“WILL THE PARENTS of the little girl paddling in the puddle opposite the barbecues please come and fetch her?”

It was gray, almost cold. Everything was sad and slow this Sunday. The ground was soaked, muddy, covered with puddles and little streams. The campers dug channels and hung out their wet clothes under the vanished sun. It was like a battlefield. Tubes of sunscreen and inflatable mattresses lay abandoned on the ground. Only the children kept riding bikes and shouting, because they were on vacation, and that was even sadder. It felt like fall, like the morning after the night before. I wanted to leave. Oscar was still sticking to my skin, damp and cold like seaweed, rotting foully somewhere. I couldn’t remember his eyes.

Luce walked with me toward my tent. Both of us were silent. Bubble suddenly ran in front of us, like a happy escapee.

My father sprinted after him. “Come here, you little bastard!” He managed to grab the leash but fell face-first into a puddle. When he stood up, he glared at Bubble, then he noticed us. I realized that Luce had been holding my hand, because she let go of it just then.

“Hello,” said my father.

“Hello,” she replied.

He blushed. The blood rushed to his head. Even his ears turned red. He let go of Bubble’s leash. The dog tried to run off again, but my mother appeared in time to stop him. “Hello.”

“Hello, madame.”

“We were looking for you,” she told me.

I nodded.

“So… how are you?” my father asked, opening his arms wide and laughing nervously.

“Very well, thanks, and you?”

“Yes, yes, very well. Although it’s always a bit sad when you have to leave.”

“We’ll be back next summer,” my mother added.

“You should go to Bordeaux instead. It’s pretty there.”

“That’s true. Bordeaux is very pretty…”

Bubble looked at the four of us as if we were stupid. Luce turned to me. “I’ll be going, then. Goodbye, Leo.”

“Goodbye…”

She kissed me without warning. My parents looked shocked and suddenly had lots of things to do with Bubble. Luce smiled at me. I thought she looked happy and sad at the same time, and she was even more fantastic like that. I sensed that I was looking at her for the last time. I wanted to talk to her more, but she was already leaving. When she had gone, my parents finally dared look at me again. They were shy and proud in a way I had never seen before. In that moment, I loved them.

“Are we leaving now?”

“Yes,” said my father, starting to move. He added in English: “Yes, yes, yes, go.”