Little Pepper falls silent for a few moments. I’ve begun to look through the bin again, though since he told me the story of the cockerel I’ve had a little bit of a bug in my eye. Then suddenly, in great excitement, he plunged a bit further into the rubbish, shouting: ‘That’s it! I’ve found it! There’s the key!’
I hurried towards him to look. But I was soon disappointed: ‘Little Pepper, that’s not a door key, it’s far too small.’
‘Well what is it then?’
‘It’s a key for opening tins of sardines, the kind without heads brought in from Morocco.’
‘Yes, but you said a key, you didn’t say what kind!’
He kept it in his pocket, and we went on looking for at least an hour. People who saw us thought I must be his child. My clothes were dirty, like a mechanic mending an old car engine. There were maggots climbing up my arms, and Little Pepper came to pick them off and eat them like roasted peanuts.
‘As long as it’s not chicken, I can eat it!’
It made me feel sick, which made him laugh like a little child. Then I realised he really liked this game and that we’d be spending hours in this bin if I wasn’t careful, so I stood up.
‘I have to go home, or my parents will be cross.’
‘Oh come on, Michel, let’s keep looking, the key’s here, we’ll find it, I promise.’
But even when people bought fresh rubbish, and stood a little way off, watching us rummage, we didn’t find the key.
When the sun began to set behind the houses on the edge of our quartier, Little Pepper stood up and dusted his backside down with his right hand.
‘You can go now, little one. I’ve just had the best afternoon of my whole life. I’ll go on looking for that key for you. If I find it I’ll keep it for you.’
He pointed over towards the cemetery of the Voungou quartier: ‘I live down there. Yes, just by the door to the cemetery. It’s quiet down there at night, I can sleep in peace, and talk with the dead and departed. They don’t look at me like the living do. They tell me everything that goes on in this town…’
‘Can you really talk with the dead?’
‘Of course!’
‘So have you seen my two sisters?’
‘What are their names?’
‘My Sister Star and My Sister No-name.’
‘I need real names. You know how it is, I see so many people pass by.’
‘I don’t know their real names, I just call them that.’
‘Well ask your mother their names and come back and see me whenever you like.’
I stood up too. I dusted down my backside like Little Pepper. I called goodbye as he watched me leave. I’m sure he was thinking I’d never come back.
~ ~ ~
I’ve just told Geneviève about what happened with Little Pepper.
‘Have you really got a key you’ve hidden somewhere?’ she asks.
‘No.’
‘Well find any old key, then! I’ll help you. I’ve got an old key that…’
‘No, Little Pepper’s going to find it for me, he can talk to invisible people. And it will be a real key, to open up my mother’s belly.’
‘You should be careful. That man’s mad.’
We’ve been walking down the street for a few minutes. We’re going to the Lebanese shop, where she’ll buy me some boiled sweets.
I look at her. ‘The river in your eyes isn’t as green as it was. The diamonds have gone from the edges.’
‘That’s because it’s dark.’
‘Diamonds shine in the dark, too.’
‘I know, but sometimes they have to rest because they’ve been shining so much in the day. Tomorrow you’ll see, the river will be green again, and the diamonds on the edge will shine once more.’
‘Will they shine just for me, no one else?’
She smiles: ‘Yes, they’ll shine for you. No one else. But you should be looking at the river and the diamonds that sparkle in Caroline’s eyes. Have you spoken to her?’
‘Yes.’
‘And?’
‘We’re not divorced now, we got married again.’
‘That’s great!’
‘I told her I had castles in my heart that were bigger and better than the castles of Marcel Pagnol. And I said I wanted her to come into the castles in my heart, and then I’ll protect her.’
‘That’s beautiful! If your brother Yaya Gaston could talk like that, I think I’d be the happiest woman on earth…’
‘I’ll ask him to talk to you like I talked to Caroline!! I’ll write down my sweet-talk on a piece of paper, and then he can read it to you when I’m not around, because he’d be embarrassed if I was there.’
‘No, you can’t force things with love, it has to come from the heart. Yaya Gaston could never talk as you just did, he lost his innocence long ago.’
Now we’re standing outside the Lebanese shop. But I don’t go in.
‘Don’t you want to go into the shop?’
‘I want to ask you a question first…’
‘You know I always listen to what you say!’
‘I want you to tell me the truth, I don’t want to go on and on feeling unhappy.’
‘Ask me then. I’ll raise my hand and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.’
‘Am I your little black prince?’
‘I see you’ve finished reading The Little Prince! Of course you’re my little black prince. Come on, let’s go and get some boiled sweets and go home.’
……
We’d only just got home when we heard someone whistling outside. They whistled three times. It was coming from just opposite our house.
Yaya Gaston exclaimed: ‘It’s that Dassin, Georgette’s stupid little pal. I told him not to come whistling after my sister. If Georgette leaves this house and goes to meet him, I’ll give them what for!’