The Invention of Morel

The narrator comes face-to-face with two men and a woman. The woman, looking toward him, shudders, though she does not point him out to the men. Instead, she says, “This is not the proper time for ghost stories” (38), and they go inside the museum. Faustine and Morel walk near the narrator, who notes that they are now using the familiar form of address (“tu” rather than the formal “vous”). She mentions not going to see someone, so the narrator thinks she is talking about him. He decides not to let her see him again for four days.

On the fifth day of avoiding her, he comes upon Faustine and Morel at the rocks. They are speaking French but in a way that makes the narrator think they’re South Americans. Morel complains that Faustine no longer trusts him, and they don’t seem as warm toward each other as they were previously. The narrator realizes that they are repeating a conversation they had a week earlier, as Morel again speaks of only having three days left.

At first, the narrator thinks he has made a realization about repetitions in human behavior, but after consulting his diary, he sees that many of their movements are the same, too.