Chapter 29 Section 28

Jean-Marc watched Chantal, her face glowing with an unknown pleasure.He didn't want to ask her why, but savored and appreciated her happiness contentedly.As she reveled in his amused invitations, the only thing he could think of was her, his own emotional connection to the world.Hadn't people told him about the prisoners, the oppressed, the starving?He knew that the only reason for him to be painfully touched by their misfortune was the thought that Chantal lived among them.When people told him that women were being raped in some civil war, it seemed to him that Chantal was there, being raped.It was she who set him free from his apathy.He was only touched by her.

He wished to tell her all this, but felt a little shy of the sentimentality.So another idea, surprisingly, took hold of him: What if, one day, he lost the one who was his bond to the human world?It wasn't her death that he was thinking of, but another subtle, elusive feeling.That idea has been lingering in his mind since then: If one day, he can no longer recognize her; if one day, he finds that Chantal is no longer the Chantal who has been with him for so long, but The woman he mistook on the beach; or the Chantal he was sure of proved to be a hallucination, and she was as meaningless to him as anyone else.

She grabbed his hand and said, "What's the matter with you? You're sullen. In the last few days, I've noticed that you're always sad. What's the matter with you?" "Nothing, really nothing." "Sure. Tell me, what makes you so sad?" "I was wondering if you were someone else..." "what?" "I was wondering if you were different from what I remembered, if my identification of your true nature had been wrong." "I do not understand." He saw a pile of bras.A sad hill of bras.A stupid hill.But through this imagination, he immediately noticed the real face of Chantal sitting opposite him.He felt her hand touch his own.The feeling of being a stranger or a betrayer quickly disappeared under his nose.He smiled and said, "Forget it! Just pretend I didn't say anything."