NINI'S GOODIES - Page 1 - Yves de la Tullaye NINI'S GOODIES Éditions APARIS – Edifree 75008 Paris – 2010 www.edifree.com Editions APARIS – Edifree 56, rue de Londres – 75008 Paris Tel : 01 44 90 81 42 – Fax : 01 53 04 90 76 – mail : infos@edifree.com Tous droits de reproduction, d’adaptation et de traduction, intégrale ou partielle réservés pour tous pays. ISBN : 978-2-8121-2608-6 Dépôt légal : Janvier 2010 © Yves de la Tullaye L’auteur de l’ouvrage est seul propriétaire des droits et responsable de l’ensemble du contenu dudit ouvrage. Yves de la Tullaye Ninie's Goodies or The story of a little Red Riding Hood CHAPTER 1 Stéphanie could definitely not find sleep during that beautiful night in July nineteen ninety three. Lying at her side, a blissful smile on his face, Billy was sound asleep, letting out a slight snore. Poor Billy, if only he knew... A tear ran softly down her right cheek, and, automatically, she pulled her hand from under the sheet to wipe it off, unable to contain a soft sniffing. - What's up? Billy muttered, half awaked by that stupid noise. - Don't worry, forget it, it's nothing but emotion! Go back to sleep! There was no need to say so twice, Billy was deep in his dreams of conquests, having hardly listened to or heard her answer. Poor Billy, if only he knew… if he knew that she had given herself to him only out of disappointment! She had felt no pleasure at all. Henri was so right whan he uttered his bad joke: "He is just a Silly Billy"! 13 Henri… what was he doing at the present moment? Was he peacefully asleep or was he, too, awake, asking questions to himself? One should never ask questions! Besides, didn't everything start up from a mere stupid question:"What is the speed of the sound?" *** On that last day of August nineteen-ninety, as the new school year was getting near, Henri Clement decided to take advantage of the nice weather to have a last drive out with Yvonne, his sister. They would visit their Italian friends they had near Lille, where he had spent eight years, teaching English as a new teacher. He had left the North of France fourteen years before, yet, to come as a teacher in Tours, central France, where his parents and family lived, but he kept friendly relations with those people from the North whom he liked so much. Those last fourteen years could not be qualified as really happy ones, even if professionally speaking he had met many satisfactory events. His sister toiled to raise her son alone, and a few years before they had sadly lost both their parents within a year time. Henri had much resented that predicament and, at the age of forty eight, his hair had totally turned white out of worries. Yvonne, his sister, had been deeply disturbed and he did his best to support her. So the excursion was set up and everything went for the best. Then, Henri had only to get ready for that new school-year which, according to the mails he had received during the holidays, promised to be a satisfying one. 14 *** On the first of September nineteen-ninety, Stéphanie, with her parents and younger sister, came back from their holidays in the Alpes mountains. They had had a great time there and Stephanie particularly enjoyed hiking. When she was there, she would let her imagination free, observing the flight of some eagles which reminded her of the flights she always dreamt of doing, with herself at the commands of a plane, her plane... Just how pleasant such a dream was! But in three days school would start again in Lycée August Dullman, in Tours, and she had been told that the Lower Sixth, with a sciences option, would be much harder than the Fifth form she had just left, successfully, but thanks to a very hard labour! Her bicycle would have to be checked, so she could use it, as she did last year, when her parents could not drive her to the railway station in Château-Renault. Stéphanie was pleased to resume school, she enjoyed studying, had a lot of good pals there, and the train ride to and from Tours was an opportunity for a lot of teen gossip! What a pleasure chatting there was! At home, nobody ever spoke,…Stéphanie excepted! She was well decided on starting that new school year with a lot of courage and all her teen-age enthusiasm. *** As usual, the staff resumed work a few days before the pupils, but either, though they missed their holidays, were happy to discover new friends, noticing that some had left and staring openly at the newcomers. 15 But everything was fine, routine was back, a new school year was beginning, full of promises for everybody. 16 CHAPTER 2 That October Monday, Stephanie finished school at 4 pm, and she had to wait for her train until 6.30 pm. As she was walking out of the class-room, one of her friends came up to her and asked: - What shall we do? - Well, you do just as you feel, but I have a lot of homework ahead! I'm going to the school library to gain time on my work while I'm waiting for the time of my train. See you tomorrow, bye! Somewhat disapppointed he gave her a kiss on her cheek than ran to join his pals. He was quite fond of that young blonde, she looked a little too much like a country girl perhaps,and without really pushing him back she always kept a distance between them. Then Stéphanie walked to another building and headed towards the Library where she could work on her next exposé. She was aware that she was not the fast-working kind and that, besides, she would not be home before 7.30pm, so she had better work ahead! 17 The Library was a good place to work in, but it did not meet the usual idea people have of a library. In fact, it was not really a Library! It had been set in former classrooms whose partitions had been destroyed so as to make a very long and narrow space, bookshelves and cupboards dividing it into smaller units. There were two well distinct areas in that place, headed by two librarians: On the one hand, Mrs Ham, the head librarian who dealt more particularly with documents and information, on the other hand Mr Deafman who looked after the library, dealing with books lended to pupils or teachers. They had managed a time-table between them but they did not quite get on well together, Mrs Ham often made Mr Deafman shut up, leaving him no chance to attempt a reply! As a consequence, The latter would seek refuge in a small corner delimited with desks and his type-writer, where he was very busy trying to enter the catalogue of the library books into his new computer which he was rather afraid of! It must be acknowledged that he had hardly any chance to exist faced to Mrs Ham, she was a very stout woman, convinced she could never be wrong and that any other opinion than hers was unconceivable. At the age of fifty-four, she was longing for her retirement, definitely refusing to discover or use new methods or devices. Meanwhile she was always willing to help those she liked, in fact she was a better nurse than a librarian! So, such was the place where Stephanie was going to. She was lucky. For some particular and mysterious reason, Mrs Ham liked her so Stéphanie almost felt at home in the Library. Anyway she would be better here than anywhere else in the school. She headed to a small table not far from Mrs 18 Ham. Mr Deafman had already finished his day's work and was gone. Stéphanie took her things out of her bag and looked for the file she was working on. But there still was one question to which she could not find any answer. Perhaps Mrs Ham could help her? At that precise moment, she was not on the phone but was deep in the reading of the day's newspaper. Was it the right moment to disturb her? Well, who never tries never succeeds, do they?... So fighting her shyness back and with her broadest ingenuous smile on her face, she walked to Mrs Ham's desk. - Sorry, madam, but I'm working on that exposé and there's one answer I can find nowhere... Mrs Ham looked up, then seeing Stéphanie, she smiled back at her: - Right, what are you looking for? - Well, I would like to know how fast sound is! You know, Mach1 as pilots say... - Good grief! Where on earth could I find such an answer? Darling, I'm afraid I won't be able to help you out! Disappointment invaded Stephanie's face. Mrs Ham was standing there, in front her, perplexed. A great silence fell upon the library. At that moment, somebody opened the entrance door… 19
NINI'S GOODIES - Page 1
NINI'S GOODIES - Page 2
www.wobook.com