’m not the one deciding, Mom. If this is what it’d take to make you happy, I wouldn’t get in the way.”

  Francine veered abruptly to the side of the road and stopped the car. They were only a couple of miles away from Louis’s, and she wanted to have this critical conversation with her son before arriving in Notre-Dame-de-la-Mer.

  “Are you saying that if I decided to accept Louis’s invitation you’d move in with your father?”

  The words had flown out of her mouth and could’ve been misinterpreted. She hurried to add, “Unless that’s really what you want, of course. I mean, I’m not an abusive mother, and I wouldn’t keep you against your will! But I know that you don’t get along too well with Antoine, that you don’t share the same ideas about things...your music. You’d get on each other’s nerves big time.”

  “I know all that, Mom,” Romain said. “I’d rather live with you, but if I’m in the way…”

  “What? You, in the way? You’re kidding, right?”

  She grabbed him by the neck, forced him towards her, and kissed him on the cheek.

  “Nothing in the world is more precious to me than you, Romain. Got it?”

  When she let go of him, he felt like a little boy.

  “Okay,” he mumbled. “We should go now.”

  A few minutes later, they arrived at the house. As they stepped out of the car, they saw Louis come over with a forced smile. He carried a tray holding a bottle of champagne and three glasses.

  “I set some chairs and a table under the chestnut tree so we won’t have the sun beating down on our heads.”

  Francine could tell something was wrong.

  “You need help to prepare supper?” she said.

  “No, no. It’ll be okay, as long as you’re not expecting too much. We should have something to drink first.” He handed Romain the tray and put his arm around Francine’s shoulder. “Cham
pagne okay with you guys?”

  They sat in the rattan chairs that Louis had set up. Francine wondered why he was so antsy. She watched him sit down, light a cigarette, take a deep drag, cross his legs, and then get up.

  “Romain,” Louis said, “would you mind going to the kitchen and getting the box of cookies on the table? I forgot to bring it.”

  Romain hesitated for a second before getting up and saying, “Sure, I can do that.” And he headed for the house.

  “Something the matter?” Francine asked.

  “Nothing tragic,” Louis said. “But our idea of a reconciliation between our sons? We can forget about it for today. Frédéric skipped school this afternoon and went down to Paris to crash at his grandfather’s. He left! I’m completely… at a loss. I’m sorry.”

  He jumped out of his chair and kneeled by Francine and said, “You have nothing to do with this. It’ll pass.”

  Impulsively he pressed his head against her, which moved her deeply. Her fingertips his short and silky hair and then the back of his neck.

  “The cookies are coming,” she warned Louis.

  He got to his feet as Romain rejoined them, and managed to put on a happy face.

  “Pacific is one heck of a hit,” Romain said. “It’s playing on the radio all the time.”

  “No one is more surprised about it than me,” Louis responded, waving his hand to change the topic.

  The song’s amazing success befuddled him, and gave him no real pleasure.

  “If you’d like,” he said, “you could come to a recording one of these days. You could even participate…”

  Romain was floored by the offer, which Louis regretted right away. If Frédéric learned about this, he’d blow his top. Romain in a studio with his father. Romain telling everyone about it—this would fuel their animosity for months. Why did things have to be so complicated?

  Louis poured the champagne and handed Francine and Romain a glass. A gentle gust of wind made the grass around them ripple. Soon it would have to be cut. Generally, this was Frédéric’s job-- he liked to drive the lawn mower.

  Francine had a couple of sips, and raised her eyes to Louis, who was still next to her. He didn’t know how to behave in Romain’s presence. He certainly couldn’t take Francine in his arms and kiss her, which was what he was dying to do.