All That Remains: Day 11

Word Count: 66,045

Summary of Events:

Will spent the night at a hotel in London, but wasn't able to sleep much, so he turned on an early-morning news broadcast and listened to a report on Sefu's funeral and the crash itself, about which there wasn't much more information at the present. Chloë packed her things for the trip to Corsica for Tristan's funeral before meaning to try and finish up her will, but Amandine asked her about whether she and Tristan's mother could stay in the house with her, among others, which got her thinking about the guest house, which she decided to invite Will to stay in, as Tristan would probably have done, and she felt that she and Will had a common resentment to their present states. Will was informed by the doctor that his request for euthanasia had been denied, and Angelo, not understanding the Dutch exchange, tried to get Will to tell him why the doctor had come, but Will refused and the two got into an argumentative discussion…

Excerpt of the Day:

“But always you seem so negative,” Angelo said. “You seem so negative all the time, but yet you are open minded to everything? I cannot understand that. How can a person be negative and have an open mind? Negative is a relative of closed. When you are negative, you are closed. When you are positive, you are open.”

“Just believe it’s possible and leave me alone,” Will snapped.

“You are closing now,” Angelo said. “That is negative. You do not want to explain to me what is going on.”

“It’s not like you care,” Will said.

“Now you insult me!” Angelo exclaimed.

“You’ve been calling me a pauper for the last week all because I happened to be the beneficiary of a will,” Will spat. “It’s not like I asked Tristan for the money. I don’t need it, it was just a gift he decided to give me for reasons.”

“I am sure the money Tristan left you is more than all of the money you had before,” Angelo said. “I know very well he was a very wealthy man. I’m surprised he didn’t leave you one of his properties too. But I’m glad he didn’t.”

“You have no idea what my financial status is,” Will said. “And I’m not exactly going to go telling you either.”

“I’m not asking for that information,” Angelo said.

“Good,” Will snapped. “But why are you glad he didn’t give me one of his properties?”

“You would probably move to the place and become a recluse,” Angelo said. “Seeing you are always so negative.”

“Did Tristan strike you as a positive person?” Will asked.

“Of course not,” Angelo replied.

“He didn’t become a recluse at any of his properties,” Will said.

“He had no reason to,” Angelo replied. “He didn’t have any loved ones die.”

“Um, I’m pretty sure he did,” Will said.

“Who?” Angelo asked.

“Jérôme said something once that suggested Tristan and Chloë lost a baby,” Will said.

“When?” Angelo asked, sounding disbelieving.

“In the last five years or so,” Will replied.

“I think that is very unlikely,” Angelo said. “They’ve never seemed like the sort of a couple who loved one another enough to have a baby together.”

“Who says that isn’t the result of their losing the baby?” Will asked.

“Maybe that is a possibility,” Angelo said. “But I am sure that Tristan would not have cared. He never seemed the fatherly type.”

“Really?” Will asked. “He was the closest thing I ever found to a replacement for my father.”

“He wasn’t even old enough to be your father,” Angelo said, sounding incredulous.

“Even still,” Will said. “He taught me everything he knew about football and really cared about me in a way that even Arne never has.”

“It must’ve been because you are so negative like him,” Angelo said.

Will turned his head away from the curtain. Sure Tristan had been brooding, but he’d not really been all that negative most of the time. Clearly Angelo had never cared to take the time to get to know Tristan any more than he cared to take the time to get to know most anyone else on the team.

Pronunciations:

Jérôme: zhehrhom

Arne: ahrneh