A cappella

Chapter 4: On The Road

The brand new white Peugeot spun thirty to one hundred kilometers per hour on the highway with all it's windows shut. They left late in the morning, with the idea of eating on the way in a rest area and to reach their other house in Biarritz later in the evening.

Max had closed the country house shutters, while his grandfather had filled the chicken coop with grains.

"You're lucky to have several houses!", said Max while loading the baggage in the trunk of the Peugeot. "A house in the country side and another near the sea.."

"Yea... you're right, I'm very lucky. And if you saw the house I grew up in, you'ld think I'm the luckiest!"

"Really? That much?"

"Oh dear, yes! ... ask you're grandmother if she's taken a bottle of water and some fruit... alright let's go!"

The car lunged slowly on the road that followed the river to reach the highway, when Max suddenly recognized in the rearview mirror the slender figure of Marion who came running.

At the height of their house, she stopped running, bending her body as she tried to catch her breath, then straightened up to watch the closed shutters as the car was leaving. Max hesitated for a second. Should he stop the car? But his taste for mystery got the better of him... he imagined her a little disappointed to see him leave without being able to find out more about him.

He liked to play on other people's psychology, to keep her hungry for more, running by herself next to the white villas that Max liked so much, striding the vineyards, hoping one day to come across the one who gave her that strong impression.

" So grandpa, you started telling me about your childhood...tell me more..."

" It was in the countryside, in the very far end of the southwest, the real countryside, as you probably have never seen... with animals, goats, cows and pigs that slept in the room right opposite to us! There wasn't even running water at home! We had to fetch water at the nearby source, at the bottom of the hill... as opposed to how I live today, several houses with all the comfort in the world, a brand new car, children and grandchildren who fly from all around the world to see me..."

" You worked well, you're standard of living changed considerably."

" It isn't just me, the whole society has changed! In just one generation, everything has accelerated to full speed... it's crazy when I see pictures of my childhood; it looks like the middle ages!"

"You'll have to show me sometime... And you grandma?"

" When me and your grandpa got married, the family said it was a mistake, that it would have never worked because we came from very different backgrounds. I was from Biarritz, a very chic city, you'll see it soon... well they were wrong. He's always been very nice to me and we get along very well after all these years... we're really good together..."

She spoke while turning her wrinkled face to smile at him, her man, and Max felt they really were everything to each other.

Max looked back out the window: always vineyards between two villages and then suddenly a flower field, open space of undulating greenery mingled colors of saffron and asters.

Will he one day have the same privileged relationship with someone, this love that fed on passing time? Will he one day know, like in the Japanese animated movie "howl's moving castle", having overcome his doubts and contradictions, how to stand up in front of her, among the flowers and the wind?

The field of flowers was already behind them, but Max, his eyes closed, replayed that moment in his mind, the magical images of the beautiful animated film where the female character was both a pretty girl and an old wrinkled lady, and the young man, like him, sometimes prince like, sometimes harsh and cruel like a bird of prey...

.....

My favorite Japanese movies are by the legend Hayao Miyazaki and his studio Ghibli!(im never gonna grow up i think)  Do you have any favorites?

Thank you so much for getting to chapter 4, if only you knew how happy it makes me! Drop me a little star or a hello ;)