Celui qui n'est pas venu

Suddenly, with an incredible intensity, the memory of two or three years from when I was about twenty years old has come back to me. It is so far away, so old! When I turned twenty, in 1967, I was sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work in Djemâa-Saharidj, a small village of the Kabyle region of Algeria. Already then I felt heavy with the weight of too many memories. I was trying to understand who I was, what I was taking part in. I had to make a choice: between my "vocation," the wish, that I had since childhood, to become a priest, or another life. But we cannot fathom our own destiny. We only make sense of things in retrospect, long after they have happened. This is why I will talk about Jacques Vallot, and the role he played, mysteriously, obscurely, in shaping the life I was to live. Alain Rémond is a writer and a journalist, writing in particular for La Croix and Marianne.He has amongst others published Chaque jour est un adieu, Un jeune homme est passé, and Comme une chanson dans la nuit (Seuil) followed by Les romans n'intéressent pas les voleurs (Stock) in 2007.