Too Close to the Edge (12 page)
Read Too Close to the Edge Online
Authors: Pascal Garnier
He had the same smile on his face as on the day she had met him by the little bridge, and the sight of it lifted her spirits. Wading through the nauseating sludge, she took out the bags and the briefcase and moved back a few metres. Étienne opened his door, took off the hand brake and turned towards her with his hands in the air, beaming.
‘We did it!’
He leant against the car and it started to wobble. As it began to tip, a gust of wind slammed the door closed, trapping Étienne’s jacket. It happened before Éliette could even cry out. She heard the sound of crumpling metal as the car fell apart thirty metres below, and the thwack of the gulls’ wings as they scattered, screeching off into the white sky. And then nothing but tumbling rubbish.
She stayed still for a moment, as if dazzled by a camera flash, before falling to her knees, her head in her hands. In the darkness between her palms she saw Étienne’s face as he realised the trap had closed on him, his mouth opening to utter a word he would never speak, and his hands flailing in thin air. Click, clack!
She had no tears left, only spasms that shook her back. She stood up and with all her might threw Étienne’s bag to the ends of the earth, where she now found herself. She opened the briefcase, tipping out the contents of one of the plastic bags which puffed out like a white cloud on the wind. She was about to move on to the next bag when she saw the gulls returning one by one, perching on broken mattresses and
bicycle wheels. They were watching her with their beady little eyes and ruffling their feathers as if to say, ‘No need to make a song and dance about it. If you’re not dead, you must be alive.’
Éliette closed the briefcase, turned her back on the sky and began walking down the bumpy track.
Pascal Garnier
Pascal Garnier was born in Paris in 1949. The prize-winning author of more than sixty books, he remains a leading figure in contemporary French literature, in the tradition of Georges Simenon. He died in 2010.
Emily Boyce
Emily Boyce is in-house translator at Gallic Books. She lives in London. She has previously translated
The Islanders
.
The Panda Theory
How’s the Pain?
The A26
Moon in a Dead Eye
The Islanders
The Front Seat Passenger
Boxes
Original title:
Trop près du bord
Copyright © Éditions Zulma, 2010
First published in Great Britain in 2016
by Gallic Books, 59 Ebury Street,
London, SW1W 0NZ
This ebook edition first published in 2016
All rights reserved
Translation © Gallic Books, 2016
The right of Pascal Garnier to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
ISBN 9781910477267 epub
