Free Hector and the Secrets of Love by Francois Lelord Page B

wage war; everyone would prefer to stay at home and go on loving one another. Those drugs wouldn’t be very good for national defence.
    ‘And where did you learn all this?’ Hector asked Jean-Marcel.
    ‘When I was doing my military service,’ said Jean-Marcel. ‘I was in the Engineers. Laying mines, clearing mines. Assorted tricks, really.’
    And, suddenly, who should they see arriving at another table but Miko and Chizourou! Mind you, it wasn’t surprising since they were staying at the same hotel.
    They came over to say hello and Hector and Jean-Marcel, who were proper gentlemen, invited them to sit at their table.
    They still looked very pretty, even without their white sunhats. In fact they looked like two adorable squirrels with their almond-shaped eyes and auburn hair. They ordered kebabs with a Japanese name: teriyaki.
    They exchanged a few guttural sounds in Japanese and then Miko asked Hector what was written on the piece of paper they had found at the temple. Damn, Chizourou must have told her about their discovery.
    ‘It was a lover’s note,’ said Hector. ‘“Chester and Rosalyn were here and their love will last forever.”’
    He wished he hadn’t said the name Chester, which was Professor Cormorant’s first name, but he’d been forced to improvise and it had just slipped out.
    ‘What note is that?’ asked Jean-Marcel.
    Hector explained, and added that it must be a new trend that might catch on at the temple of love: leaving notes, rather like at a Buddhist shrine.
    ‘Didn’t you keep it?’ asked Jean-Marcel.
    ‘No, I must have lost it in all the excitement over the mine, and then I forgot about it.’
    It was true – leading Miko away from the mine had distracted him and he couldn’t remember what he’d done with the piece of paper, which, after all, wasn’t that important.
    ‘Will their wish come true if their note is no longer in the wall?’
    ‘I expect it’s the intention that counts,’ said Hector.
    Miko and Chizourou started talking again, and then Miko explained that Chizourou had replaced the note in the bamboo and the bamboo in the wall. In Japan, people don’t leave things lying on the ground and they respect temple offerings.
    ‘I think I’ll stay on for a day or two,’ Jean-Marcel said, ‘and visit a few temples.’
    Chizourou looked more cheerful than she had the day before, and as it turned out, although she didn’t speak English, she did speak a little bit of Hector and Jean-Marcel’s language.
    ‘Une toute petit peu,’ she said.
    ‘And where will you two go next?’ Hector asked.
    They didn’t know yet. Maybe to China. And what did they do for a living in Japan?
    Miko explained that they both worked for a big non-governmental organisation whose aim was to protect everything that might be destroyed in the world, including endangered animals, but also ancient temples, and rivers that were as yet unpolluted. Her job was to raise money for restoring the temples; as for Chizourou, she did beautiful drawings of the ruins to convince people their donations were needed. This didn’t surprise Hector, who had immediately sensed that Chizourou had a deeply artistic nature.
    Without really paying attention, Jean-Marcel and Hector began using their charms a little on these two pretty Japanese girls, who seemed to be having a great time.
    Just then, a waitress who looked like Vayla came over to them, a surly expression on her face. In fact it was Vayla, dressed in her hotel waitress’s uniform, that’s to say in a shimmering orange sarong.
    Hector had learnt during his studies that facial expressions are universal (another blow to silly cultural prejudices, the professor would have said) and he could see immediately that Vayla was rather upset.
    Jean-Marcel looked impressed. ‘Wow, you’re a quick worker!’
    ‘Beginner’s luck,’ said Hector.
    Vayla marched off and, without her saying a word, Hector understood she would be meeting him in his room very shortly.