Trafika Europe 11 - Swiss Delights

Max Lobe

We laugh, making fun of ourselves. Ruedi isn’t here. He has gone to the mountains of his native Grisons. He decided to go because he doesn’t want to eat any ndolè, much less any pundu. He turns his nose up at grub from Bantuland, that one. He didn’t say this in so many words. The two of us, given the long stretch of our three years together, don’t necessarily need to say something to understand each other. As he was leaving the apartment yesterday, he invited me to come with him. He was being sly. He knew perfectly well I wouldn’t take him up on it since Dominique was coming to visit. And when Dominique comes to visit one of us, he demands lots of time and attention. He has rarely visit us both. Each time we did, one of us, Ruedi or me, ended up having to disappear and leave Dominique to be the object of the other ’s full attention. Over time, we ended up granting him his own place in our household. He has his own key. He knows that he can come in the apartment when we’re not there. Because it ’s his, too. But I doubt he ever would. He’ll always wait until one of us is there. He’ll wait for one of us to invite him. And then, he’ll leave his apartment in Carouge and come to our place. It has been very hot the last few days. All anyone talks about is the heat wave. They trot out the usual warnings and seasonal advice: drink plenty water,

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