The Best Way to Walk

The summer of 1960 was rainy. In a summer camp in the Puy-de-Dome, the counselors, depending on their personalities, kept the children busy. Marc's group played sports in the rain, while Philippe's group did theater indoors in the playroom. One evening, Marc caught Philippe in his room, made up and dressed in a red dress. Marc was unsettled, Philippe embarrassed. From this moment arose between the two young men a troubled, homosexual-type bond, which repression would turn into an oppressor-oppressed relationship. Unwilling to take the sexual step, Marc inflicted on Philippe a series of physical as well as psychological abuses. To escape this situation, Philippe would assert himself as a man. His first sexual attempt with Chantal, his fiancee, was a failure, as were his sporting ambitions. It was only at a costume ball held at the end of camp that Philippe decided to embrace who he was. He appeared as a Spanish dancer. In a symbolic coincidence, Marc arrived dressed as a toreador, while Chantal came as a mustached nobleman. Then Philippe, in a sequence of heightened intensity, regained the upper hand and went so far as to wound Marc physically. A few years later, Marc, now a real estate agent, tries to sell an apartment to Philippe, who lives with Chantal. They are not married; Marc is, and carries a briefcase. 'After you,' he says to Philippe as he leaves the apartment.