Skinner: Cold Reality
by Atonia
Part 2
The first stop after arriving in Luberon was to see Auzet; he’d made an appointment prior to leaving London. He had no idea what to expect if she would be the same woman in the movie or someone different. Would she know him from the movie? Max was still trying to find his way in reality.
He was shown into the familiar office and indeed it was Nathalie Auzet from the movie. She did not know him which made things easier. There was a modest sum of money and of course the harvest.
"Harvest?"
But he should have known and with no Duflot what was he to do? It would all be explained in the papers she told him. He left her office with his briefcase weighted down with his inheritance. He was a fish out of water and being thirsty he found a local café and a glass of chilled wine to drink while he contemplated what it meant to be an English banker in wine country. He didn’t speak wine language…or did he? It had been taught to him as a young boy he even spoke it then but that language had been replaced at University and erased at M&S.
He was in Bonnieux a village visible from the chateau. All villages were uphill he wondered if he found the right spot would his home be visible from Bonnieux. Probably it would but he was not familiar enough with his surroundings yet to look in the right direction. He once knew the area well but he’d been only a boy, nearly thirty years ago when he was paying attention; before girls.
As he drove from Bonnieux to the chateau he stopped along the road and looked at it from a distance. It really was a large estate and it was his. What the bloody hell was he going to do with it? He stopped again and had a look at the vineyards the vines were hanging heavy with grape, had he missed the peak he hoped not. Back in the Renault he hurried to the house. He really needed to look over the papers in his briefcase.
He’d stopped at a market in the village and brought his provisions into the house. He stood inside the door, it smelled of his childhood layered over with a month’s worth of dust. He closed his eyes and opened his ears to the silence but it was a different silence than his flat in London. Here you could hear the sounds of birds and insects outside the door, the tick of a clock there was life here after all.
He took the food into the old fashioned kitchen and turned on the fridge, there would probably be no hot water and he would have to find the boiler and turn it on. At least the electricity was still on…for now. Part of the weight in his briefcase were bills, some paid some not by Auzet.
Once he’d fired up the gas boiler and unloaded his car of his luggage and his laptop he cleared out a place on his Uncle’s desk, well it was his now, and opened his briefcase. The papers were all in French. He ran his hand through his hair spotted a bottle of something on a chest nearby and got up and had a smell, brandy…he smiled and blew the dust from a snifter and poured himself a drink. He’d need this to translate the pile of papers on his desk.
He’d made a little progress, had the bills separated from the actual papers pertaining to the estate. The bills he would pay right away with his own check book he still hadn’t found a bank statement. He’d opened the windows over the desk and his eyes kept moving upward. He had to get outside in that sunshine. It was cold and wet in London that morning when he’d left and here it was perfect. He left the papers and went outside to walk around breathe the fresh scented air and let it all sink in.
He walked by the table where he and Toni had shared a bottle of wine running his hand over the back of the chair where she’d sat. This all could have been hers too. What a different homecoming it would have been with her on his arm. What a different life…but it wasn’t to be. He’d been trying not to think about her but all of a sudden in came down on him and he sat down at the table and rested his head in his hands. A moment later he sat back in the chair, "You can’t have her so think about what you do have and get on with it." He said aloud and got up and continued his walk around the chateau.
He was going to have to have some help; he looked down into the debris filled empty pool. He looked back toward the chateau at that warren of rooms off the main part of the house, he knew they were filled with years’ worth of junk "Oh Duflot where are you?"