◀ Edito

Elephants are cheaters... part 3

On May 29, 2023

  Babar looks at his watch, then at the trees in the park. Time seems so slow today. How long had it been since the last time that Babar wore these sport clothes ? He doesn’t even remember. He can only observe that these clothes that used to be floating were now sticking to his body. Time can be cruel. Babar didn’t have it too bad, he thinks to rationnaly calm down his self criticism. He has outgrowths at the height of his hips, an excess at stomach level, and some body parts that are getting squeezed a bit, but age also makes his charm, he thinks. People also say “love handle”, after all.

  SUDDENLY ! Multiple sprinters are running down the park street. Their steps, regularly, smash the dirt that has already been hit multiple times by their predecessors, periodically and without a break. The breaths are following the rythms without ever, in the flow of runners, creating only one sound, a unique breath. By their own phrases, each person makes their part in the sound oscillations and vibrations of this itinerant mechanical blower. Babar is lost in this herd, and by a social mechanism starts a little jog and joins them.

  The first times are so hard, that at the first hardship, you’d like to stop it all. As soon as Babar starts to give in, another helps him, he slows down and goes to his rythm. Babar takes a breath, and synchronises. The sun is strong today but he’s almost there.

  The herd finally stops. Babar leaves it and slowly walks into the park until he finds a bench.

  “Wow, you still got it in you, sir !”

Babar turns around, it’s Sonic talking to him. Babar remembers that he had come to run with him.

 “I’m sorry, I started to run with them and…-
- Don’t worry. But you’re exhausted, it seems. We could go grab a drink somewhere.”

Babar finds Sonic very bold, which surprises him for a man this young. He has a devastating smile and a sly behaviour. But he is my son’s friend, he thinks. I cannot fall under his spell. A man’s reason has many defaults, and the charms of love is one of them. He agrees like forced by himself to follow this young adventurer.

They stopped in a bar in the Marais, again. Babar is still covered in sweat, Sonic, him, is fresh and dapper.

 “So, you*…
- Please, you can be less formal.
- Oh okay, then, you like to run ?
- It’s sportive, I must say.
- Ah, for sure.
- But I particularly like running as a group.
- And running as two ?
Babar blushes. He didn’t expect this. Sonic starts talking again.
- No, I’m messing with you !
- What about you, what do you like… about running ?
- The sensation of emptiness and the call of speed. Sometimes, I go into empty fields, there are only animals. I am far from everything, the air is so pire. I start a jog on the grass, then I get faster. At the first acceleration, I start to feel the beatings of my heart going faster, making all of my cells vibrate to develop my muscles.

Babar listends closely, he is hanging on every word of Sonic.

 - I accelerate again, my body needs it. This time, air cannot completely feel me, I leave behind only thin traces and a smell in the air. My breathing doesn’t rise that much, my heart tries as it can to stabilise itself. I keep gaining speed, I am able to control precisely each and every one of my muscles, to tense or relax it. Each of my jogs is a beam, I propel myself in the air. During these moments so short and aerial, my mind empties and disappears in the air.

He stops for a second.

 - Slowly, I reduce my speed. And then, I stop. I lay, emptied from all my impurities. I don’t think about anything, I only live the intense joy of this field.

Babar is struck, Sonic was so passionated that there is nothing he can say. Long glance, long silence. Babar is about to tell something.

 - I can’t believe it, it’s unbelievable ! You’re doing this to me Babar says a passerby behind Babar.

Babar turns around.

 - Shrek ?!