by Chris Red
Kerian and Edwin had had no exemplary family models. They had known certain setbacks during their youth. The one had undergone the torments of the divorce when the other one had been placed in a host family. Nevertheless, during their meeting around a café in a seedy highway station of the North of France, they had not told their particular respective childhoods. Kerian was on road in time. Netherlands delivered through Europe and returned. He had stopped having a break to have crossed the Belgian border. When he entered this rest area, he looked around, only Tables one was occupied, by a strapping lad who turned the back on him. To tell the truth, it was dark, there was little traffic in this so late hour. The cashier seemed to burst in her work, playing with a bubble of chewing gum. The atmosphere was really gloomy. But he needed a small coffee to manage to maintain the open eyes. Actually, the long-distance truck drivers had to stop driving at this moment, but some, among which Kerian, did not really respect rules of the game. He delayed him to find his native Brittany, as well as his home. However, he was in a hurry anymore , and seeing this only man and being of sociable nature, he decided to get closer to him to knot contact. He went to his height to see better the face which hid behind these long fair hair. Melancholic blue eyes were plunged into the dark black of his cup of coffee. He showed a lot of sadness. Apparently, it was not the enjoyment. It did not prevent Kerian from taking him out of his lethargy.
" Hello, my buddy, its not the time to go?
- That could get better, he answered with a pale appearance.
- That could not that well, you could have died, answered Kerian by laughing. "
Kerian stamped in all directions, he floundered from left to right, looked almost everywhere, Edwin had the impression that he had set of the speed.
" Any way, you, you looked very good, answered Edwin by sketching a half-smile, amused by the excitement of this funny guy.
- Ah, ben here is ... Your smile. It is good that smile. If you want my opinion, people, do not smile enough. They always make a face. There, for example, you see, I left delivering in Rotterdam. The guys on quays, they looked sad, I tell you no ... Then, I understand them, it is not my business how to say ... I dunno I ... It is not very exciting, you see? "
Edwin was frightened at the same time and amused by this sort of extraterrestrial which had just unloaded, but he got hooked by the discussion.
" No, I am sorry, I do not see ... It is not really my business.
- Your business? You laugh not with the formulation, you. And, tell to see, it is what your business ? He says on a slightly bourgeois tone.
- It is the music ... We were on tour with my group ...
- But it is brilliant, that ... You should be satisfied ... And they are where the other members of the group? He asked in looking around for possible musicians in the area.
- I do not know ... We complicated things yesterday evening, we separated ...
- Ahhhh shiiiiiiiiiit ... It is stupid that. If you don't mind me asking, he passed what?
- Nothing so Interesting.
- Go, don’t mess around, tells.
- As you wish, he says in letting escape a smile again, but let me appear first, he says to him offering the hand and by looking him straight in the eyes. Edwin. Edwin Peters.
Enchanted Edwin. me it is Kerian. Kerian ... The Breton " added, proud of him, after a short time of hesitation.
So, the presentations were made. Edwin told him his artist's life, his success, his difficulties. Kerian admitted to him that he liked to sing and also evoked him his life. They stayed a very long moment to exchange in this highway station by forgetting that a cashier spied on them, because they represented his only night entertainment. Before leaving the place which the fate had chosen as their meeting, they exchanged their address and phone number and left on the road the happy spirit. The happiness is made by small drafts. Some are stronger than others. The birth of a friendship is a part of these. She offers you a sudden and spontaneous plenitude. So, Kerian resumed the steering wheel with a raring to go morale and the remainder of its trip was only a formality. Hedid not stop thinking again about this meeting, repeating ceaselessly in his spirit that "it was funny ", this meeting.
Unfortunately, if they exchanged during numerous years in an episodic way, the distance was right, temporarily, of their almost brotherly link. So they had stopped communicating during several years When the unthinkable rose. Kerian had always lived in Rennes. He had never moved. The fate had made so that Edwin had fallen in love with a Frenchwoman and he had left his Belgium origin. This one took him in the luggage in Brittany in Rennes no more and no less. And one day, the miracle occurred, in a most commonplace way which is. Edwin waited in a line to buy himself cigars in a shopping mall when her look arose on a funny individual who seemed in full debate with a seven-year-old young boy.
" No, Lucas, goodbye does not say himself hariveutdeschi in Italian, stop inventing words.
- Arrivederci! Not hariveutdeschi! You never believe in me!
- You had a revelation like that of how we say goodbye in Italian, that's it Lucas?
Yes. I wondered how we could say it in Italian, and that is seemed to me obvious suddenly, I do not know why.
- All right, we shall verify at home then. I tell you that we say arrivadala. "
Suddenly, a man interfered in their unbearable discussion.
" Sirs, allow me to intervene, but it seems to me that this young man is right. Goodbye he said arrivederci well in Italian, asserted Edwin with a big smile.
- Ah! You see, dad! "
Kerian remained deaf in the objection of his son, he stared at this man, stunned by the unlikelihood of these reunions.
" Oh whore, I believe it‘s not! OK, my hen? Kerian exclaimed by embracing Edwin. It is crazy! What you make here?
- Do not say a swearword Kerian, he meant Edwin of a slightly moralizing tone while giving a kiss to him. I am going to tell you, but I believe that it's your turn, answered Edwin by appointing to him the seller of tobacco. "
Kerian placed his order, followed by Edwin, then they left together. The distance had maintained them taken away during so many years, but they erased these long months of dumbness in the evening. Kerian invited Edwin to dinner at home that evening. He came along with his wife. And from that day, they did not seperate any more. They became more collusive than they had never been. They shared everything. Professional concerns, couple problems , even the financial bothers. Edwin opened himself on his perpetual ill-being, the questions that they arose on the world, on the life, on the God, on everything. Edwin's musical career had not taken place as he had wished. He was not commercial enough. He had things to be said, that people did not necessarily wish to hear, or more exactly that the producers did not wish to hear about, They preferred to be of use to them as some soup. The time of the composers which had heavy words of sense had ended in the sub-Saharan sky when a helicopter had taken Daniel Balavoine in his grave. No let us be just, him
Had rather begun to decline from there to go out slowly, but certainly in the 2000s, at the dawn of the new millennium. However, Edwin had managed to record some songs underground which had found its public. It was in oneself a success. Unfortunately, if he did not have the means of auto produce and to live thanks to his talent, it was necessary to him to work. He possessed another gift. That of the cooking. So, Kerian manages to find him cook's post in the school of his son. They remained close one to another, in good as bad moment, what was for them the base of a robust friendship. Before finding him, Edwin had never found somebody so generous, enthusiastic, and in the pure heart that Kerian having left him on this highway station. And in what concerned the Breton, he had never smelt simply a natural and so obvious complicity with any other human being. And when Edwin and his wife parted, he stayed in Rennes, beside his best friend, and beside his family which had also adopted him.
Unfortunately for them, the political situation of France and even Europe worsened. They underwent as the others,
the wars, the conflicts, the divisions and they were, to crown it all, the spectators of the climatic upheavals. Brittany was particularly affected by the tornados which abounded regularly. Kerian and his family had begun to feed the idea to leave their native land. However, a question arose: where to go? No place seemed almost more welcoming. Edwin, him, was not inclined to a departure. The Apocalypse approached with large steps; of course, they ignored it. However, in the morning of November 24th, 2014, Edwin had a saving reflex. He had been a victim of a terrible nightmare at night. He saw running to open graves to go to warn Kerian and his family of an imminent tornado. Unfortunately, in this dream, there happened too late and were in in front of ruins. Pieces of wood, broken tiles and ends of walls sprinkled the ground. Their district in its entirety had been destroyed. Edwin could only follow the tornado which went away far off and which decomposed, without expressing the slightest remorse. Following this vision
Nightmares , he did not hesitate a single moment. He was so certain that this dream was a kind of sign or warning. His first action consisted in seizing the telephone and in contacting Kerian to be well certain that no drama had still taken place. Kerian understood strictly nothing in the words which were linked at top speed in the receiver of the telephone, he had only recorded that Edwin came to their place, and that he was panic-stricken.
Edwin darkened as a desperate person once the telephone rested hurriedly. He did not stop trembling. It would be the fact only to put the contact in the car was laborious. He took then insane risks on the road to go to their home. He doubled as a madman, did not respect the priorities, even less thelights. It was for him a question of life or death. Whoever would have told him that he had made a bad dream, but he had an irresistible intuition that if he did not act, it would occur for real. He was thus sweaty. The clammy hands turned the steering wheel in all the direction. The gearshift stuck on him on fingers. He thought no more about anything and he tumbled as a madman in the district sheltering his best friend. Edwin stopped by means of the handbrake in front of his house, leaving with the passage a beautiful tire track on the asphalt. He knocked at the door. Hardly Kerian had opened the door that he rushed inside and that he improvised:
" Fast Kerian, you have to leave. The weather report announced tornados in this sector, it is necessary to leave without further delay.
- You want that we leave like that?
- Yes. Everything risks disappearing here. As soon as I knew, I ran up. "
Kerian woman, Sarah, remained hidden behind Kerian, with her their two children, Lucas and Matthias.
" But you want that we go where?
- I do not know, me. It is necessary to find a place to shelter you all, answered Edwin by going to Sarah, Lucas and Matthias. "
The latter were frightened. They did not even dare to open the mouth , they observed both friends silently until they make a decision.
" Come to see outside, the sky is black as I had never seen it so before. That is going to explode here. It is necessary to leave as soon as possible.
- But, the house?
- It is only of the material Kerian. You will find another roof.
- All right. We could go to my mother, is it fine, my dear? Ask Kerian to his wife. "
This one came out in favor silently.
" Well, help me to take some stuff for the children and we take off.
- Good. "
And they took care with filling each a suitcase by taking all the clothes which they saw hastily. Once the curly luggage, they took some reserves of food and drink and took off in the street. Clouds were blackish and thick. It was ten o'clock in the morning, and we would have said that it was midnight. Kerian fixed Edwin, worried, having observed the sky.
" It is not good sign, that, my hen ...
- There is no time to lose. Fast, rise, he indicated to Sarah and to the children. "
These took place behind while Edwin and Kerian took a seat the front.
" Your mother lives In La Rochelle, is she?
- Yes, we have to go to La Rochelle. I hope that the road is good.
- It will be all right. Uncle Edwin is here to look out you ", he tells him while giving a wink.
Then, he made buzz the engine, the direction to La Rochelle. Lucas had bent to observe the house shrinking through the rear window.
" Dad, Edwin! There is a big whirlwind which forms behind the house. "
Edwin glanced at the rear-view mirror, he saw the tornado about which spoke Lucas, it seemed enormous. His dream was well and truly premonitory. He observed by the corner of the Kerian eye.
" Just in time, we would say. "
So, they left the peninsula of the northwest of France. Kerian had tears in the eyes. It is not the fact to leave Brittany which moved her , it was especially to guess that she will never see it again. Thus they let behind them tornados ravage the Armorique region, but the way towards Charente-Maritime was not less tempestuous there. The sky was of a heavy darkness, as if it was going to fall on the head. The wind blew violently. A miserable storm got ready on the Atlantic Coast. It was not the first one, but maybe it would be the last one. At least, the elements of the nature could let glimpse it disastrous augur. The trees which they perceived were tilted. Everybody in the car was strangely silent. They were all terrified. Kerian had the impression that they only pushed away the term, but Edwin seemed determined to want to save them, it was necessary out of the question to abdicate. If he believed that he had a chance there to take out there, it was necessary to try to the end. After a while, he broke the silence:
"Good thing we are not in the occupied zone Edwin, otherwise we would have been bad ... I pity them the poor people ...
- you are right ... But try not to think of it ... The situation is already ... Enough what she is, you see ...
- Look, you begin to speak as me."
Edwin smiles half of resentment, and half because he found that his amusement at the moment was not the most convenient. But at this moment, they crossed Nantes, and the view of the bridge of Cheviré left them speechless.
"My God, I had forgotten this passage, let escape Kerian of with a suffocated voice."
Edwin's car walked straight in the direction of the biggest bridge of the urban area of Nantes. This one had a 52 meter height, to allow to pass formerly the most impressive ships. He stepped over the Loire.
"He is rather impressive indeed this bridge, answered Edwin."
This bridge was usually already rather impressing, but to climb by car over the river and over the city with a similar time was not very reassuring. Matthias slid in his
Mom who was afraid. Sarah tried to comfort the best she could her two toddlers, but all her hopes rested on their pilot. The wind was violent and the car trembled a little. However, it did not rain. Any way, there were no tornados on the horizon, it was already that. Having left the periphery of Nantes, Edwin thought about the dangerousness of their journey, worth knowing follow the Atlantic Coast.
"Finally, I do not know if it is a good idea to go to La Rochelle, grumbled Edwin.
- to go on the coast does not really seem to me a brilliant idea, you know ... But my mother ...
- Yes, you are right, we cannot leave her aside, agreed Edwin. But we pick her in the passage, we should go inside lands. I have relatives near Toulouse.
- why not ... But that is far.
- yes, the journey risks to be ... looong ... exclaimed Edwin who saw a tree far off beat down on the road."
He crushed and approached shyly. Almighty gusts beat down. The fact of seeing a tree, then others far off to collapse was not reassuring at all. The car floundered a little moreover. Neither the fact of moving forward nor the fact of parking offered any sense of security. Kerian and Edwin considered perplexed. Sarah had the dumbfounded face, holding her most precious two beings against her. Their faces were wrinkled with an intensity to be made turn pale a dead man. Then, suddenly, they felt the car moving. But it did not nevertheless seem to be windy
.
"You smelt well as me?" Asked for Kerian to Edwin.
This one shook to confirm. He seemed to look what had been able to be at the origin of this light disturbance. Then suddenly, a violent shock was felt, the car spun towards the left. The nature was not made always well. So, a gust followed and caused a disastrous string of circumstances for the fugitives. The car made barrels behind, then fell again as if by magic on its tires. A heavy shock was felt. The roof had been a little crushed, windows were cracked. The car had landed in the edge
Of a field. They could again extricate themselves from this situation, before the second wave intervenes " you should not lose one second, it is necessary to go out from there, roared Edwin. "
He forced his car door repeatedly. Kerian did the same from her side. They eventually took out not easily. Each rushed to rear doors. They finished at the same time windows while having taking the care of asking them to put the head in knees to protect themselves the face. Sarah invited Mathias to go out near Edwin while Kerian got back Lucas. On the other hand, Sarah remained paralyzed in the middle of the car. She tightened the quivering finger in front of her.
" There ... Front ... "
Kerian and Edwin turned the head. They had the impression to have a distorted view. The ground seemed to divide into two far off in front of them. A huge crack got closer. The darkness reigned in its peak. The wind roared. And be in hiding? She trembled. Kerian rushed inside the car.
" Fast, beloved! Come, take my hand!
- No ... I can’t ... run away... Save ... Lucas and Matthias ...
- No! Stop!Take my hand!
- Sarah, go! Shouted Edwin.
- Mom, go come fast! "
Sarah's face was flooded under tears. Kerian was tightened towards him, his eyelids moistened. Edwin, who had made the tour, with Matthias, seizes himbehind.