Chapter 34 33

The phone rang. I'm back.she says. I really want to meet you. Can I come out now? certainly. At five o'clock at the gate of YWCA. What do you do at YWCA? Learn French conversation. Conversational French? OUI. (Note: French, same as English YES) After I hung up the phone, I took a shower and had a beer.By the time I was done drinking, the afternoon showers started falling like a waterfall. ◇ When I arrived at the YWCA, the rain had completely stopped, but the girls who came out of the gate were still looking at the sky suspiciously, opening and closing their umbrellas at the same time.I parked the car opposite the gate, turned off the engine and lit a cigarette.The gateposts, blackened by the rain, looked like two tombstones standing in the wilderness. Next to the slightly dirty and gloomy building of YWCA, there was a brand new but cheap and crude rental building, with a huge advertising signboard for a refrigerator hanging on the roof.An anemic-looking woman of about thirty in an apron bent forward and opened the refrigerator with a cheerful air so I could see its contents.

In the freezer there are ice and one-liter vanilla ice cream, frozen shrimp packages, egg cartons, cream, Camembert cheese, boneless ham in the second section, fish and chicken thighs in the third section, and tomatoes in the bottom plastic box , gherkins, asparagus, lettuce and grapefruit, three Coca-Colas on the door, three bottles of beer in a large bottle, and a carton of milk. While I waited for her, I leaned on the steering wheel and kept thinking about everything in the refrigerator in order. Anyway, a liter of ice cream is always too much, and no salad dressing is the most fatal. It was about a little past five when she came out of the door.She was wearing a pink Crocodile sweatshirt and a white cotton miniskirt, with her hair tied back and glasses.She seemed to have aged three years in a week.Maybe it's the hairstyle and the glasses.

It rained heavily just now.She said so as soon as she sat in the passenger seat, and nervously tugged at the hem of her skirt. Are you wet? A little. From the backseat I handed her the beach towel that had been sitting there since my last trip to the pool.She wiped the sweat off her face with the towel, wiped her hair a few more times, and then gave it back to me. I was drinking coffee nearby when it started.It's like a flood. But thankfully, it got cooler. Yes. She nodded and stuck her hand out the window to test the temperature outside.Between me and her, there was a certain incongruous atmosphere different from the last time we met.

Have a nice trip?I try to ask like this. Didn't travel at all, I lied. Why lie? I'll tell you later.