The Train

After the trauma of the night before, we were ready for some rest. We boarded a train to go from Lucerne to Paris. We had private compartments within our car that were big enough for the four girls and me. The compartment had a clear glass door and windows looking out onto the hallway of the car, so there wasn't total privacy, but we could lower the blinds, if we needed to. We had the blinds up, when a group of Portuguese soldiers happened by. They weren't supposed to be in our car, but they saw the girls, so they wanted to look. We tried to get the conductor to run them away, and he did, but they came back. It was rather frightening. Kind of like us being caged animals. At one point, I pointed to a ring on my finger and pointed to Sandra. The soldier pointed to no ring on his finger and pointed to Sandra. After a couple of hours of this, they finally got off the train, and we could relax again. With the memory of the night before still fresh, Sandra and I were becoming closer. I don't know how much closer we could be, but it was clear that she realized she was safe with me. The chaos of the last couple of weeks had been replaced by a time of rest. As I have said before, I have a hard time sleeping in any moving vehicle. Sandra didn't have that problem. She slept in our tour buses. Most of the time, she would sleep with her mouth open which amused us. She denied it, until I showed her a picture of her sleeping. After the soldiers left, she stretched out on the seat and used my leg as a pillow. She looked up at me and smiled. She then closed her eyes and was off to dreamland once again. I just stared out into the French countryside, thinking what were we going to do that night in Paris. No soldiers. No shopping. I knew. We would go to a fancy restaurant. Maxim's was the fanciest place I knew of in Paris. Me and her. Sandra woke up and said she was hungry. We went to the dining car, and she proceeded to break a tooth on some food. We got to Paris at dusk, and went to the four-star hotel that overlooked the Opera House. Sandra didn't want to go out. She wanted to get her tooth fixed. So much for my plans. I could speak fluent French, so I called the American Hospital in Paris for information on a dentist. It was Saturday night, and no one wanted to help. I kept telling them that it was an emergency, and no one agreed with me. I finally was able to speak to a dentist. He told us to get her to put wax on it, until she got home to the States. I left her and went out walking. I found myself at Tuilleries Gardens. It was a cold and misty night, much like our first night in London. So much had happened since that first night. There had been threats and a fight. We had seen a lot of old buildings. And now... So, I found a bench and was watching a fountain. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a guy getting closer to me. I was not comfortable, so I stood up and started to walk away. He began to follow me, and I realized that he wanted to rob me. I didn't have much money on me, but I did have my passport, so I ran. He ran after me. I ran for three blocks through traffic. I lost him. I hope he wasn't hit by the car that I ran in front of to get away. I got back to the hotel and found the girls wanting to go out for ice cream. It was about the only thing Sandra felt like eating. We found a restaurant close to the hotel. We also found that the waitresses didn't like us. I guess because we were Americans. The ice cream was good though. It had been another long day. A day filled with security measures and wishing things were different. How would my life be different today had situations been different that day? It is hard to say.