Mélanie Mercier née Markowitz (4)

Jean Michel Jakobowicz, ONU

— “How did you know that my father was com- ing ? I never told you about it”. Suddenly I was fully awake. — “I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow morning. Now I just want to know when he’s arriving”, David Guarrido my colleague replied. — “Around 1.30. Why” ? I asked, worried. — “Nothing. I’ll tell you tomorrow”. Then without saying anything else he hung up.

I couldn’t get back to sleep. My head was full of questions. Finally at about 1 a.m., I couldn’t take it any more. I got up and went to the phone. I stood there, in front of it for a few min- utes then, as I’d had enough, I dialled David’s number. Too bad if I woke him ! It was his fault anyway, as he hadn’t answered my questions. The phone started ringing ; by the seventh ring my heart was pounding. — “For goodness sake, David”, I shouted out,” please answer”. After the ninth ring I hung up. I must have dialed a wrong number. I redialed his number, but nobody answered. Where could he possibly be ? — Maybe he’s got a girlfriend and sleeps at her place. Or perhaps he’s such a heavy sleeper that he can’t hear the phone. My anxiety was not receding – in fact I was getting more and more tense. At one point the fridge started up again and that small sound made me jump.

I don’t know when or how I fell asleep. All I know is that Isabelle my daughter woke me up. — “Did you sleep on the couch” ? she asked, worried. — “Yes, I think I fell asleep in front of the TV”, I answered as casually as I possibly could. Isabelle looked at me for a second and then added:
— “But Mum, the TV isn’t on”.
— “Oh ! Yes, that’s true. I was so dead tired yesterday that…” — “Please Mum, stop this nonsense” inter- rupted Benjamin. “Isabelle and me, we’ve been talking about it and we know that something hasn’t been right over the last few days. What’s going on” ?

I thought it over for a few seconds. Should I tell them the truth or… I had never lied to the kids, not even white lies. I’ve always believed that if I had to trust them they should be able to trust me. Nevertheless, this time I was in two minds about it. I didn’t want to scare them.

— “I‘ve been sleeping badly these last few days ; I’ve got so many problems at work. Well nothing special, just the Annual Report to wrap up”. — “But in the past you didn’t look so… pan- icked”, said Isabelle. — “I know, but this year it’s a bit special”. — “Could it be that the “gorgeous Hubert” is asking for trouble” ? my daughter asked. — No… it’s a bit of everything”. I hated playing this game with my kids. Fortunately my alarm clock came to my rescue. — “It’s already seven thirty, hurry up we’re going to be late “! — “But Mum”, said Benjamin, “don’t you think that the school might be closed after yesterday’s fire” ? — “Good point, son, except that Mr. Schmid didn’t say anything like that. Quite the opposite, he said it was nothing”.

— “Great ! That man…. even if there’d been an earthquake he’d manage to get his damned school open”, added Benjamin.

Later, as I dropped off my daughter at school, she said something, which stunned me: — “Mummy, I know it’s not your work that’s get- ting you worried. And also I know you’re sending us to Grandpa and Granny to protect us”. Without giving me any time to react, she ran into school.

The first thing I did when I arrived in the office was to call David. His voice-mail was on. I left a message asking him to call me urgently. When I sat down I had my third piece of bad news of the day – a message from Denise, my secretary, informing me that my boss, Hubert de la Seyne, wanted to see me at 11.30 a.m. It was our first meeting in eight months. I hoped that it would not last too long as I really had to go and collect my father at the station at 1.30
p.m. What did he want ? I spent the whole morning preparing for this meeting. I gathered every part of the Report, which was ready. Denise put everything in a folder. I read all my notes again.

At 11: 28 a.m. I was in front of his office. It would be an understatement to say that I was just moderately tense. I was ready for him to throw anything at me. Our last encounters had been quite catastrophic.

His secretary knocked very discretely at the door of his office and went in without waiting for an answer. In fact she did not walk in, she slipped in and closed the door behind her. After quite a while she came out with a small smile on her face.
— “Mr. de la Seyne is waiting for you”, she said with a slightly mocking smile.

The « gorgeous Hubert » as my daughter called him, was well into his 50’s. An ex-army officer, his walk reflected the innate rigidity of his obtuse character. Nobody had quite fathomed out how Hubert de la Seyne had left the army and despite his lack of training in economics, had become head of Forecasting in the Organization. In many ways that had been a good thing for me, as he never interfered in mywork. His only comments related to the layout. But as regard the current Report, we were still a long way away from the layout stage, as the first part of the project had not even been finished. — “Please do sit down”, he said almost softly, in a way I had never heard before. He sat in front of me, not as usual, behind his desk. Something strange was happening. — “I haven’t seen you for a long time. It seems that we’ve been pretty busy both of us these last few months”, he added. I did not know how to respond to such a cordial welcome. Then he added: — “If I asked you to come this morning, my dear Mélanie, it’s mainly to congratulate you. You are doing an excellent job. I think that this year’s Report will be particularly good. Yesterday I read the investment part, it’s excellent”. — “Yes but…” He did not let me finish before continuing: — “I know, I read your note. Our dear friend Radovic has partly copied it from another report. But it really doesn’t matter ! What he has copied is good. The rest is just a make-over job.”

That last comment left me speechless, even though I was expecting it. How could he accept to publish something which had simply been plagiarised ? — “I must admit that Radovic has improved a lot recently,” he added. But I didn’t call you here to talk about that. One of the next chapters of the Report deals with forecasts for the year to come and contains your so-called national confident index. I am eagerly awaiting your forecasts, especially as we were heavily criticized for the forecasts we produced last year”. — “But they proved to be accurate”. He did not even seem to hear my last comment. — “It’s never good to be a loner. If the World Bank and the IMF both say something, we’d better follow them”.
— “Even if they’re wrong and if the facts prove that they’re wrong.
— “The problem isn’t whether you are right or wrong, my dear Mélanie. This is a matter of s-t- r-a-t-e-g-i-c p-o-l-i-c-y. He loves these words and was detaching every syllable to give them all their value. We cannot afford to say black if everybody says white. For example for next year, the economists of the World Bank, and these are some of the best economists in the world, say that there will be a recovery in terms of economic growth, and I would find it particularly ridiculous if our Report said something different”. At this point in the discussion I pre- ferred to remain silent, especially as I knew our results to date in the Report were the exact opposite. The reduction in the budget deficit of the United States before the elections would

surely entail a marked slow-down of growth and affect employment negatively. — “I hope I’ve made myself clear”, sad Hubert de Seyne in his normal brusque military voice. We cannot afford to say anything else”. — “The Report has always been independent of political pressures”, I answered, trying to con- trol my voice, “and I think that our Director and the Secretary General share the same opinion. That’s why, whatever the conclusions may be, I ‘ll put them down in writing”.
— “I’m afraid we’re not on the same wave- length Mrs. Mercier. My job is to decide what the conclusions of the Report should be and I have decided that its conclusions should be in line with the ones of the World Bank and that’s what they will be”. — “If our estimates are in line with those of other institutions, our conclusions will also converge. But for the time being they are not. Next year’s growth will be far more sluggish than expected”. — “I don’t give a damn about what your esti- mates are saying”, shouted Hubert de Seyne, I am the head of this unit and I’m the one who decides what’s what, not some mere…. “
— “Woman “!
— “That’s not what I wanted to say. I am responsible for this Report and nothing will come out of this department without my approval”. — “Unfortunately I can’t change the facts”, I insisted in a provocative manner. — “I am the only one to decide what the facts are. And by the way”, he continued obstinately, “if we were to disagree on this subject and bear- ing in mind that you are pretty overloaded with work, I could very well ask Mr. Radovic to fin- ish the Report instead of you”. — “Just you try” ! I said menacingly. I got up, and slammed the door as I left the room. In the front office his secretary was still smiling inanely.

At 1: 26 p.m. I was standing on platform 8 of Cornavin Station, waiting for my father. David still had not reappeared.