See you soon Caroline! Chapter 15 Pierre

Chapter Fifteen:

Pierre

 

The following morning Caroline awoke early.  She pulled back the blind of the little bedroom and peeped out of the window. The sun was already up, and there were several people passing the mobile home. She quickly pulled on some shorts and a top and tip-toed out of the room. All was silent in the mobile home, nobody seemed to be stirring.

Caroline let herself out quietly and crossed over towards the beach. It was a beautiful morning, there were a few holidaymakers about, but Caroline felt that she had the sands almost to herself. The sun was climbing out of the sea, its rays reflected in the water and causing a glittering pathway from the horizon to her feet as she walked towards the shore. Away to her right, the mountains seemed to rise up out of the sea and climb up and up until they disappeared into wispy clouds in the far distance. There was a big mountain out there, with streaks of snow near the summit, its lower slopes covered with patches of green, no doubt forests of some kind, thought Caroline. She turned slowly round, taking in the whole sparkling scene before her. She found her eyes kept coming back to the great mountain in the distance. She wondered if people climbed it, whether even there was a road up to its summit?  Behind her was the camp with its pines, and beyond she could see rows of palm trees leading towards the town.

Already it was hot, and she realised that she hadn’t taken any precautions against the sun. There was a low building a few yards away which cast a long shadow across the sands. She moved towards it to take advantage of its shade, and too late noticed that there was someone already there. The sun, low in the sky, had temporarily blinded her.

“Hi there!” said a voice, somehow familiar. “Ça va?”

It was the boy from the bar they had spoken to last night. He had been looking at the mountain through a pair of binoculars, which he lowered as he saw her approach.

She realised immediately who it was, but didn’t know how to reply. What did “Ça va” mean? She smiled and said rather lamely “Hello!”

“All alone? No boyfriend this morning?”

Caroline frowned.  “No boyfriend?” she thought. “What’s he talking about?” Then she realised!

“Oh! Last night! That was my brother Simon!”

The boy laughed. “Sorry! My mistake! I’m Pierre by the way, what’s your name?”

Caroline told him, and then because she couldn’t think of anything else to say, she added

“What were you looking at?”

Pierre smiled again and pointed to the mountain. “Canigou!” he said.

“Is that the name of that mountain?” asked Caroline.

“Yes! This is the best time of the day to look at it. It’s lit up by the sun now. Later in the day it goes into shadow.”

“Can you climb it?” asked Caroline, and then added hastily –“I mean can it be climbed?”

Pierre laughed again. “Yes, it’s quite easy to climb if you’re fit, and yes, I’ve climbed it many times!”

“Could I do it?”

“You can take a jeep taxi up most of the way. Then it’s about a two hour climb.” He looked Caroline up and down and added grinning, “You look fit enough to me!”

Caroline realised that he was being deliberately provocative, and didn’t know whether to be pleased or offended! So she just replied

“We don’t have any mountains where I come from!”

“Where do you come from?” asked Pierre.

“England. A place called Canterbury. It’s not far from Dover, I expect you have heard of Dover?”

“I’ve heard of Canterbury too” answered Pierre. “Well, the Archbishop of Canterbury anyway! He’s a sort of Pope isn’t he?”

Caroline considered that the conversation was going in the wrong direction, so she said

“I don’t know about that! Have you ever been to England?”

“Yes! I was there last year. There was an exchange with an English school in Suffolk. I spent nearly a month there. I suppose that’s where I picked up most of my English. And then this Easter, some of the students at that school came here and stayed with us, so I’ve had plenty of opportunity to practice the language. I hope to go back again sometime, but I don’t have any plans at the moment”. Then before she could think of anything else to say, he asked “What about your French?”

Caroline pulled a face. “Not good I’m afraid! We’ve got a really good teacher at school, but I suppose I don’t work as hard at it as I should. Art’s my best subject!”

“Is this your first time here?”

“To Argeles, yes!. We’ve been to Paris a couple of times. But we usually go to Greece.” She went on to tell him about the disappointment with the holiday in Santorini.

“So what made you pick Argeles-sur-Mer then?” asked Pierre.

“It’s a long story!” replied Caroline, realising that she ought to get back for breakfast, and not wanting to bore this rather interesting young man with her grandfather’s history.

“Well, keep it till later!” suggested Pierre. “How about in the bar later this morning? I’m off duty today. Let me buy you a coke!”

Caroline was embarrassed. She didn’t know what to say! “I don’t know what my parents have planned” she said. “But if we’re around, I might be able to! But you don’t have to buy me anything!”

Pierre laughed again. “À bientôt !” he said. “Remember what it means?”

“See you soon?” she suggested. And then she laughed too!

 

When she got back to the caravan, the others were already at breakfast.

“Where have you been?” demanded her mother angrily. “Nobody had the slightest idea where you had gone!”

“Sorry Mum!” said Caroline. She didn’t know what to say about her unexpected encounter on the beach, so she just mumbled something about getting some air and exercise.

“She was banged up in a car all day yesterday!” said Dad, coming to his daughter’s defence as usual. But seeing his wife’s face, he added “But you should have told someone where you were going!”

“There was no one to tell!” insisted Caroline.

“Well, left a note then” said Dad

“Sorry Mum! Sorry Dad! It’s gorgeous out there by the way.”

“You didn’t wear your sunhat either” complained her mother.

Simon looked at his sister and rolled his eyes. He also wondered what she had been up to, but said nothing.

The family quickly decided that after yesterday’s mammoth journey, today should be a quiet one. By ten-o-clock they were all comfortably seated by the pool in their swimming costumes. Mum was reading a woman’s magazine, and Dad was soon asleep. The young people splashed about a bit in the water, and then Caroline suggested they went for drinks. They dried themselves and put on t-shirts and walked over to the bar. They bought two cokes and a bag of crisps, and sat down under a large umbrella.  Pierre, who had been sitting some distance away, and watching the family at the pool, now got up and strolled across to where they were sitting.

“Mind if I join you?” he asked.

Simon looked surprised, then annoyed. But Caroline quickly came to the rescue.

“This is my brother Simon” she said. “And this is Pierre, Simon!”

Pierre watched Simon’s face with amusement. “Remember me from last night?” he prompted. “And Caroline and I have already met this morning.”

Simon just nodded, trying to take it all in. Was this a chance meeting, or had his sister arranged it?

There was a moment’s awkward silence, then Pierre said

“Caroline was going to tell me what brought you to Argeles!”

Caroline felt that it was up to her to take up the story.

“Well, it was all to do with our grandfather!” she said. And she began to tell Pierre about the photo with the writing and the camp at Rivesaltes. Pierre interrupted once or twice to ask questions. He didn’t seem to be bored, Simon noticed.

“Have you heard of this place Rivesaltes?” Simon asked, looking at Pierre.

“Oh yes!” he replied. “It’s very much in the news just now! But it wasn’t always like that. Only a few years ago they were going to flatten what was left of it, and hardly anybody cared. Now they’re talking about building a museum there. Are you planning to visit it then?”

“Yes, that’s why we’re here. We’re just resting today after the journey, tomorrow I guess we’ll be trying to find our way there. We’ve only got a week here, so we need to get on with it as soon as possible.  Is it easy to find?”

“You really need someone to act as a guide and show you round” answered Pierre. “If you can wait a day or two longer, I might be able to fix something up. One of my teachers belongs to a group of people who have been fighting for some time to get a proper memorial and museum for Rivesaltes. I’m sure I can arrange for one of them to meet you and take you there. They know just about all there is to know about the place!”

“That would be great” said Caroline. “Thank you very much. You’d better meet our parents so that we can arrange something in a day or two.”

“In the meantime” said Pierre, “there’s quite a lot to know about Argeles too. Do you fancy a short guided tour?”

“Later perhaps.  But just now, I think we’d better get back to Mum and Dad”.  She collected their glasses and plates and carried them over to the bar.

She turned and smiled at him. “À bientôt !” she said.

Pierre smiled back. “À bientôt !” he replied.

 

Back at the pool, the youngsters joined their parents.

“Dad was saying that we should find this Rivesaltes place tomorrow” said Mum looking up from her magazine.

“I think we should wait a day or two!” suggested Caroline. “We’ve been talking to a boy who has offered to find someone to take us there and explain everything to us.”

“Is that really necessary?” asked her father. “Don’t forget we’ve only got a week here!  Won’t there be official guides at the camp? And leaflets we can take away – that sort of thing?”

“I don’t think so! It’s a bit of a mess there apparently. This guy is one of a team who are trying to get the camp recognised.”

“Who is this boy, and what does he know about it?” asked Mum.

“He works here at the bar. He’s called Pierre. I think it’s just a holiday job, he’s still at school. He’s going to come and see you when he’s fixed something up”

“Is he English?” asked Dad. “You seem to have been able to talk to him OK!”

“No, he’s French – or Spanish – it’s a bit complicated. But he speaks very good English.  He seems really nice!”

“He’s got Caroline speaking French now!” said her brother. “I think we need to watch her, there’s something going on there!”

She sighed. On the whole, she got on pretty well with her brother. But sometimes he just couldn’t resist teasing her. Had he really noticed anything? She decided to play it cool.

“Grow up Simon! He’s just someone who could be very helpful to us. That’s all!”

Her father looked at his wife and raised his eyebrows. She shook her head and put her finger to her lips. Neither of them said anything.