Joseph asks, "Can I give you a lift, Lucas?"
Lucas says, "Go home, Joseph, and thank you. Thank you for everything."
"There's no point in staying here."
Peter says, "Come, Joseph. I'll go back with you."
Lucas hears the wagon depart. He sits down by the grave. The birds are singing.
A woman dressed in black comes by silently and places a bouquet of violets at the foot of the cross.
Later, Peter comes back. He touches Lucas on the shoulder.
"Come. It will soon be dark."
Lucas says, "I can't leave him here on his own at night. He's afraid of the dark. He's still so little."
"No, now he's not afraid anymore. Come, Lucas."
Lucas gets up, he stares at the grave. "I should have let him go with his mother. I made a fatal mistake, Peter, in wanting to keep the child at any price."
Peter says, "Every one of us commits a fatal mistake sometime in his life. When we realize it, the damage is already done."
They go back down into town. Outside the bookshop Peter asks, "Do you want to come to my place, or would you rather go in?"
"I'd rather go in."
Lucas goes in. He sits at his desk, looks at the closed door of the child's room, opens a school notebook, and writes, "Everything is fine with Mathias. He is always first at school, and he doesn't have nightmares anymore."
Lucas closes the notebook. He leaves the house, goes back to the cemetery, and sleeps on the child's grave.
At dawn, the insomniac comes to wake him.
"Come, Lucas. Time to open the bookshop."
"Yes, Michael."
8
Claus arrives by train. The little station hasn't changed, but there is now a bus for the passengers.
Claus doesn't take the bus. He goes on foot to the town center. The chestnut trees are in blossom; the street is as quiet and empty as it used to be.
Claus stops in the main square. There is a large three-story building in place of the simple, low houses. It is a hotel. Claus goes in and asks the receptionist, "When was this hotel built?"
"About ten years ago, sir. Would you like a room?"
"I don't know yet. I'll come back in a few hours. Could I leave my case here?"
"Please do."
Claus continues walking, he goes across town, passes the last of the houses, takes an unpaved road that leads to a playing field. Claus crosses the field and sits on the grass next to the river. Later, some children start playing ball. Claus asks one of them, "Has this playing field been here long?"
The child shrugs his shoulders. "The field? It's always been here."
Claus goes back to town. He goes up to the castle, then the cemetery. He searches for ages but can't find the grave of Grandmother and Grandfather. He goes back down into town. He sits on a bench in the main square. He watches the people doing their shopping, coming home from work, going for walks or bicycle rides. There are only a few cars. When the shops close, the square empties, and Claus goes back into the hotel.
"I'll take a room, please."
"For how many nights?"
"I don't know yet."
"Can I have your passport, sir?"
"Here."
"Are you a foreigner? Where did you learn to speak our language so well?"
"Here. I spent my childhood in this town."
She looks at him. "It must have been a long time ago."
Claus laughs. "Do I look that old?"
The young woman blushes. "No, no, I didn't mean that. I'll give you our best room, they're almost all empty. The season hasn't started yet."
"Do you get many tourists?"
"In summer, lots. I also recommend our restaurant, sir."
Claus goes up to his room on the second floor. Its two windows look out onto the square.
Claus eats in the deserted restaurant and goes back to his room. He opens his case, puts his clothes in the dresser, pulls up a chair to one of the windows, and looks out onto the empty street. On the other side of the square, the old houses have remained intact. They have been restored, repainted pink, yellow, blue, and green. The ground floor of each is occupied by a shop: a grocer, a souvenir shop, a dairy, a bookshop, a boutique. The bookshop is in the blue house where it used to be when Claus was a child and went there to buy paper and pencils.
The next day, Claus goes back to the playing field, the castle, the cemetery, the station. When he feels tired, he goes into a bar; he sits in a park. Later in the afternoon, he comes back to the main square. He goes into the bookshop.
A man with white hair sits at the counter, reading by the light of a desk lamp. The shop is in darkness. There are no customers. The white-haired man gets up.
"Excuse me, I forgot to turn on the lights."
The room and window lights come on. The man asks, "Can I help you?"
Claus says, "Please don't bother. I'm just looking."
The man takes off his glasses. "Lucas!"
Claus smiles. "You know my brother! Where is he?"
The man repeats, "Lucas!"
"I'm Lucas's brother. I'm called Claus."
"Don't joke, Lucas, please."
Claus takes his passport from his pocket. "See for yourself."
The man examines the passport. "That doesn't prove anything."
Claus says, "I'm sorry, I have no other means of proving my identity. I am Claus T. and I've come to look for my brother, Lucas. You know him. He has certainly told you about me, his brother Claus."
"Yes, he often talked to me about you, but I must admit I never believed you really existed."
Claus laughs. "Whenever I spoke to people about Lucas, they didn't believe me either. Rather funny, don't you think?"
"No, not really. Come, let's sit down over there."
He points to a low table and some armchairs at the back of the shop, in front of the French windows opening onto the garden.
"If you're not Lucas, I had better introduce myself. I am called Peter. Peter N. But if you aren't Lucas, why did you come here, to this particular place?"
Claus says, "I arrived yesterday. First I went to Grandmother's house, but it's no longer there. There's a playing field there instead. I came in here because this used to be a book and stationery shop when I was a child. We often came here to buy paper and pencils. I can still remember the man who ran it, a pale, fat man. I was hoping to find him here."
"Victor?"
"I don't know his name. I never did."
"He was called Victor. He's dead."
"Of course. He was getting on a bit even then."
"That's right."
Peter looks at the garden disappearing in the darkness.
Claus says, "I naively expected to find Lucas in Grandmother's house after all these years. Where is he?"
Peter continues looking out into the dark. "I don't know."
"Is there anyone in this town who might know?"
"No, I don't think so."
"Did you know him well?"
Peter looks Claus straight in the eyes. "As well as you can know anyone."
Peter leans across the table, grips Claus's shoulders. "Stop it, Lucas, stop this play-acting! It's pointless! Aren't you ashamed to be doing this to me?"
Claus frees himself, gets up. "I can see you were very close, you and Lucas."
Peter falls back into his chair. "Yes, very. Forgive me, Claus. I knew Lucas when he was fifteen. At the age of thirty he disappeared."
"Disappeared? You mean he left this town?"
"The town and maybe even the country. Then he returns today with a different name. I always thought that play on words with your names was stupid."