The Trash Bag (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

**MrBallen** (0:00)
In December of 1988, a young woman was having coffee at her friend's house in the city of Tours, France. At some point, she excused herself to go use the bathroom. When she opened the lid of the toilet, she saw in the bowl were two small gold objects floating in the water. They looked like beads at first or maybe broken pieces of jewelry. So she leaned down close to get a better look.
Then she realized what they actually were. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark & Mysterious, Deliberate and Story format, then you've come to the right place because that's all we do. So if that's of interest to you, please ask the follow button to go get a matching tattoo with you. But after they finish getting theirs done, leave without getting yours. Okay, let's get into today's story.
On the night of December 11th, 1988, a 38-year-old woman named Francoise Gendron touched up her lipstick in the bathroom mirror of a nightclub in the city of Tours, France. Her best friend, Sylvie Riverego, was washing her hands at the sink right next to her. Francoise and Sylvie were best friends. They had basically known each other forever since they were just little kids, and these days, they went out together almost every single night. They were both divorced, and Francoise's 19-year-old son had recently moved out of the house, so she was making the most of her new freedom, and staying out late all the time, often with Sylvie. Now, Francoise and Sylvie were not exactly the same in terms of their attitude towards life. Francoise had always been much more sociable and had this huge circle of friends, and so really she was the one who often had to push her much more introverted friend, Sylvie, to come out with her, but she usually did. However, tonight, it was Francoise who turned to Sylvie and said that she actually wanted to go home now. She told Sylvie that the men they were there with at the club, Michel and Luc, were making her feel uncomfortable and she wanted to leave. Now, it was clear to Francoise pretty much immediately that Sylvie was pretty disappointed. Despite being introverted, now that they were out, Sylvie wanted to stay out.
Also, they regularly went out with Michel and Luc, and there was never any issues before, and so she said as much to Francoise like, what do you mean?
What's the issue? But Francoise just said she was getting a weird vibe from both of them, and just would feel better if she went home. And so a few minutes later, Francoise and Sylvie walked back to the table where Michel and Luc were still sitting, and there was a receipt on the table, and Michel was putting his wallet away, like he had just paid for it. And actually, Michel, he turned to the women, and he said, hey, are you guys ready to leave and go to the next club? But Francoise, she just kind of smiled and grabbed her coat and said that actually she was going to leave now. She said she had to get home to her boyfriend, who was probably already at her apartment, and waiting for her. The men were pretty surprised by this and maybe even a little bit offended. And Michel actually asked Francoise, like, hey, are you sure everything's okay here? Like, is that really the reason you're leaving? And Francoise just said, yep, everything's fine. I just got to go. But she could definitely tell that the men did not believe her.
But Francoise didn't really care. I mean, at this point, she really just wanted to leave. And so she just turned and gave Sylvia a hug and then just said bye to the group who were just kind of sitting there, somewhat stunned, this is happening so quickly.
And then Francoise turned and she hustled right out of the club and flagged down a cab before any of them could follow her.
The next morning, Francoise woke up in her own bed to the sound of her boyfriend, Yves Martin, bustling around her bedroom and getting dressed. She rolled over to look at her alarm clock and saw that it was 8 a.m. Francoise sat up and Yves turned to her and said good morning. But she immediately noticed that his voice was cold. And she knew why. The night before, when she had come home, they had gotten into a big argument because he had been waiting for her for quite a while, for hours, by the time she finally got there. That was the reason she had to leave and it really had upset him. And in many ways, this was not like a one-off issue in their relationship, it was a recurring one. Francoise was always staying out super late with her friends and often with her male friends, and Yves felt like she was basically prioritizing all of them over him. He worked during the day, so the evenings were really the only time that he and Francoise could reasonably get together, but Francoise never seemed to get home until super late, and at that point it was too late for Yves to come over or vice versa, and so they just didn't get to see each other as much as they could be. And so now, Francoise knew she had to do something to try to smooth things over with her boyfriend. So she turned to Yves and said, hey, do you want to come over tonight after you get off work? And she promised she would actually be home when he got there, so they could cook dinner together and just spend some time together. It would be just a night for them. And at that, Francoise saw Yves' shoulders immediately relax. And then he turned around and he smiled at her and said, you know what? I'd really, really like that. And so at this point, the mood in the room completely shifted. They were sort of back on good terms. And so as Yves finished getting dressed, he asked Francoise what else she had going on that day. And she told him that she had a handyman she knew named Christiane Moreau, who was coming by that morning to put up new wallpaper in the apartment. So she'd very likely be stuck at home for most of the day while he worked on it. The two chatted for a bit longer. And then once Yves was ready to leave, Francoise kissed him goodbye. And then after he left, Francoise pulled herself out of bed and put on a robe. And then she went into the kitchen and she opened up a can of food for her cat. And then she made herself some coffee. She was a bit hungover from the night before, and she thought maybe a warm bath would make her feel better. So after she drank her coffee, she ran a bath, she got into the water, and she closed her eyes.