Her name is Adele.
To be honest, there is nothing special to say about her because this woman has the extraordinary life of ordinary people.
She gets up in the morning, drinks coffee and goes to work.
In the evening, she sometimes meets with colleagues for a drink and on weekends, she hosts a get-together at home or goes to the Theater or the movies. But that was her life before. And before her before life, there was another life before that.
A married life with children, a dog, cats, a car, a job. Her life before the life before was whirling, swinging and never stopping until the day the children left the nest and her husband too. That was her life before the life before!
So, in the life before that she thought was the life after, she thought that in having lost everything, she had everything to gain.
It was exhilarating.
She made new friends, new enemies, a reputation that was tailor-made for her. She embraced the world and broadened her horizons.
She met a man. He has a life, she has her own. He seduces her. He lives far away, but nothing is far away nowadays. Planes are meant to fly. He has the taste of papaya, just familiar, a little guilty.
"These days, it would be better to consume locally," says her head to her heart, who doesn't listen.
Her smartphone sticks to her fingers. She's learning to write with her thumbs, to go faster and tell him more things, all the time.
She now only gazes at the world through the hole of her photographic lens and caresses him with pixels while waiting for the end of the week, because in the life before, she used to wait for him at the airport when he didn't come to pick her up.
In the life before, she wanted to buy a small house by the sea; their house, far from his life, far from hers. A small house in the middle, with a plane in between.
And then, one day, he couldn't come. He was sick and so was she. They comforted each other and promised that it was only a postponement. It was already the beginning of the life after, but she didn't know that.
The flight was postponed, then postponed, then cancelled without being able to be rescheduled.
Adèle started listening to silences.
Months passed. Months of good mornings and good nights. A new sense developed, a technological sense.
She recognizes his numeric step as if she could hear him coming into the room. She reads behind his digital language and feels beyond words whether he is doing well or not.
She shares with him a daily life from a distance, without seeing him, even through a device, because when she sees him, she looks at him and does not talk to him.
She reprimands herself. Her friend Maya has not seen her son for more than eighteen months. When he left, he said : "See you in two weeks Mom..." !
In this next life, Adele hasn't kissed her mother for ages because she is at risk. She no longer hugs anything except her hairy pet that she suffocates with her frustration.
She listens to RTS, France Info, BBC, CNN. The news is unanimous. Nobody goes out. A quarantine is everywhere: 5 days and a test before and after. 7 days and a test before, after and during. 10 days with a fast test and a slow test that is also fast. She obeys for the good of all, for her own, for him, to see him. Will she be able to speak to him with her mouth and a voice?
Thousands of people are dying. Tens of thousands of young people drop out of school, tired of taking courses only online. Hundreds of thousands of artisans are out on the street, not to mention the millions of people around the world who have lost everything. So, Adèle is discreet because in the face of these tragedies, her little dissatisfaction sounds like a whim.
Ladies and Gentlemen from Governments, do your best.
Solidarity rhymes with liberty.
Her name is Adele…
In truth, there is nothing special to say about her because this woman has the extraordinary life of ordinary people.
She gets up in the morning, drinks coffee and goes to work.
Photo by Two Dreamers
