Scene 8

In order to prepare himself for the great Atlantic washing over his homeland, Maille first took a bath. As usual, he sank under the water to the bottom of the bathtub and lay there for a few seconds, holding his breath for as long as it was possible. He had often done that as a child and had called it the Spaceship Game – for the boy Maille the bathtub represented a model of the universe, a vast something that encompassed one in full. Under the water, the boy would imagine that his body was gliding through holes in space and time, and that it would eventually emerge at an entirely different spot in the universe – in the middle of Africa, for instance, or in Australia near the kuala bears, in the pool of a cruise ship, or on the beach of a Thai island.

Only when he stayed long enough in the water, would it be a successful exercise. Therefore he dived under the water, breathed the air into his lungs until the very last moment and held it there, imagining with intense feeling the place at which he wished to emerge. Alone, obviously he did never inhale the air long enough. This time neither. And though Maille would have, at that moment, loved to emerge in Marie Soussent's bathtub, if only in order to see the astonishment on her face.

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