Paris in love.
I whent to visit Nick Bragg in Paris, but upon my arrival he was unavailable and I met up with his live in Girlfriend instead. She was cute and American. There was an instant connection, we ran around the streets, holding hands, on piggy back, laughing, all under the guise of my excitement of exploring Paris. We ate at one point and I wanted her to talk about creme brulee since we were in fact in france. I was still in my explorer mode. And she brought to my attention some of her favorite “European Pies” as if to say creme brulee was an american term. I was excited to see her food interests.
We stopped at a party in a U shaped boutique. She had me grab some long pretzels and another bag with snacks. As I was rumaging through the car to find them she dissapeared. I whent into the Boutique entrance on the right passing strangers and actually suspecting a young black boy was harrasing me. I knew someone had thrown something at me in the store but he denied it. I intimidated him. A man next to him gave him change like he was a poor beggar. Everyone kept asking if I was American. They were very interested in my accent.
As I turned the corner of the Boutique I found a snack table and in a back corner was the girl talking with an older woman. They both looked at me, caringly. I put the snacks with the other and made a small plate with pretzels, dip, and utensils. I brought it over to them and let them finish thier conversation. This gesture again felt like I was taking care of her as if she were my own.
After the party we had lunch and then started searching for Nick who was supposed to come home. During this time a strange switch happened and the reality of the dream changed from this girl being Nick’s girlfriend to Travis’s girlfriend. Every once and a while we looked at each other, and I would hug her every chance I got, sometimes nibbling on her ear. She would do the same, and I would say, “That’s not fair” then she would say, “Neither are you”.
We finally met with Travis and his friends at thier small apartment. I continued focusing on his girlfriend while he and the other men were watching wrestline in another room. They would come in and out just to chat until it was aparently morning. I asked if we would get breakfast and travis said after the next match. In the meantime I put on my shoes and just started joging in place. I found myself joging into the street and there it was like a billowing giant, the eifel tower. It was brilliant. I didn’t think I had time to see it but I figured I would jog around a bit to see other angles.
I hit a crosswalk and watched other people dart by traffic like they were in New York but I waited for the sign. Next to me was an older lady, she smiled histericly and wanted to talk with me but I wouldn’t have understood her even if she did. She walked very close to me as I walked across the street. I found a subway station and started to walk down but the bottom half of the stairs was covered in doufle bags. I tried to turn around but people were coming behind me. When I tried to climb the railing back to the sidewalk I was yelled at by a stern black police woman even though the old lady from before had actually reached down to give me a hand. I had my iPhone charger, maybe 4 feet longer then normal, wrapped around my neck like a scarf. I coiled it and threw it down the steps the jumped and half floted down, stepping on a few bags in the process.
My charger had landed on a reverse conveyor contraption that had taken it towards the wall and then down presumably to the floor below. I whent down another set of stairs and did find the charger in the corner amoungst some other lost debris. I turned around thinking, “what am I doing here. I don’t know how to use this subway, I don’t even have any french money”. But then I ran into Travis’s girlfriend again. It would appear she had come looking for me. She took my hand and we got on a train. We talked and nibbled each others ears some more. When we got out at the next stop I asked her if the train to the eifel tower connected to where we were. She said she thought it did.
I remember worring that we didn’t have time to see the tower since we were supposed to have breakfast with Travis. I thought wouldn’t it be obviouse if we didn’t show up to breakfast and whent to the eifel tower instead. Then part of me thought, who cares….
