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of the secrets of love?
    He thanked the young woman for all this useful information and went for a dip in the swimming pool. He thought if he tired himself out enough he’d be able to fall asleep without thinking about Clara.
    A little later in his room, Hector wrote:
    Seedling no. 6: True love is always sensing what the other wants.
    At the same time, Hector remembered that this seedling could be quite dangerous. He had seen a lot of people who said to themselves: ‘If she really loved me, she would understand without me having to tell her,’ and it was quite untrue – sometimes the other person does love you but doesn’t understand you very well, and it is best to tell them what you really want.
    Seedling no. 7: Love can be wonderful when the other senses what we want, but we must also be able to help them by expressing our desires.
    Hector then remembered some women whose desires he had neglected a bit and who had still been very much in love with him. And then he thought of Clara, whom he had been very nice to recently, and who was now wondering whether she was still in love with him. A little angry, he wrote: You should never pay too much attention to a woman’s desires.
    But writing such a thing made him feel sad and he crossed it out. That phrase threatened to upset the harmony in his little seed bed.
    But what could he conclude? If you didn’t pay enough attention to their desires, they left you and if you paid too much they left you, too. And doubtless the same went for men.
    He said to himself that he would like to have a little chat with the professor, and he went back down to the pool.

HECTOR MAKES A GOOD FRIEND
    H ECTOR wasn’t very keen on the idea of going to explore a temple recently cleared of landmines in a region that wasn’t safe, but since the professor had visited the temple before he disappeared, he told himself that in the end it was part of his mission to go there looking for clues.
    He was thinking about all this in the shade of the trees around the pool while sipping an occasional cocktail from the menu in order not to think about Clara for too long. He wasn’t sure now whether to choose the Singapore Sling or the B52. The cocktails and the sight of the pretty waitress who brought them took his mind off things. And he said to himself that if Clara left him he wouldn’t really care very much if he got blown up by a landmine. Or else he would go and live in a little house on stilts at the edge of the jungle with the pretty waitress and they would have beautiful children who would sing by the fireside in the evenings. Finally, he settled for the B52.
    ‘I hear you’d like to go to the temple at Benteasaryaramay tomorrow?’
    Hector lowered his sunglasses. A rather stocky man running slightly to fat was looking at him, smiling.
    He was also wearing a shirt with button-down pockets and long military-looking shorts. In fact, his whole appearance was a bit military, but he said his name was Jean-Marcel and he was a tourist, and what luck because he also wanted to visit the temple recently cleared of landmines.
    Hector invited him to sit down and have a drink, and they agreed to hire a car with a driver for their little excursion. Afterwards, they had dinner beside the pool and Jean-Marcel told Hector he was married, and had gone to a neighbouring country on a business trip. He had decided to stop off here on his way back and take another look at the famous temples, all of which he had seen before, except for the one recently cleared of mines, which was apparently very interesting.
    As often happens when you are abroad, you talk more easily with your fellow countrymen, and as Hector and Jean-Marcel liked each other, they told each other a bit about their lives. Of course, Hector said he was sightseeing and didn’t mention his mission. And all he said about Clara was that she couldn’t come with him because of her work, which was true, but not the whole truth. Jean-Marcel was married with two