Читать книгу Ventoux онлайн

74 страница из 86

Joost was the first to pull himself together. He stammered, made speech movements without saying anything, which for him meant that there were still powerful and unassimilated experiences spinning around in his brain.

‘Did you see that?’ he asked in a whisper, as if it had been a mirage. ‘Did you see that? Christ. I mean, can you see that?’

‘What do you mean?’ said David.

Joost was too flabbergasted to react to the joke. He stared at the creature open-mouthed.

‘Who is that?’ I asked.

No one answered. It was a stupid question, anyway. Peter had stood up. He was quite experienced when it came to beautiful women, but this was a special apparition for him, too.

André grabbed his ball, kept it in the air ten or so times, and deliberately let it bounce off his instep, toward the girl. It was perfectly executed: the ball rolled gently in her direction, touched her hip, and came to a halt next to her.

The girl looked up. She smiled.

André went over to her. As he picked up the ball, he said: ‘Hello.’ He said ‘Hello’ to a holy angel or a film star or God knows what it was.