4 (french) Werber, Bernard

day I asked him if her birth control pills could cure my
cough.
She lowered her eyes.
- Well, uh, being dead, it means “no longer there.” - As you
leave the room? - Not just a room. It is also leaving the
home, city, country. - Travelling far, then? Like when you
hand in holidays? - Uh … no, not exactly. Because when
one is death, it does not move. - It does not move and it
goes away? It’s great! How is this possible? It is perhaps
this clumsy attempt to explain the death of the butcher
Dupont was born in me ground of curiosity which, much
later, Raoul Razorbak able to germinate his delusions.
Finally at least that’s what it seems.
Three months later, when I was told that my arrièregrand-
Aglaia mother was dead, too, I said, paraîtil “Even Aglaia is
dead? So there, I’d be surprised she is able! “Furious, my
great-grandfather rolled his eyes and uttered this terrible
sentence I never forget:
- But you do not know that death is the thing most horrible
that can happen! No. I didn’t know the answer.
- Oh … I thought … I stammered. - Do not mess with these
things! added to it drive the point home. If there is
something with which we were not kidding, it’s death! My
father took over. Everyone wanted me to understand that