On Three I Jump

By Magali Dubreuil Bourguet

***A STORY OF TWO CONFINED PEOPLE WHO GET FREE AND FEEL GOOD ABOUT IT****
**** READY TO JUMP? ****
"The most insignificant person in your eyes today can overnight become your most beautiful reason to live. It was just a matter of giving them the opportunity, one second,
a minute, a day, for an eternity.
You might walk past them every day without even realizing it until without even noticing it he or she saves your life... Nina and Raph are neighbors who have never met before.
When these two young adults who are at odds with each other, an unconscious guy and an omniphobic girl, find themselves confined, because of coronavirus, in their respective apartments on the sixth floor of a building in Toulouse, will they tame each other or will they kill each other?
Our comfort zone can at any moment become very uncomfortable, so it's up to us to understand the reasons and to learn, sometimes to unlearn, from ourselves or from the other."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Magali Dubreuil Bourguet
• Release date: Jul 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9781667407517

Book preview

On Three I Jump

In conformity with the law of March 11, 1957,

it is strictly forbidden to reproduce in whole or in part

the present work, in whatever medium, without the authorization of the writer, the publisher

or the French Center for the Exploitation of Copyrights: 20, rue des Grands-Augustins, 75006 Paris.

Magali Dubreuil-Bourguet

(Mag. B.)

On Three I Jump

Novel

ISBN 9791034351718

Foreword

This third novel is the product of the strangest period that my generation has ever lived.

It is part of my personality to always find the positive side of things and turn a hardship into an opportunity.

In this story, I hope you will find in Nina or Raph a little bit of you, a little bit of us, a little bit of your experience through this unexpected period of lockdown.

All of us are connected and strong, but not at the same time, not in the same places and not at the same moments. That is why tolerance, respect and humility will always remain the key words for all evils.

Magali Dubreuil-Bourguet.

Life is just what happens when you have planned for something else.

John Lennon.

Day 1 - Saturday, March 14

But how could this happen? There, in the middle of the night, on her sixth floor balcony, Nina, a pretty young woman of twenty-five, stands with her feet on the first level of the railing, with her eyes drowned in uncertainty, resolved to jump. In her head, everything is in turmoil, not a single thought is clear; everything is confused and seems to have no way out. The past is heavy, the present is cumbersome and the future seems terrifying. And what's the point? What is the point of continuing? To fight again? Every day?

- Come on, I can do it! On the count of three, I'll jump!

Nina starts to climb over the railing when a voice is heard:

- Are you serious? Normally, the principle of bungee jumping is to have the bungee, right?

- Don't bother me. It's none of your business!

- Well, I wish it was... but I was sitting there with my beer when I noticed my neighbor trying to jump from her balcony..., so now it's kind of my business...

- Well, just ignore it and finish your beer inside, and that's it!

- Right, cool! I hadn't thought of that; yes, good idea. I will just let you jump and fall like shit on the ground and finish my beer. It's tempting, but no, my day is bad enough as it is, so if you could refrain...

- Your day? Rotten? Well, my whole life is rotten, every day and every night as far as I can remember... I hate my life and my job, I hate people, I hate my mother, I hate my apartment, I hate myself, I hate you and your sick music that keeps me awake most of the time...

- But anyway, you've got some problems temporarily solved: your job, the people, your mother... You won't see them for a while now!

- If I jump? Then I won't have to go through all this...

- But no, I mean with the news that just came out, the lockdown.

- What do you mean, the lockdown?

- Haven't you seen the news? Don't you have a TV?

- No, I haven't watched the news.

- The President said, ''We're on lockdown." We’re not going out anymore, and we don't work until further notice, so it wasn't worth it to jump, you know.

- No more going out? No more work?

- Well, yeah. It's nice to see someone who seems to be happy about it, and if it turns out that in a week, I'll be the one trying to jump off the balcony, you know, because I'm sick of the lockdown... Denial of all my freedoms makes me sick, so I' m treating myself tonight with a few beers.

- Then on Monday, I won’t be working or going out, so I'll be able to stay here at home...

- Yes.

––––––––

Nina comes down from the railing, steps back and falls on her garden chair a little further.

- Would you like a beer?

- I don't drink alcohol.

- How come! It's not good for you? Pretty funny from somebody who was ready to jump off the sixth floor.

- Okay, fine. I suppose I will have a beer anyway.

- Catch! I'm Raph and you are?

- Nina.

Nina and Raph

On the surface, Nina has a normal life, or nearly so. She lives in an apartment in Toulouse and works as an accountant in a large firm. She is not really an accountant, but she works as a data entry clerk from morning to night. She doesn't really have any friends either, except for a lifelong friend she went to school with, Sophie. They both know each other perfectly, but still can't help each other, for if Nina is tormented and uncomfortable inside, Sophie is in her world of geeks, mangas and fantasy movies.

They have each tried to get through the turmoil of their lives by closing themselves up in a bubble. As for Nina, her bubble ends with phobic; she is claustrophobic, agoraphobic, arachnophobic and other phobic ailments, but also spasmophilic and slightly hypochondriac... As you may have guessed, she is unwell.

In her youth, Nina had to fight to survive emotionally. With her mother, life could be compared to an endless roller coaster. One day her mother could buy the entire collection of clothes from a store, and the next day set fire to her dressing room down to the last dress.

One moment she could put her daughter on a pedestal, and the next she could be beating her up and calling her names. At the same time, Nina always protected her mother to the point of taking on the role of mother. She cooked, put her to bed when she was drunk, did the shopping for her, etc.

Then, one day, she had to take it upon herself to have her hospitalized, and since then she has been visiting her from time to time at the center. Every time she goes to see her, it's another disappointment.

Recently, given what has been happening in the world, this covid-19 and all the inconsistencies, this incessant flow of information or misinformation from the media and this anxious atmosphere, she has been feeling even worse.

Every moment of the day is an ordeal for Nina: getting up, choosing her outfit, driving, meeting her colleagues, shopping... Only once she gets home can she at last settle down. It is exhausting to have to fight 24 hours a day and as her pains are invisible and she has learned to do her best to hide them, she suffers from a great loneliness.

After work today, she stopped by to see her mother. After a very busy day of figure inputting and a grey and gloomy day, she wanted to end the day on a high note. As always when she stops to see her mom, it is sort of a coin toss... Well, for today, it was a tails day that she got hit in the face, so to speak. Her mother blasted her from head to toe, including her job, her failed single life, her inability to find a man... Who would want such an incompetent woman? Anyway, she would have done better not to go.

It's not really easy to put yourself in her shoes, and probably you'll say she has to stop going there, I can imagine... Yes, it is true, yet as she is flipping the coin, it's become a sort of addiction to this game. I mean in the casino when you always think you're going to win again, that's kind of how it works for her. She thinks that maybe today will be the right day, the day her mother will praise her with millions of superlatives that will feed her until the next time...

However, she still doesn't know that she has to learn how to give herself this illusory love... Much easier said than done when you've grown up in such conditions.

On her way back to her apartment, she was crying, listening to the news and their poisoned stories. She couldn't see any way out, as her mind was repeating her mother's words.

But paradoxically, people in general enjoy Nina's company and confide in her easily—she often gives good advice. She has a certain wisdom, resulting from an early maturity certainly due to her experience. As you all know, she is often the shoemaker with the worst shoes on; what she knows how to explain so well to the others does not seem to apply to her.

As soon as she entered her apartment, she took a bath. Tonight, it's not like usual; she's not even angry...

Once wedged in the bottom of her bathtub; yes, wedged as if she had just dropped the anchor. It is weird because she has the physical or maybe psychic impression that her body weighs tons; it is heavy to carry around all day... Or maybe it is all those anvils she drags around with her.

She has been brooding for a while, not asking herself the right questions, going around in circles, but tonight... she is calm, and that is precisely what is worrying. When she is angry at her mother, she redoubles her efforts so that the next time, maybe, she can be proud of herself. All her life, she has tried to prove to her mother that she is a good girl and a good woman, but she’s never done anything for herself. It was a pointless endeavor, because like those who are addicted to games, she digs a little deeper into her malaise each time. Gamblers are forbidden to play; could she be forbidden to be her mother's daughter? No. Could she stop visiting her without feeling guilty? No... not for the moment.

This evening, however, she is not angry but tired and too settled, and this is just abnormal. She lit scented candles in the bathroom and drifted off to sleep.

By the time she regained consciousness, it was already dark. She gets out of the bath and looks at herself in the mirror in a strange way; does she really see herself? Who or what does she see when she looks at herself? What is she thinking about?

She looks at herself with an absent or I would say distant look, as if... as if she was looking at someone she wasn't going to see again, much like the look you give to the person you no longer love when you decide to break up... eyes that would say, I'm sorry, but I have to leave you.

She then went to her bedroom to get dressed when she had no intention of going out, yet she acts as if she had a program for the evening. She shows no particular emotion, much like sleepwalking, so she moves mechanically, according to her plan.

Dressed in a rather nice dress, she goes to her balcony.

You already know the rest, but before proceeding further, I'll introduce you to her next door neighbor, Raph.

He is twenty-eight years old. If you meet him, he will give you the impression that he is more, like seventeen, but still... He is a free electron, with a surfer's look, long blond hair and a teenager's look, baggy jeans, caps and skateboard shoes. He has been working in a surf store in Toulouse for a short time, because until now, and since he was eighteen, he has been doing seasonal work. He used to go to the mountains in winter for snowboarding and to the ocean in summer for surfing. Already, he has traveled a lot: Spain, Canada, Portugal, Costa Rica, but his favorite country is New Zealand. He's just come back from there, and now he has only one thing to do, and that is to go back and stay there. He is the opportunistic type, terribly optimistic and enjoys letting go so much that he is always single, or rather, often single... He is an intermittent guy.

He loves adrenaline, bungee jumping, all kinds of sliding sports, rafting, climbing... In other words, he