LOVE PROBABLY

16.

I watch the car drive away with a hint of sadness. I didn’t think I would get attached so quickly to complete strangers, first my short-lived girlfriends on the train, then this taxi… I take a deep breath as I take a few steps towards the said street. The signs are quite high up, I have to look up to check the numbers. I realise that the sky threatens to let go again, so I hurry. I take out the small piece of paper on which I noted the address. It’s at number 86. I look at the storefronts and nothing shocks me. Everything seems perfectly normal on this street. What could make the taxi driver smile? The few passers-by are rushing to get home, probably. The shops are closed. Really nothing to report.

After a few tens of metres, between two ready-to-wear stores, there’s a huge carriage entrance above which a small plaque tells me that I have arrived safely. Bad luck for me, there is a keycode on the side and of course, I don’t know the code.

Damn! Flaming s**t! What do I do now? I start a little incantatory dance on the sidewalk hoping that the code falls from the sky rather than the rain.

“Hey ma’am, how much is it?” asks a very strange man, a hat screwed on his head, almost hiding his eyes and a raincoat that makes him look like Columbo.

You know Columbo, I hope… Because I have the feeling that we may not have quite the same television references. In summary… What did the weirdo want, again?

“Sorry, sir. What did you say?”

“Hum hum... How much?” he said, casting worried little glances around us.

“I’m sorry,” I said very loudly. “I don’t quite understand your question. All I want is to be able to enter this building, I have an apartment here but…”

The man turns on his heels and doesn’t even listen to what I tell him. Well, that’s not very polite at all! “First he comes up to me and then he leaves! Ugh…”

I mumble aloud when a female head leans out of the downstairs window. Internally, I burst out laughing when I saw her. She has curlers on her head and a green mask on her face. It’s impossible for me to give her an age. A dog barks behind her.

“Can I help?” she yells at me. “Shut up, Romeo, I don’t hear anything!” she says to a dog. Well, I imagine.

“Good evening madam. I’m sorry to disturb you. I own an apartment in this building, but I don’t have the code to enter.”

“Really! Owner! And I’m the Queen of England! I know all the owners. I have lived here for more than fifty years. You can’t try that on me!” she bellows, borderline annoyed.

“Yes, I assure you. I have the papers. Wait until I get them out of my suitcase,” I say, extracting the documents from the pocket.

“Whose daughter are you?” she asks.

“Sorry? I don’t understand.”

“Oh, Romeo, Shh, really! Whose daughter are you? It’s a clear question. Who are your parents?” she specifies.

“Uh…”

“If you want to come in, you’ll have to cooperate, miss.”

“I’m the daughter of... Jacob and Mary Jordan, but I don’t see how you could know them, we’re not from here.”

“Oh, sweet Jesus!” she exclaims. “Come in, my child! Don’t stand there, I’m opening the door for you.”

Wow! If I expected this welcome. She abruptly closes the window. I stop in front of the door, quietly waiting for it to open. I hear a small click but nothing happens.

“Push the door, darling!” the woman’s voice shouts from the intercom. “Push hard!”

The door weighs a dead donkey but that’s it, I find myself on the other side. An automatic light comes on, illuminating the hall. I guess a small inner courtyard at the back. The floor is paved, in the old style. Several mailboxes tell me that there are other residents in the building. I scan the names of my future neighbours when she appears, wearing a candy pink dressing gown. In the dark, she almost looks like a ghost. Despite the mask, I guess an emotional smile, a misty look. She approaches me, takes me by the shoulders and says to me:

“I’ll kiss you when I get all this mess off my face. So it’s you, Maddie…”

“Uh ... Madeline.”

“Oh, no... Madeline is an old name. I had, however, told your mother. To me, you’re Maddie.”

“As you want!” I say so as not to upset her.

You never know. It’s just that she seems quite touchy. I wouldn’t want to offend her. After all, Maddie is pretty. I should have thought of it earlier. Maddie! I like it. I love it, even.

“Let me look at you!” she said, eyeing me from head to toe. “How you have grown! How old are you now?”

“I’m thirty-five years old.”

“Damn, how time has flown! Come! You’ve had a long journey. You must be hungry. I’m going to get you a good soup and you’re going to tell me about your life.”

I follow her but I still don’t know who I’m dealing with. Mom must be rolling in her grave.