On the evening of September 13, 1921, bored with waiting within the confines of the four walls of his seventh floor apartment, Oskar Serti went to stand on the landing to look out for the arrival of Catherine de Sélys in stairway B which lead to his home.
Each time he heard the main door of the building open, Serti trembled at the idea of finally seeing Catherine appear at the foot of the steps; but without fail the footsteps went on up the steps of staircase A or C.
After an hour of waiting, he tapped the cigarette that was burning in his nervous fingers, saying to himself that if Catherine did not arrive before the little cylindrical block of ash reached the ground floor, alwl of his illusions would be shattered.
Unfortunately, during its fall, the ash broke up in the air and not a single piece touched the floor.
Serti was then seized by the fear that nothing could take form in the stairwell; footsteps, ash, everything evaporated. At one point, pushed on by the wish to finally see something important happen, he felt the urge to throw himself over this balustrade to be crushed against the floor below.
But as he should have expected, this idea evaporated as quickly as it had come to him.

Opposite side : doodle by Oskar Serti on a table cloth at the “Vieille Barrière” restaurant, drawn whilst he was telling the story recounted above to some journalists.