In a bookshop in Toulouse I stumbled on a graphic novel1 about a man who gets drunk on his birthday, alone, breaks his mobile phone and uses his landline to call the only number he remembers: his childhood home.
A boy answers.
Amazingly, this turns out to be his younger self – but at first they both find this hard to believe.
Gradually, they confirm that they are indeed talking to a younger / older version of themselves, and interesting plot twists develop.
(I read the whole book in the shop but liked it so much I bought it and brought it home.)
I don’t want to spoil anything, but these photos of a few pages show the start and gradual unfolding of their relationship:
YOUNGER SAMUEL: "Are you still there?" OLDER SAMUEL: "Oh, sorry, I was… Listen Samuel, I don't know how it's possible, but I'm calling you from the future. And what's even more incredible: I too am called Samuel Verdi."
YOUNGER SAMUEL: "Prove it." OLDER SAMUEL "OK. I suppose I'll have to tell you something that nobody but me knows…" YS: "Yep." OS: "OK, let me think."
OLDER Samuel: "How did yesterday go?" YOUNGER Samuel"Thanks for yesterday, that really helped what you told me." OS: "Don't thank me. I wish someone had told me that." YS: "Anyway, now I'm sure it's true. You really are me as an old guy."
OLDER SAMUEL: "Ooooh! He… He doesn't know that in one month Mum is going to die."
YOUNGER SAMUEL: "You can't be me! It's impossible! You've changed too much!" (Slams down phone.) OLDER SAMUEL (thinks): "The boy I was doesn't like the man I am. I abandoned my dreams. I betrayed the my childhood spirit."
1 Graphic novel. The book is published in French as Qu’el Q’un A Qui Parler, or “Someone to Talk To”. The graphic novel was made by Gregory Panaccione, based on a novel by Cyril Massarotto. Here’s a picture of the cover.
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