A Summer in Paris

by Cynthia Baxter

  She let out a long, loud sigh. “I don’t know how I’m ever going to get a job.”

  “If you need these ... these working papers,” Kristy said, “then why don’t you just go get them?”

  “It’s not that simple,” Nina replied. “Getting them requires applications, proof of residence, special documents ... all kinds of maddening paperwork. Mostly, it requires time.

  “And time happens to be the one thing I haven’t got. We have less than two weeks left before we’re scheduled to go home. If I don’t have a job by then ...”

  “Well, look on the bright side,” Kristy insisted. “You’ve already got yourself a great apartment. You’ve got good friends here, like Pierre and the Rousseaus. You even stood up to your parents and told them that, whether they liked it or not, you were going to stay. And they seem to have accepted it.

  “Face it, you’ve been pretty lucky so far. And there’s no reason in the world why your luck shouldn’t hold up.”

  Nina just nodded. She had to believe that Kristy was right. To believe she wasn’t right, after all, would have been just too depressing.

  “How about you, Kristy?” she asked. “Are you like Jennifer here, already starting to think about going back home?”

  “Well....” Kristy swallowed hard. She was thinking about Alain—and the news he had delivered to her just the day before. “I guess I have started thinking about what it’s going to be like going to school in Boston in the fall.”

  She was debating whether or not to say anything to her friends about the latest development with Alain when Jennifer cut in.

  “What about Alain?” Mindlessly she pulled a loose thread out of the couch’s slipcover fabric. “Aren’t you two, like, madly in love or something? Aren’t you going to miss him?”

  “Yes, what about Alain?” Nina asked.

  “As a matter of fact,” Kristy said slowly, “he got some rather interesting news just the other day. He’s, uh, going to school in Boston in the fall.”

  Nina jerked her head up. “Boston? You mean Boston, Massachusetts? The same Boston where you’re going to college in September?”

  Kristy just nodded.

  “That’s fantastic!” Nina cried. “Kristy, you must be in seventh heaven! I mean, it’s been obvious from the start that you really like Alain. And he’s made it clear that he’s crazy about you. And now he’s going to go back to the States the same time as you ... things couldn’t be better!”

  “I guess so.”

  Nina frowned. “You don’t seem very enthusiastic. Is there something wrong?”

  Here it is, Kristy was thinking, another chance to tell them, another chance to get their advice. But the more her little white lie snowballed, the less likely it seemed that she would ever be able to tell anyone about it, no matter how much she wanted to.

  So she just shrugged and said, “I guess I’m just surprised by the whole thing, that’s all. I never expected in a million years that my relationship with Alain would continue past the summer.”

  “You don’t have to continue it, you know,” Nina said gently. “If you’re not sure about him, that is.”

  “It’s not that I don’t like him. It’s just that ... well, I’ll just have to wait and see what happens.” Anxious to change the topic of conversation before she said any more, Kristy said, “How about you, Jennifer? How has Danny been doing without you all summer? Has he been writing you letters?”

  “Almost every day,” Jennifer replied proudly. “And I’ve been writing to him every day, too. I’ve been telling him everything that’s been happening to me.”

  “You must be writing very short reports,” Kristy couldn’t help commenting.

  “And what’s that supposed to mean?” Jennifer shot back.

  “Nothing. Just that... well, you haven’t exactly been going out of your way to make the most of your time in Paris. Even you have to admit that, Jen.”

  “I’ve been doing some interesting things,” Jennifer sniffed, not wanting to be left out. “Just the other night, the Cartiers’ granddaughter, Michèle, took me to a party so I could meet some of her friends.”

  “That was considerate of her,” Nina said. “What were they like?”

  Jennifer thought for a few seconds. “Some of them were really creepy. There was this one girl, Monique or something, who was all over me, criticizing Americans. I didn’t like her at all.”

  “Weren’t any of them nice?” Kristy asked, exasperated.

  “Well ... there was this one boy—”

  “A boy?” Kristy and Nina cried in unison, instantly sitting up straighter. The two of them looked at each other and then burst out laughing.

  “Okay,” said Kristy. “Come on, spill the beans, Jen. Tell us all about him.”

  “To be perfectly honest, I’m not even sure I liked him all that much,” Jennifer said slowly. “It’s just that at this party, he was so darned nice to me.”

  “What’s this?” Kristy said teasingly. “Jennifer Johnson met a French person who was actually nice? I think I’m going to faint!”

  “Well, maybe they’re not all bad,” Jennifer admitted with great reluctance.

  “So are you going to go out with this boy?” Nina asked eagerly.

  “Oh, I don’t think so,” Jennifer said. “Louis— that’s his name—Louis didn’t even ask me for my telephone number. Besides, it’s just as well.”

  Kristy looked at Nina, rolling her eyes upward. “Why is that, Jennifer? What’s your excuse this time?”

  “I’m just busy, that’s all. Don’t forget, we just got assigned those stupid oral reports on French history that we have to give the last week of classes.”

  “I’m looking forward to doing mine,” Nina said. “I was lucky. The topic I was assigned is really interesting. I’m supposed to give a report on France right after the French Revolution.”

  “That’s funny,” Kristy said. “My topic is France right before the French Revolution. How about you, Jen? What’s your topic?”

  Jennifer made a face. “France during World War II. What could possibly be more boring than that? Even so, I want to do a decent job on it. I mean, we do have to stand up in front of the entire class and give a twenty-minute report. I don’t want to make a total fool of myself.”

  For a long time, the girls lapsed into silence. Each one was thinking about her own problems. For Jennifer, it was researching and writing a report that she was anything but enthusiastic about. For Kristy, it was worrying about how she would ever manage to maintain her false identity once Alain was on her home turf. For Nina, it was finding a job so that her dream of living in Paris could really come true. What was supposed to be a special, carefree time for each of the three girls was, at least at the moment, looking very, very complicated.

  * * * *

  “Nina, I’ve had a brainstorm,” Pierre said, appearing on the Rousseaus’ doorstep late one afternoon. He was so excited about his “idée de génie” that he didn’t even notice the distraught expression on Nina’s face as she answered the door.

  “A brainstorm?” Nina repeated. “Wait, Pierre, before you say anything, there’s something important I have to tell you.”

  “It’s a wonderful idea.” Pierre came storming into the apartment, acting as if he hadn’t heard a word she had said. “It’s about your job.” He plopped down in a big, overstuffed chair.

  “What about my job? What’s your brainstorm?” Despite herself, Nina was finding that Pierre’s excitement was contagious.

  “You don’t have any working papers, right?”

  “Right….”

  “And that means that you don’t qualify for a regular job.”

  “Right.”

  “Well, then, I think I have found a solution. How about working for an individual, somebody who pays you out of his own pocket?”

  “You mean doing something like baby-sitting?”

  “That’s one possibility. I was thinking more along the lines of being someone’s personal assi
stant. Someone like—oh, I don’t know, someone like an entrepreneur, someone who is in business for himself ... or someone who works free-lance, maybe in a creative field. A writer, perhaps.”

  Nina was silent for a long time as she pondered Pierre’s idea.

  “That would be kind of exciting,” she finally said, speaking slowly. “And it could turn out to be a good opportunity for me to learn. If I hooked up with the right person, that is.”

  “That,” Pierre said, his wide grin suddenly fading, “is the only negative part of my idea.”

  “What is?”

  He shrugged his shoulders, meanwhile looking at her in defeat. “Finding the right person.”

  Nina sighed. “Speaking about negatives,” she said slowly, “I think you’d better give me a chance to tell you my news.”

  Pierre’s expression darkened. “What has happened, Nina?”

  “Well, maybe it’s not that bad. I mean, it all depends on how you look at it....”

  She sank onto the couch, opposite Pierre.

  “I just got a telephone call from my parents.” There was something he had never seen before in her dark brown eyes, something that looked very much like fear. “Pierre, they’re coming. They’re coming to Paris.” Her voice was hoarse, her words barely audible.

  Pierre, meanwhile, was confused. “Your parents? They are coming here? But why?”

  “To try to talk me out of staying on after the summer is over, that’s why!”

  “But ... but I thought they had accepted what you told them. I thought they agreed that you were old enough to start making your own choices.”

  “That’s what I thought, too.” Nina sighed. “But it turns out they think I’m making a rash decision. At least, that’s what they said on the phone just now. They finally came out and said all the things that I was so surprised they didn’t say when I first told them about my plans. They think I’m doing a terrible thing, throwing away my future because of some ridiculous case of puppy love....”

  The tears that had been gathering in her eyes began sliding down her cheeks. “Oh, Pierre! They don’t understand at all.”

  He got up and went over to the couch. Putting a protective arm around her, he said, “Nina, this is not such an awful thing. They simply want what is best for their daughter. They love you, and they want to keep you safe.”

  “They want to keep me a little girl.”

  “They want you to be happy. Who could blame them for that?” He lifted her wet face up to his. “What are you so afraid of, ma chouchou? That they will disapprove? You already know that they are not happy about your decision to stay here in Paris. And they are certainly not happy about the fact that you are starting to do what you think is best, instead of what they think is best for you.

  Perhaps it will be a difficult visit. That, I can understand. But I will stay with you the whole time they are here, if it will make it easier for you.”

  She shook her head. “Thank you, Pierre. But this is something I must do alone.... Now, let’s not let this ruin our afternoon together. I’m glad you came by, and I’d rather talk about happier things. Let’s put our heads together and see if we can come up with any ideas of someone who might want to hire me as an assistant.”

  Nina took a deep breath, determined not to be too consumed by her nervousness about her parents’ upcoming visit. She knew their purpose was to talk her out of staying on in Paris, pursuing her dream of writing, remaining with the young man she loved. While she recognized that they were only doing what they thought was best, and that they were doing it out of love for her, she was still resentful.

  Don’t they trust me? she thought. Don’t they realize that I am old enough, and capable enough, to start making my own decisions? Can’t they accept that only I know what’s best for me? Don’t they understand what it means to have a dream?

  Even more than feeling resentful, she realized, she was feeling afraid. After all, there was one possibility that was too frightening to tell Pierre about, or even to admit fully to herself. And that was the possibility that her mother and father would actually succeed in their mission of talking her out of her decision to stay in Paris.

  Chapter 10

  “Mom! Dad! Welcome to Paris!”

  Nina hoped that her greeting sounded sincere as she stood at Gate 14 of Charles de Gaulle Airport, waving wildly at her parents as they filed off the plane and into the lounge. She was truly happy to see them, not having realized up until this moment just how much she had missed them. Even so, the butterflies in her stomach would not let her forget that her mother and father were here to do a lot more than visit the Eiffel Tower and the other sights of Paris.

  “So this is Paris,” Mr. Shaw grumbled. He hoisted his heavy tote bag over his shoulder, looking around the airport with a frown. “If you ask me, it looks like it’s as bad as New York.”

  “How was your flight?” Nina asked cheerfully. “Here, Mom, let me carry that for you.”

  “The flight was all right, I guess.” Mrs. Shaw sounded tired as she handed her overnight bag to her daughter. “It was just so ... so long.”

  “Look at this. All the signs are in French,” Mr. Shaw observed. He sounded as if he were taking it personally. “How on earth am I supposed to understand anything while I’m here?”

  “I’ll translate for you, Dad,” Nina said. “Well, at least you both got here in one piece. Do you have any other luggage?”

  “Tons of it,” Mr. Shaw said. “Your mother brought half the house with her. She even brought toilet paper.”

  “Toilet paper?” Nina stopped in her tracks. “Mom, they have toilet paper here.”

  “Well, now, I wasn’t sure it would be the kind I’m used to. You know me. I’m the kind of person who likes things to be predictable.”

  “That’s right,” Mr. Shaw agreed heartily, sounding proud of his wife. “No surprises for this lady.”

  “Nina, I’m a total wreck,” Mrs. Shaw said. “I don’t suppose there’s anywhere I’ll be able to take a hot shower, is there?”

  “Mother, you’ll find that Paris is a very civilized place,” Nina said in an even voice. “Not only do we have toilet paper, we even have hot water.”

  Her father cast her an odd look at her use of the word “we.” She simply ignored it, instead attempting to change the subject.

  “I hope you’re planning on staying long enough to see some of the sights. There are so many wonderful museums and cathedrals, and of course the chateaux, the castles, if you’re up for a trip out of the city....”

  “We plan to stay only as long as it takes to talk you out of this cockamamy idea of yours,” Mr. Shaw said. He was talking so loudly that several people turned around to look at him. “Unless, of course, you’ve already come to your senses.”

  Nina’s silence told them she had not changed her mind about her decision to stay. Her mother quickly tried a new tack.

  “You know, Nina,” she said pleasantly as she followed her daughter through the crowded airport, toward the exit, “your father came up with the most wonderful idea. Instead of all three of us leaving together from Paris, he thought that once you got all your things packed up, we could take a week or two and see some of Europe. You know, travel—all three of us, as a family—to Holland, Spain, Germany ... wherever you like.”

  The true meaning of her words was not wasted on Nina. Her mother was offering her a bribe. Come home with us, she was saying, be a practical, obedient daughter who does what we think is best for her, and we’ll reward you with a trip around Europe.

  Instead of feeling at all enticed, however, or even the least bit sympathetic to what they were feeling, Nina was simply irritated. “Perhaps you two would enjoy traveling around a bit,” she said. “It would give you a chance to have kind of a second honeymoon.” She couldn’t resist adding, “Surely you don’t want a third wheel getting in your way, spoiling your time alone together.”

  Mrs. Shaw, seeing she wasn’t going to get anywhere, quickly dropped
it. “Nina, I’m exhausted,” she said as the threesome piled into a taxi. “Your father and I both need to get some rest. That plane ride was endless. Half the time your dad was as white as a ghost.”

  “I was fine,” Mr. Shaw insisted. “I just had a little indigestion, that’s all. That food they serve on airplanes leaves a lot to be desired.”

  “At any rate, I’m not going to be any good to anybody until I have had a shower, a nap, and a good hot meal. I’m desperate for a cup of tea.”

  Mrs. Shaw peered at her daughter. “Nina, honey, it is safe to drink the water here, isn’t it?”

  It wasn’t until that evening that Mr. and Mrs. Shaw pronounced themselves ready to reenter the world again. Just as they had promised, they had spent their first day in Paris resting at the hotel. Nina, meanwhile, took advantage of her unexpected free time to seek out Pierre.

  “So how do your parents like Paris so far?” he asked. They were strolling along the Seine together, watching the bateaux mouches, the tour boats, sailing along lazily. The tiny dots that were the people riding on them, Parisians and tourists alike, were glued to the sides, ogling the unparalleled view of the city that traveling down the city’s main waterway afforded them.

  “So far, they’ve done nothing but complain,” Nina returned. “Honestly, you’d think they were visiting Mars or something.”

  “Nina, to them Paris might as well be Mars,” Pierre reminded her, amused.

  “Well, I’m just warning you. Don’t be insulted if it turns out they’re not the least bit interested in meeting my favorite Martian,” Nina said with a scowl.

  Her prediction turned out to be wrong, however. That evening, over dinner, the first real chance the three Shaws had to sit down together to talk while on French soil, Pierre du Lac was one of the very first topics of conversation her mother brought up.