CATHERINE. – You sent us a note,

you sent me a note, a little note, and flowers, I remember.

It was, it is, it was a very nice gesture and I was touched, but it’s true,
you’ve never seen her.
And today, oh well, no, this won’t change.
I’ll tell her about you.
We had sent you, we send you, a picture of her
- she’s very small, petite, she’s a baby, I’m so silly ! -
and in the picture, she doesn’t look like Antoine, not at all, she looks like no one.
When you’re so young you don’t look like anything.
I don’t know, did you receive it?
Now she’s very different, a girl, and you wouldn’t recognize her.
She’s grown and she has hair.
It’s too bad.

ANTOINE. – Leave it alone, will you? You’re boring him.

LOUIS. – Not at all.
Why do you say that, don’t say that.

CATHERINE. – I’m boring you. I bore everybody with this, children.
You think you’re interesting.

LOUIS. – I don’t know why he said that.
I don’t understand.
Why do you say that ?
It’s mean, not mean, no, it’s unpleasant.
It doesn’t bore me at all, all this, my God daughter, niece, my niece, she's not my God daughter, my niece, it interests me.

There’s also a little boy, right? He has the same name I have, Louis?

CATHERINE. – Yes, forgive me.

LOUIS. – I’m pleased. I’m touched, it touched me.

CATHERINE. – There’s a little boy, yes.
The little boy is,
he’s six now.
Six?
I don’t know, what else?
One is two years older than the other, they are two years apart.
What could I add?

ANTOINE. – Did I say something,
Don’t look at me like that!
You see how she looks at me?
What did I say?
There’s nothing in what I said that should,
there’s nothing in what I said that should stop you,
I didn’t say anything that should unsettle you,
she’s unsettled,
she barely knows you and she’s unsettled,
Catherine is like that.
I didn’t say anything.
He’s listening to you,
you’re interested, right?
He’s listening, he just said so,
it interests him, our kids, your kids, my kids,
he likes that,
you like that, right?
He is fascinated, he’s a man fascinated by this description of our offspring,
he likes this topic of conversation,
I don’t know why, what possessed me,
there was nothing on his face that manifested the feeling of boredom,
I don’t know what I was thinking when I said that.

CATHERINE. – Yes, no, I wasn’t thinking about what you said.

LOUIS. – It’s annoying, it’s not right.
I’m uncomfortable,
I’m sorry,
I’m sorry everyone,
I won’t hold it against you, but you made me uncomfortable and here,
now,
I’m uncomfortable.

ANTOINE. – It’s going to be my fault.
Such a beautiful day.

THE MOTHER. – She was talking about Louis,
Catherine, you were talking about Louis,
the kid.
Don’t even bother, you know how he is.

CATHERINE. – Yes. I apologize. What I was saying was,
he has the same name you have, but, to tell you the truth

ANTOINE. – I’m sorry.
Okay, there, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it, let’s say I didn’t mean it,
but you, don’t look at me like that,
stop looking at me like that,
honestly, honestly,
what did I say?

CATHERINE. – I heard,
I heard you.

What I’m saying is, he was named mostly,
the origin of this is, rather
- I’m telling the story -
he was mostly named after your father and inevitably, because of that

ANTOINE. – The kings of France.

CATHERINE. – Listen, Antoine,
listen to me, I’ll be quiet, I don’t care,
you tell the story!

ANTOINE. – What! I didn’t say anything,
I was joking,
I can’t joke,
On a day like this, one can’t make a joke...

THE MOTHER. – He’s joking, it’s a joke he’s already made.

ANTOINE. – Explain to him.

Translation : Lucie Tiberghien