Hector and the Secrets of Love by Francois Lelord Read Free Book Online

children – a boy and a girl who were already quite grown-up – but Hector sensed he wasn’t telling the whole truth either, and he wondered whether Jean-Marcel’s wife was really awaiting his return or whether she was fed up with waiting for him, because in fact he spent his whole life travelling on business.
    Because you have to get up very early if you want to go sightseeing in hot countries, they soon said good-night to each other.

    The next day, Hector and Jean-Marcel had difficulty finding a driver as no one would go near the temple. In the end, they found a man who kept laughing all the time, and Hector wondered whether he was quite right in the head. But maybe it was the custom of the country, in which case the driver was normal. But when he saw that all the other drivers were laughing as they watched them drive off he began to get worried.

HECTOR AND THE TEMPLE IN THE JUNGLE
    T HE country that had been ravaged by crazy leaders was still very beautiful. The road threaded its way through lush countryside full of tall trees and pretty wooden houses on stilts. In the shade of the houses you could see people sleeping in hammocks, women squatting as they did the cooking, children at play, dogs wagging their tails and sometimes cows with a hump on their necks and a tendency to cross the road without looking.
    Hector said to himself that this country was very beautiful, but at the same time he knew that its beauty came from its poverty, because the moment it became richer, people would want to have ugly concrete houses with moulded plastic balustrades, like in the neighbouring countries, and minimarkets, factories and hoardings would spring up around all the villages. On the other hand, you couldn’t wish it on these people to remain poor.
    ‘That idiot has taken a wrong turning,’ said Jean-Marcel.
    He was following the map while keeping an eye on the driver, and all credit to him as it isn’t easy finding your bearings in a foreign country. He made the driver go back and take the right road because, although he couldn’t speak much Khmer, Jean-Marcel was the sort of person who could make himself understood very well.
    Then the driver began driving very fast, which wasn’t a good idea because of the cows, and Jean-Marcel had to tell him rather loudly to slow down.
    ‘For God’s sake, I don’t know where they dug this one up!’
    ‘He was the only one who agreed to take us,’ said Hector.
    The driver began laughing again.
    Jean-Marcel and Hector started talking to pass the time. People found it easy to talk to Hector, and so Jean-Marcel explained to him that things weren’t so good between him and his wife because she didn’t really like him travelling to Asia all the time on business.
    ‘She knows I’m no saint when I’m away from home. But I really don’t want to split up with her, I want us to stay together.’
    Hector showed him what he had written on the plane:
    Seedling no. 5: True love is not being unfaithful (even when you want to be).
    ‘I know,’ said Jean-Marcel with a sigh. ‘But so long as I’m only getting laid and not having a proper affair, I tell myself I’m not really cheating on my wife. What can I do? It’s the way we’re made. I know it’s nothing to be proud of.’
    Hector remembered his own thoughts about the air hostess and the pretty waitress at the hotel, and he agreed that it was nothing to be proud of either.
    Just then, Jean-Marcel looked at the driver.
    ‘He’s dropping off, the idiot! We need to keep our eye on him, for God’s sake!’
     
     
    The temple stood crumbling in the middle of the forest. In fact it was not so much that the temple was in the middle of the forest as that the forest was in the middle of the temple because a few tall trees had grown through some of the walls and you could even see roots, like giant octopus tentacles, curled around a group of statues.
    The driver stopped the car in the shade of a tree and watched Jean-Marcel and Hector