The theft of Anthony’s Yamaha YZ motorcycle begins as an exuberant nighttime ride and ends with its unexplained absence. For Anthony Casati, the motorcycle is both the means of reaching a party beyond Heillange and the object that makes the journey feel thrillingly reckless. By morning, that sense of invulnerability has given way to a loss he cannot explain.

The Ride to Drimblois

Anthony Casati’s cousin climbs on behind him, and the two set off for Drimblois along highway D953. Anthony accelerates on the straight stretches and leans into the turns with his leg extended. The speed brings tears to their eyes and pride to their chests. The narration frames their confidence as youthful defiance of danger: they seem too fast and too young to be mortal. Yet the cousin does ask Anthony to slow down at one point, a small check on the pair’s headlong excitement.

The destination is a party at a handsome modern house, reached after a twenty-minute ride. They circle for a while before recognizing it: a building with extensive glass, lights in every room, a rolling lawn, and a turquoise-lit swimming pool. The polished setting contrasts with the unceremonious arrival of the motorcycle and its young riders. After hesitating briefly, Anthony brings the YZ to a stop beside two other two-wheelers. The cousin looks the place over and suggests there is no risk in hiding it nearby.

Hiding the Motorcycle

Anthony conceals the motorcycle behind a long farm building with closed shutters. Stacked cords of wood stand close by, waiting for winter, and the YZ is left out of sight behind them. The hiding place is practical, but Anthony feels uneasy. That unease matters because the motorcycle is not simply parked and forgotten: its security is already on his mind before the cousins enter the party.

They take turns drinking from a small bottle of rum and a can of beer that the cousin has brought. After finishing the beer, they throw the empty can onto the freshly cut lawn, laugh, and head inside. Around them, the party is defined by abundance and display: food and wine cover a large table, liquor bottles sit in a tub of ice, and sharply dressed swimmers tend the barbecue while drinking Sol beer. Their tank tops identify them with the swim club, and the narrator presents them as the valley’s self-satisfied athletic elite, popular with girls and disliked by others. This is the social world Anthony and his cousin have ridden into, but the evidence does not establish that anyone at the party took the motorcycle.

Discovery and Aftermath

A few hours later, the cousins return to the stacks of wood. The morning has arrived with a headache and the sound of a rooster. The narration marks the interval as almost belonging to another life, setting the morning after against the intensity of the nighttime ride. Then Anthony Casati’s Yamaha YZ is no longer behind the wood. The discovery brings him to his knees. The motorcycle has vanished from the place where he hid it, but these scenes do not reveal who removed it or how.

The loss is soon carried into the family home. Anthony’s mother, Hélène Casati, finds him lying still and asks what he did with the motorcycle. She shakes him and calls his name, but the scene gives no answer from Anthony and does not yet resolve the disappearance. Her question makes the missing bike more than a private shock: it has become an immediate family concern, and Anthony is now confronted with explaining what happened to the motorcycle he had taken out.

The event’s force lies in its abrupt reversal. The ride makes speed and youth feel like protection from consequence; the next morning, the motorcycle’s absence makes consequence tangible. The carefully chosen hiding place, which had seemed to settle the practical problem of leaving the bike, instead becomes the point from which its disappearance is measured. The gap between the cousins’ confidence and Anthony’s collapse gives the theft its sharpest turn, while the unknown culprit keeps the loss unresolved.