Read Online Hector and the Search for Happiness by Francois Lelord - Free Book Online
Authors: Francois Lelord
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of the pill that his wife should try while she was waiting for an appointment. Eduardo wrote everything down with a nice gold pen (it might even have been solid gold).
Just then, Jean-Michel arrived and when he saw Hector talking to Eduardo, he pulled a face. Hector wanted to introduce Jean-Michel to Eduardo, but Jean-Michel seemed in a hurry and he whisked Hector away while Eduardo thanked him and said goodbye.
In the car, Jean-Michel asked Hector if he knew who he’d been speaking to.
Hector said he did, more or less.
And Jean-Michel said, ‘That’s the kind of guy who drags this country into the shit!’
Marcel said nothing, but it was obvious he agreed.
Hector didn’t reply because he was busy writing in his notebook:
Lesson no. 9: Happiness is knowing your family lacks for nothing.
Lesson no. 10: Happiness is doing a job you love.
He explained to Jean-Michel that the barman at the hotel had a second job. This made Jean-Michel and Marcel laugh, and Marcel explained that here having a second job meant having a girlfriend as well as a wife!
This made Hector think about Ying Li and Clara, and he went very quiet for a while.
HECTOR TAKES LESSONS IN UNHAPPINESS
T HERE were a lot of people walking along the dusty street, and some little children with no shoes on as well, and when the car got stuck in traffic, the children came up to beg. They’d spotted Hector even through the tinted windows, and they waved their little hands at him and smiled, showing all their little white teeth.
‘Don’t try to wind the window down,’ Jean-Michel said, ‘I’ve locked them.’
‘But why are they only making signs at me?’ Hector asked, as he watched a pretty little girl holding out her pretty little hands.
‘Because they can see that you’re new here. They already know us.’
The city did not look very well maintained. Hector could see tumbledown houses patched up with planks of wood or corrugated iron, or villas that must once have been very beautiful but were now mouldering. People were selling things on the pavement, but they were the sorts of things that, in Hector’s country, would just have been thrown away or put up in the attic. One place, however, was selling nice brightly coloured vegetables. Hector noticed that the people did not look very happy. The children smiled, but the grown-ups didn’t smile at all.
They were still stuck in traffic, and Hector couldn’t understand why there were so many cars in such a poor country.
‘There aren’t that many cars, it’s just that there are very few roads so they get congested quickly. And there’s only one set of traffic lights in the whole city!’
Finally, they managed to get out of the traffic jam and the car was soon speeding along the road. The road wasn’t very well maintained either; it had big boulders in the middle or else potholes the size of bathtubs, which nobody bothered to fill in, but Jean-Michel was used to it. This was just as well, because from time to time they went past trucks driving very fast the other way with lots of people clinging to the sides and even on the roof. Hector told himself that people here might not smile very much, but in any event they seemed to know no fear, because had any of those trucks had an accident they would have been very badly hurt. Hector noticed that the trucks were often painted different colours and had writing on them in big letters: ‘The Good Lord watches over us’ or ‘Long live Jesus who loves us always’ and he understood that the people here still put their trust in God, much more so than in Hector’s country where people relied on the Social Security to look after them.
He wondered whether belief in God was a lesson in happiness. No, he couldn’t make that a lesson because you don’t choose whether to believe in God or not.
The countryside wasn’t much better than it had been around the airport: big scorched hills and hardly any trees to provide shade.
Hector asked why there
Just then, Jean-Michel arrived and when he saw Hector talking to Eduardo, he pulled a face. Hector wanted to introduce Jean-Michel to Eduardo, but Jean-Michel seemed in a hurry and he whisked Hector away while Eduardo thanked him and said goodbye.
In the car, Jean-Michel asked Hector if he knew who he’d been speaking to.
Hector said he did, more or less.
And Jean-Michel said, ‘That’s the kind of guy who drags this country into the shit!’
Marcel said nothing, but it was obvious he agreed.
Hector didn’t reply because he was busy writing in his notebook:
Lesson no. 9: Happiness is knowing your family lacks for nothing.
Lesson no. 10: Happiness is doing a job you love.
He explained to Jean-Michel that the barman at the hotel had a second job. This made Jean-Michel and Marcel laugh, and Marcel explained that here having a second job meant having a girlfriend as well as a wife!
This made Hector think about Ying Li and Clara, and he went very quiet for a while.
HECTOR TAKES LESSONS IN UNHAPPINESS
T HERE were a lot of people walking along the dusty street, and some little children with no shoes on as well, and when the car got stuck in traffic, the children came up to beg. They’d spotted Hector even through the tinted windows, and they waved their little hands at him and smiled, showing all their little white teeth.
‘Don’t try to wind the window down,’ Jean-Michel said, ‘I’ve locked them.’
‘But why are they only making signs at me?’ Hector asked, as he watched a pretty little girl holding out her pretty little hands.
‘Because they can see that you’re new here. They already know us.’
The city did not look very well maintained. Hector could see tumbledown houses patched up with planks of wood or corrugated iron, or villas that must once have been very beautiful but were now mouldering. People were selling things on the pavement, but they were the sorts of things that, in Hector’s country, would just have been thrown away or put up in the attic. One place, however, was selling nice brightly coloured vegetables. Hector noticed that the people did not look very happy. The children smiled, but the grown-ups didn’t smile at all.
They were still stuck in traffic, and Hector couldn’t understand why there were so many cars in such a poor country.
‘There aren’t that many cars, it’s just that there are very few roads so they get congested quickly. And there’s only one set of traffic lights in the whole city!’
Finally, they managed to get out of the traffic jam and the car was soon speeding along the road. The road wasn’t very well maintained either; it had big boulders in the middle or else potholes the size of bathtubs, which nobody bothered to fill in, but Jean-Michel was used to it. This was just as well, because from time to time they went past trucks driving very fast the other way with lots of people clinging to the sides and even on the roof. Hector told himself that people here might not smile very much, but in any event they seemed to know no fear, because had any of those trucks had an accident they would have been very badly hurt. Hector noticed that the trucks were often painted different colours and had writing on them in big letters: ‘The Good Lord watches over us’ or ‘Long live Jesus who loves us always’ and he understood that the people here still put their trust in God, much more so than in Hector’s country where people relied on the Social Security to look after them.
He wondered whether belief in God was a lesson in happiness. No, he couldn’t make that a lesson because you don’t choose whether to believe in God or not.
The countryside wasn’t much better than it had been around the airport: big scorched hills and hardly any trees to provide shade.
Hector asked why there
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