My Walk with Claude — Part Three

Claudine paused again in her narration of her story.  Her eyes were a little red and I knew that this was something that she found difficult to speak about.  Patrice said : “Claude, there is nothing to worry about, I shall be gone no more than a few weeks.  Maybe a few days more, but this matter will not take long.”   She said to me: “He had taken to call me Claude, since I started calling him Pat, instead of Patrice.  I said that he had a girls name and I would call him Pat.  He then told me, he would call me Claude instead of Claudine, that would be his pet name for me.  It was our private joke.”  

She gathered herself up and took my hand into hers and looked me in the eye.  “I am sure that Patrice was planning on coming right back, but events in Algeria soon became more violent and out of control.  I would receive a post card a couple times a week in the beginning.  Then it dwindled to maybe once every week.  One day, I received a letter from him.  He told me that his mother was coming to Paris and gave me instructions on meeting her when she arrived and taking her to his apartment.  He included a picture of her as well and said her name was Eliane.   He said that he would be delayed a little longer and he hoped it would have a good ending for all.  When his mother arrived, I was able to meet her and take her and her belongings to his apartment in Paris.  She was a striking woman with dark hair, with silver streaks and a very stern, tough demeanor.  I was afraid that she would just dismiss me as a frivolous American girl.  Our first week or so, did not go very well.  She was tight lipped with me and shared very little of what was going with Patrice or the events in Algeria.  I know that she was experiencing painful emotions and thoughts. How could she open up to a woman that she barely new and might never understand what she had gone through and what she was going through right then. It took me some time before I could finally get her to speak with me.  Happily, after a few weeks, she decided to trust me and we began to speak more frankly about the situation.  She spoke very little English, but we were able to communicate easily in French.  She eventually knew, that I truly loved Patrice and was most concerned about his safety.  Eliane told me that Patrice’s father was involved in some secret organization that was resisting the idea of independence for Algeria.  Patrice and his father were somewhere around Oran and were involved in military action against the FLN, which was the Algerian independence movement.  She feared that this fight was not going to end well.  She tried to convince her husband and Patrice to give it up and come back to France.  They believed that would be a betrayal to their cause and their friends. It all seemed incredible to me, and I could not understand any of it..  The conflict in Algeria was very complex.  There was the FLN fighting for independence from France, the SAS group that Patrice’s father was with, fighting to keep Algeria French, and the French Army and French government that was fighting to restore order and grant independence to the Algerians.  Patrice and his father were fated to be on the losing side in this fight.”

Claudine stopped speaking for awhile and had to collect herself before she could continue.  “I’ve never told anyone this whole story as it was too painful to remember it all, also to accept the reality of it.  I met  Eliane every day.  She had some contacts with Algeria, but each day there was nothing to report.  After a month, she told me one day that we should both be prepared for the worst.   The FLN was negotiating with DeGaulle and the fighting was coming to an end.  Those that continued to fight against this agreement were hunted down by Algerians and even the French Army.  The leaders of the officers revolt had left the country or were in hiding.  She thought that since we had no communications with either Patrice or his father, they were either in prison or dead.  I told her that I would never give up until I knew for sure.  Unfortunately for me, events back home would change my plans drastically.  In the next few weeks I had other news that would affect me from home.”

Here she paused again and looked over to me.  “Sorry to ramble on with all this, but I never said much to my father or anything to any friends.  You  are a stranger, but something in my heart moves me to tell you this and hope that you will understand.”  I told her that I was happy to listen and that I wanted to hear it all from her.  She smiled a small crooked smile and continued “It was then that I received a cable from my father, asking me to come home as my mother was quite ill and he didn’t know if she would survive.  I was shocked and distraught to hear about this and I knew that I had to go to her side right away.  I also felt in my heart that if I left Paris, I might be leaving Patrice forever as well.  I wanted to stay to keep my tenuous contact with Patrice via his mother, but I know that my father needed my help.  I caught a plane for the States. When I arrived home, I learned that my mother had died three days before.  My father was devastated and seemed so weakened and aged after her death.  He was only around 50 years old, but seemed much older.  I decided that I would stay home for a few months to help him get his life back together.  He owned a small hardware store in town and my mother kept the books and helped him run the place.  He couldn’t run the store by himself right now.  Maybe we could find a new assistant and until then I would be there for him.  I wanted to go back to Paris, but I couldn’t leave my father yet.  I received an occasional letter from Eliane, but there was not any news about Patrice or his father.  Before I realized it, a year had gone by. It was then that I received a small package from France.  It was from Eliane and it contained a gold ring and a note from her.  She said that she received it from a friend who came back to France from Algeria.  The ring was given to her by a man who came to her house one night.  He told her that this was given to him by Patrice and asked that I send it to his mother in France, he said his time was short and would not be back.  Eliane recognized the ring and decided to send it to me.  That is the ring that you see on this chain here.”  It was hanging from her neck on a plain gold chain. “ I promised that one day I would give it back to Patrice when we met again.  I could never accept the idea that he was gone.”