I Always Wanted Him To

L’HISTOIRE

Monday the twenty-seventh of December, ten in the morning, in the flat above the Old Port. Gerard has taken Hugo down to the boat, and the kitchen is quiet, two cups of coffee and the last of the thirteen desserts. Martine has waited four days for this hour. She tells Emma about the January when Hugo left for Lyon, about the one thing she always wanted for him, and about the daughter she never had. At half past twelve the men come back with no fish, and Hugo wants to know what his mother said. This is the conversation you'll be able to say by the end of the lesson.