Hard-Hearted

Nobody lived on the Ile de Puteaux – there was no room, given the number of football pitches, tennis courts, and athletics tracks it contained. It was a paradise for the energetic. A group of teenagers was being herded past them, hemmed in by men in tracksuits who looked barely older than their charges. Catherine watched them out of the side of her eyes as she drained a cigarette of every last noxious substance it contained, sucking in her cheeks and then exhaling a long stream of smoke.