THEY HAD ALREADY folded up the tents. It was time to leave. The empty camping spot looked strangely insignificant. Just a square of dried grass. Somewhere here, I had spent fifteen nights. Fifteen times I had gotten up while the others were sleeping and walked blindly over to the hedge to take a piss, then tossed my tissue full of semen into the trash bin before going back to my tent. Nothing remained of all that. By the next day, another family might have taken our place and started their own vacation. Camping spot number 330. Happiness guaranteed for only twenty euros a night. Satisfying customers for decades, and for centuries to come. We strapped the bicycles to the back of the car and got in. We drove along the paths slowly, careful not to run over a child. My seat was too upright because of the luggage behind it. Bubble lay in his basket looking disappointed. Alma and Adrien were sad, too. They would soon be going back to school. Near the restrooms, we saw the pink bunny, although he wasn’t really pink anymore: the filth had turned his fur brown. He was carrying a crate of empty beer bottles. He’d taken off his bunny head. Underneath was a man in his thirties, very tired-looking. The big grin drawn on his bunny face continued smiling at us from his back, where it hung like a severed head.

My parents were as silent as churchgoers before their suddenly grown-up son, happy and sad after his first summer of love. We drove through the main square. There were several policemen there. I closed my eyes. But my father parked close to the reception building. “I’m going to pay.”

He got out. We waited for him. No one said a word.

I was frightened. For the first time, maybe, I felt that raw fear of being caught, without any other anxieties getting in the way. My pulse throbbed loud in my ears. I thought about airports and customs officers. Inside, my father was talking. It went on too long.

“Actually, Leo,” said Adrien, without looking up from his phone, “you know your friend Louis? Well, something weird happened to him.”

“What do you mean?”

“Some of the guys saw him on the beach very early this morning. Apparently he didn’t look too good. He went swimming in the sea naked. He was floating facedown in the water. Which is okay, except he stayed like that too long. I mean, way too long…”

“What’s all this about?” my mother asked, turning around. She gave me a questioning look, as if I knew the answer.

“In the end,” Adrien went on, “a lifeguard went in and brought him out of the water. He’s okay, don’t worry. But it’s a bit weird, all the same.”

I nodded and looked outside. I touched the door handle.

“Leonard? Do you want to get out? Do you want to go and see your friend before we leave?”

“No, it’s okay.”

My father returned. “All right! So, time to say goodbye to the Landes.”

“Daddy, why are there policemen here?”

“Because of the flood. Are you going to say goodbye to the Landes?”

“It’s not because of that,” Adrien corrected him. “It’s because some guy disappeared.”

“Oh, really?”

“Well, yeah.”

“How do you know things like that?” Alma asked.

“Because I’m smart.”

My mother fell silent. I kept my eyes on her.

“So… are you going to say goodbye to the Landes?” repeated my father, who didn’t really care about all the other stuff.

“Goodbye, the Landes!”

He set off. We drove through the gates. As we turned onto the main road, I twisted my neck to get one last look at the campsite, and I thought I saw Claire in the main square. But then the luggage obstructed my view and the campsite disappeared.