It's a little story. A Novella, a short novel, I felt that this text had no other developments. They wouldn't have brought anything.
It's an epic that I wrote with the aim of only taking into account what the main character was going through. I wasn't interested in the other elements. How the story develops, with regard to the different participants, did not hold my attention. Perhaps this character bewitched me, if that is the case what we imagine is capable of bewitching us. My own words enchant me, almost a subject for a novel. A woman plays the leading role, it's a young girl, Sarah, she is still a student. She's no longer a teenager, she's a young adult. She left the family home. She plays stripper on the internet to earn a little money, the state is so stingy that it's that or the sleeve. This is just a clarification, it's not the story.
I thought of this story while reading about what is happening with the Roma people. These are people who are always on the road, and no one wants them to stop anywhere. I saw photos, snapshots of life in Romania, not in Bucharest, but in the rural world. It's not pretty. Individuals live in a house where a curtain plays the role of a door. People live in extreme poverty in Europe. A few steps away, there is opulence.
Poverty always crushes its butt on your heart, it poisons your blood. Poverty can lead you to commit filthy acts to get by. No one becomes a criminal by being born in nice neighborhoods. Of course, we sometimes find an exception. As you might doubt, they will play a role in the story, but be quiet, read the book.
Sarah listens to her friend, Élise, tell her that she heard a bar owner making shady remarks with people apparently from Eastern Europe. She is afraid, they have bad press, they are involved in all kinds of trafficking. They were discussing a request for young French girls for Romania. It's usually surprising, girls from the East come to France to work on a piece of sidewalk, they have a good output.
These words constitute a godsend, an unexpected chance, a gift of life. They must exploit it. Their wish is to get stumbling money. This would be unforeseen funding for their studies.
Sarah and Élise develop a plan to blackmail Jean-Marc, the owner of this bar. He is very well known in Grenoble. Grenoble festivals always take place in these establishments. He is the master of the Grenoble night. The local press frequently publishes articles demonstrating its innate sense of celebration.
They have taken all the necessary precautions, the request is launched, the fish will inevitably take the bait. They demanded fifty thousand euros, it's the price of silence. He cannot know who the author is. They are jubilant with joy, Jean-Marc has money, they know his daughter and his son, they know that he lives in opulence.
The days pass, Jean-Marc does not react.
A fortnight later, Élise disappeared.
Sarah does not understand and is not sure if the kidnapping is due to the fact that Jean-Marc discovered that they tried to blackmail him. Élise may simply be a young girl who is the subject of his research.
Then, he blurs sensitive space, his children and his wife manage his affairs, and reassure people, he went to Estonia, an old acquaintance encountered health problems. He went to help her. He always shows full of empathy towards his friends in need. A man like that, we don't do that anymore.