Sujet 9 ♦ Amérique du Nord, juin 2005, séries ES et S, LVI You can sniff an atmosphere straight away,...
Extrait du document
«
Sujet 9
♦ Amérique
du Nord, juin 2005, séries ES et S, LVI
You can sniff an atmosphere straight away, you know when something funny's going on.
Off duty?
Maybe, maybe not.
I sat at a table by the window.
The shower had turned into a downpour.
A
waitress with a strange, hounded look seemed only too pleased to serve me.
Three tables along, a
big man (Marco?- l'll never know) was standing, towering over a girl who was sitting facing me
s but not looking at me, looking hard at her hands, one of which held a just-lit cigarette.
The big man was speaking - under his breath but as if he might suddenly bellow - and she
was ignoring what he was saying.
He jabbed a finger towards the door.
She wore a raincoat unbuttoned, dry- but looked like she didn't mean to budge.
He wore a grubby T-shirt, a tea towel
tucked into his belt.
10 She took a drag on her cigarette, blew the smoke quickly and straight up, tilting up her chin.
is
20
2s
30
And I got it all straight away.
Ten out of ten for detection (and for that other thing that goes
with it, sometimes: intuition).
A waitress too.
But she'd just been given her marching orders.
For
something she'd done, in the kitchen perhaps, just moments before - or hadn't done.
Something
he'd done (the details would get filled in later), and she hadn't complied.
You have to put yourself
in the scene.
There was a waitress's apron hanging untidily from one of the hooks by the entrance to the kitchen,
as if it had been flung there in a hurry.
So: she'd been ail ready to storm out.
Stuff your job.
But
then the rain had started outside and she'd had a better, angrier, braver idea.
She'd sat down at the
table.
If she didn't work here any more, she could be a customer, couldn't she? She could order a coffee,
couldn't she? And he could damn well bring it.
Brave, angry girl.
She looked straight ahead without even seeing me.
Brave, angry, blonde girl.
He leant over her, his voice rising.
His hands gripped the edge of the table as ifhe might tip it up.
I don't remember my decision, I don't remember getting up, but one moment I was sitting at my
table, the next I was standing by hers, saying, "What's the trouble here?" And the next moment
I was sitting down opposite her, but looking at him, and saying, "I think this lady would like a
coffee...
".
The nerve.
But who knows what l'd have done without my fall-back, my invisible shield? The ID
in my breast pocket and the word waiting ready, which, as it happens, I didn't have to use: Police.
" ••• and l'd like to buy it for her."
She looked at me.
I could almost hear her think: Now what? What now? Who was this bloke from
nowhere?
He glared.
A moment's stand-off.
Then he turned (l'd done it!), whipping the tea towel from his
belt, back to the kitchen.
More words under his breath.
A sudden certainty inside me.
35
40
4s
She looked at me.
Studied me like something that had dropped from the sky.
Outside the rain was
pelting.
April - Easter coming up.
My move, but it was my audition too.
A drag on her cigarette,
the smoke straight up.
I said, "The thing to do, when he brings it, it not to drink it.
Not to drink it and walk out."
She said, "I was planning on that."
He brought the coffee, but he wasn't going to be nice about it.
Half of it was in the saucer already,
more after he'd plonked it down.
We got up together, scraping our chairs.
"A shilling", he said, folding his arms.
She stubbed out
her cigarette.
I took a shilling from my pocket, slapped it down.
A cheap round, a bargain.
We
edged past him while he stood like some tree.
Then we were out of the door - and the rain was
suddenly stopping, switching itself off like a tap.
A gleam in the sky.
As if that might have been
part of a plan too.
Graham Swift, The Light of Day, 2003.
Compréhension
1.
Where does the scene take place?
2.
Find one detail that shows that the story takes place in Britain.
3.
What season is it? Justify your answer with elements from the text.
4.
In your opinion, who is....
»
↓↓↓ APERÇU DU DOCUMENT ↓↓↓