Bethsabée et Elio (ENG version)

Chapter VIII

VIII

Bethsabée emerged from a difficult sleep, her eyes heavy with fatigue and her mouth dry. She had awakened several times during the night and had often struggled to fall back asleep. Consequently, she rose rather late, around half past nine. As she descended the stairs, she was enveloped by a lingering cocoa scent, a sign that hot chocolate was being prepared. She quickly noticed that in addition to the hot drink that had drawn her here, there were also various pastries on the table. Upon seeing this, she rushed into her parents' arms and hugged them to thank them and say hello. Then, with a growling stomach, she sat down and enjoyed her hearty breakfast.

Once finished, she cleared the table entirely and went back to her room to study the few subjects that would be evaluated in the coming week. She made some summary pages before heading back downstairs to help her parents prepare the meal. Since couscous was on the menu today, she knew her parents would be delighted to receive a little help chopping vegetables. Bethsabée therefore took care of the turnips, zucchinis, and carrots while her mother was already cooking the merguez sausages and her father was doing the breakfast dishes. As soon as the meal was ready, they sat down at the table and ate, but Bethsabée curiously didn't touch her plate much. Indeed, given the late hour at which she had eaten her lunch, the steaming couscous and broth didn't appeal to her much, surprising her parents who knew that couscous was her favorite dish.

After the meal, Bethsabée settled into the armchair in her room and began to read. Her room was a small space painted blue, delineated by three walls and a sloping ceiling. A fairly large bed, placed on wooden pallets, occupied the area where the ceiling height was lowest. In one corner of the room was a modest desk on which rested a laptop and a desk lamp. In the rest of the room, one could see a heart-shaped rug, a few frames containing photos taken with friends, and a chair positioned under the skylight window, especially next to a narrow wardrobe containing some suspense novels.

After emerging from her captivating reading, she took a moment to collect herself and gather her thoughts, sipping a glass of water. The plot of this novel was so gripping that it was often difficult for her to stop reading. Consequently, the afternoon was already well underway, and she only had a few hours left to finish her homework. Therefore, she quickly got to work. Less than an hour later, she had already completed all the tasks planned for the upcoming week and could finally focus on the famous French poet. Continuing the research she had started the day before, she learned more about Louis Aragon's childhood and his literary beginnings, his life after the Great War, his relationship with surrealism, but especially about the novels he had written. Among the works he authored was "Aurélien," a novel dealing with the impossible love between two characters. Bethsabée smiled. This was undoubtedly the novel the author had in mind when he wrote the clue, so all that was left was to discover the connection between this novel and the year 1897.

Knowing that "Aurélien" had been written by Louis Aragon, and that 1897 was his year of birth, Bethsabée quickly made the connection between the two elements. However, Louis Aragon couldn't be a clue in himself, especially not one so easy to solve. She had been corresponding with the same person for several weeks, and she knew perfectly well that with him, she had to go beyond simple thinking. Since the only clue she had solved had turned out to be a detail about personal information from the anonymous author, she deduced that this one must be as well. Delving deeper into the poet's biography, she spotted a detail that she had so far completely overlooked. As she already knew, the French writer was born in 1897. However, since the day or even the month of his birth was not specified in the clue, one could deduce that the author of the puzzles celebrated his birthday on the same day. The novelist being born on October 3, this would mean that the anonymous author was also born on that date. Bethsabée found it a bit hard to believe this slightly far-fetched theory, but since October 3 was precisely in three days, on Tuesday, she had nothing to lose by considering it for a few days.