HELP! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?

TRAPPED DOWN AN EMBANKMENT, CORINE BASTIDE WAS LOSING HOPE SHE WOULD EVER BE FOUND

- Lisa Fitterman

CORINE BASTIDE gently locks the door to her boyfriend's apartment, not wanting to wake him. It is 11 p.m. on July 23, 2019, and it's still humid after a day that reached 31 C. She is restless after an earlier argument with her ex-husband about their three sons, and there's no way she will be able to sleep. So she has decided to drive home, an easy 36-kilometre trip along the motorway from Liège to her home in the Belgian village of Wanze.

As she gets into her car, she tucks a strand of long auburn hair behind an ear and absently smooths her green-patterned dress. Rivulets of sweat run down her neck.

There is little traffic. Bastide grips the steering wheel as she concentrates on both the road and on thoughts of her boys, who live with her half the time: Hadrien, 18, is a track-and-field fan who is determined to help victims of crime as his life's work; Audric, 16, is a champion high jumper; and Dorian, 12, her "Dodo," is a budding athlete in his own right.

Without them, I'd be nothing, she thinks. Lost in her thoughts, she only notices the car vibrating after she has been driving for about 20 minutes.

I told you to have the brakes serviced, she imagines David Bartholomé, her boyfriend of five months, telling her. There is so much going on in her life-a divorce and caring for the boys while working at a local cafeteria that getting the car checked wasn't a priority. Until now.

She decides to get off the motorway because the slower the car is going, the easier it will be to stop. The sign for the exit to the town of Saint-Georges-surMeuse is right up ahead. She guides the car into the exit lane and starts to pump the brakes, gently at first, then hard, harder. But nothing happens.