Back in Paris after a few months in Marseille. Henri is pretty ticked at me for taking off for so long. Pas grave. I’ve seen it before, and I will again. But Jean-Paul isn’t angry at all. He's past anger, and has moved into apathy. Not good.
I got my work cut out for me.
What did I expect from the kid? I’ve been pulling away from everyone close to me because I’ve been in pain. At some point, JP had to protect himself from his own pain. The sting of rejection. What else could he do? He had to shut down.
One consolation: he didn’t run back to the streets. He stayed with Henri and his family, and hasn’t missed a day of work at the bar tabac. I owe Henri a debt of gratitude for that. He did what I could not; he domesticated my kid. Of course, he's better equipped to do it; he can teach by example. For me, all I had was the old “do as I say, not as I do” argument. JP saw through all that.
I guess I handed my kid over to Henri to rear. I didn’t mean to; it just happened. JP’s probably better off. I’m not jealous.
Yeah right.
Henri and JP are tight now, and I’m on the outside. Never mind I put myself there, I want back in. I gotta get JP to trust me again, before he's lost to me for good.
