Someday in Paris

by Olivia Lara

  ‘I see,’ said her aunt. ‘And you think this dream has something to do with him?’

  ‘I don’t know. Mama believed we are connected to the people we love. That some dreams are more than just dreams. That they’re the link to our soulmates. We go through life together, even when we’re apart, and sometimes we see things through their eyes.’

  Lisa smiled. ‘I can’t believe Zahara told you about this. Dominique dear, it’s nothing but a myth. A story. It’s like the people who believe what is meant to be will be, no matter what. Things happen if you make them happen. Just like there is no perfect, one-of-a-kind love. There is love, but you have to work at it and make it happen. It’s not written in the stars. Too many women in our family believed in this myth, and too many had their hearts broken.’

  ‘You’ve never experienced it with your husband?’

  ‘No. I had a few dreams when I was fifteen or so, but I ignored them. I don’t believe in them. A few years later I met my husband, we got married and lived a happy life. Dream-free.’

  ‘Was he your soulmate?’

  Lisa looked at Dominique curiously. ‘Soulmate? There is no such thing, darling. I cared for him deeply if that is what you want to know. And I respected him. He was a good man. The kind of love you’re talking about belongs only in books. You sound like your great-grandmother. She believed in this thing with such desperation, it ruined her life. You’re a smart, educated young woman. Folktales are for simple people.’

  Dominique played with her fingers nervously.

  ‘Wait a minute. Why are you asking me all these things? This dream of yours, don’t tell me you believe the boy with long hair is your soulmate. You’ve never even met him.’

  ‘I didn’t say he was my soulmate.’

  ‘Well, you dreamed about his accident, didn’t you?’

  ‘I guess.’

  ‘That doesn’t mean he is your soulmate,’ Lisa said, sounding tired. ‘Yesterday was emotionally draining. You saw him get hit by that car, you were hurt too, and then you spent the day in the hospital. Of course you had nightmares; it’s how your mind coped with the trauma. You felt responsible and it’s natural. I’ve seen it with patients many times. But that’s it. He’s not your soulmate any more than the other boy Leon was. You should know this too. Because you can’t have two “the ones”, at least according to the stories you believe so much in.’ She laughed. ‘You’re young and there will be more young men. Your dreams are just beginning.’

  Lisa took Dominique’s hand in hers. ‘I know you miss your mother and I understand this is your way of keeping the connection with her alive. Believing in the things she did. But it’s not healthy to focus on fairy tales. Live your life and enjoy it, because the time you’re wasting staring at the ceiling and waiting for your soulmate will never come back.’

  *

  ‘Was Lisa right?’ asks Valerie, with a curious expression on her face.

  ‘I didn’t know. I thought maybe she was. It’s very hard, if not impossible, to believe in things you can’t prove. I promised I would put the soulmate story and the dreams behind me, but deep down, I felt a longing for something, for someone. A longing that went beyond any promise. I couldn’t explain it, but it was always there. It had been there since that night at the Unterlinden. I felt as if I was in the waiting room of my life. Whenever the door opened, I’d jump to my feet. I was living my life waiting for him, despite myself. I always believed that wherever he was, whatever he was doing, and whoever he was, he would find me, or I would find him. We would find each other, and then everything would finally make sense.’

  ‘And did you find the boy in Newport?’ asks Valerie, agitated.

  ‘I called the hospitals in New York but either they wouldn’t give me any information or had no patient matching that description.’

  ‘So you never found out who he was or what happened to him?’

  I smile.

  LEON

  22 JUNE 1957

  NEW YORK CITY

  ‘What happened? Where am I?’ asked Leon. The light blinded him.

  ‘You were in a car accident, but you’ll be fine. Try to rest,’ his mother said, but the expression on her face said something else. Her eyes were red and she wouldn’t look at him when she spoke to him.

  Leon’s body felt strange, as if it had stopped responding to his commands. ‘I can’t move. I can’t feel my legs.’

  ‘I’ll let the doctor know you’re awake,’ she said and headed for the door.

  ‘Wait,’ he pleaded. ‘Why is Dad not here?’

  She clenched her jaw and took a deep breath. ‘I’ll go get the doctor,’ she said and left quickly.

  The room was quiet except for the machines beeping. Leon closed his eyes again and recalled the strange dream he’d had. There had been a girl in the dream, but he couldn’t see her face. Behind her was a bright light. He was tired and wanted to leave that place, but the girl grabbed him and wouldn’t let him go. She pulled him to her, and her touch felt familiar, warm, and soft. ‘Please, stay with me. Stay.’

  Her voice was like a song. Like a melody only he heard and understood.

  So he didn’t leave. He stayed. For her. With her.

  *

  Leon heard the door and opened his eyes. JJ stood in the doorway, his head slightly down. His right arm was bandaged and propped against his body, held by a sling. And when he lifted his eyes and looked at Leon, he saw his right cheek was bruised and red.

  JJ slowly approached the bed.

  ‘How are you feeling, my boy? You gave us quite a scare last night. The doctors were worried you weren’t going to make it. But thank God, you did,’ he said in a low, kind voice.

  ‘I can’t feel my legs; I can’t move them. What’s wrong with me? Tell me the truth.’

  ‘The truth,’ echoed JJ. ‘The truth is you are strong and young, and you will recover. This is the truth. And don’t worry. I will not let you fight this fight alone. I will help you with everything I possibly can. We’ll beat this. You will walk again.’

  Leon couldn’t respond and tears streamed from his eyes. He was paralyzed. He’d thought as much, but hearing it, said out loud, terrified him.

  ‘What happened? What – what happened to your face? And your arm?’

  ‘Just a scratch, don’t you worry about that. You saved my life, that’s what happened. And there are not enough words in this world for me to express my gratitude. I will forever be indebted to you, my boy.’

  ‘You don’t owe me anything,’ said Leon quietly. ‘You’re family, JJ. You would’ve done the same for me.’

  JJ wiped his tears with the back of his hand. ‘In a heartbeat.’

  There was a knock on the door. JJ got up and went to see who it was. Leon heard whispers, then saw JJ leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

  Someone stood by the door but didn’t approach. Someone who was wearing a summer hat. Leon’s heart started beating fast. Was it possible? Was it her?

  ‘Zara,’ he said, his voice wavering, sounding more like a whisper. ‘You’re here,’ he said a bit louder.

  ‘Of course, I’m here,’ he heard, and his heart sunk. ‘Where else would I be? I came as soon as I heard.’

  Not that he wasn’t happy Nicole had come to see him, of course he was, but—

  ‘How are you feeling?’ she asked as she pulled a chair and sat next to his bed.

  Leon tried to shrug but everything hurt. ‘Alright, I guess. All things considered.’

  ‘I was so scared when JJ told me. I knew it was bad news the moment I heard his voice on the phone. I just didn’t think, not even for a second, the bad news was about you.’

  She looked away for a moment. Nicole wasn’t the kind of girl who cried. Actually, Leon couldn’t remember a single instance when he’d seen her crying. Not when her mother died, or when she went to her father to hug him at the funeral and he pushed her away, not when she heard Vincent’s mother saying all those bad things about her and her father, o
r when JJ said goodbye to her in a letter from Paris as she was leaving for Switzerland. She was the strongest person he had ever met, at least on the outside. Leon never really knew what was going on in her mind and her heart.

  She turned her face to him again and, as expected, she wasn’t crying. But she was worried – that much he could tell.

  ‘I’m so sorry, Leon.’

  He attempted a smile. Didn’t know what to say, really.

  ‘Is what JJ told me true? That you almost died saving his life?’

  ‘You know JJ, always making a big deal out of nothing.’

  She jumped from her chair and hugged him tight. Leon grimaced in pain. ‘What would I have done without you? Next time, don’t be a hero, you hear me? You could’ve called out for him to get out of the way. You didn’t have to throw yourself in front of a speeding car.’

  ‘I don’t know if there will be a next time,’ he said, his voice trailing off.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Didn’t JJ tell you I might never walk again?’

  She raised an eyebrow. ‘That’s just crazy talk. Of course you’ll walk. JJ might not have been much of a father to me, but when it comes to you, he’s a bull. He will not stop until you get better.’

  ‘I know he made some mistakes with you, but he loves you. You’re his child, not me. He would do the same for you, Nicole, and you know it.’

  ‘Maybe. Maybe he would. Let’s hope he’ll never have to.’

  ‘Yes, let’s hope so.’

  ‘I will let you rest; the doctors allowed me to be in here for five minutes. And only because I lied.’

  ‘You lied?’

  She giggled. ‘I told them I was your fiancée.’ She winked and kissed him on the cheek.

  Before she opened the door, Leon called out to her. ‘Can you please ask JJ to come back? I need to talk to him.’

  ‘Sure,’ she said unenthusiastically.

  JJ returned shortly after and approached Leon’s bed, looking even more worried than before.

  ‘Nicole said you wanted to see me. Are you in pain? Do you need me to call a nurse?’

  ‘No. It’s not that. JJ, I need to ask you…’ His voice trailed off. ‘Something.’

  ‘Yes, my boy. Anything.’

  ‘The girl. The girl who was there, on the street. Is she…’

  JJ smiled warmly and let out a sigh of relief. ‘She’s safe. You saved her life too, just like you saved mine.’

  ‘She’s safe,’ he repeated. ‘You think I could see her?’

  ‘I wouldn’t know where to find her, my boy. I wanted to thank her mother for taking care of you until the ambulance arrived but didn’t think to ask for her name. She told me she was a nurse and she sent me to find a telephone booth to call the hospital. I didn’t have time to talk to the girl; didn’t even get a good look at her. But her mother said she was alright when I asked.’

  ‘Her mother?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘A nurse? Then she’s not—’

  He couldn’t continue.

  ‘She’s not what?’

  ‘Zara. She’s not Zara. I thought – but I was wrong. Zara’s mother died and she wasn’t a nurse anyway.’

  ‘The girl from Colmar? That was ages ago. Oh, my dear boy.’

  ‘JJ, please, I— Please try to find her.’

  JJ stared. ‘Alright, please don’t work yourself up. I will.’

  But he never did. Or if he did, he never told Leon.

  ALEXANDER ROBERTS

  1 SEPTEMBER 1957

  NEW YORK CITY

  Leonard Price Senior died a few hours after causing the accident that almost killed his son. He drove his car off Newport Bridge. ‘Guilt,’ his wife said. ‘Alcohol,’ the newspapers wrote. ‘Leon, please, listen to me. He was trying to hit me, not you. We think he had been following me for some time. He wasn’t thinking straight, and he had no idea we had plans to meet. Your father wouldn’t have hurt you intentionally,’ JJ said, trying to soften the blow.

  ‘Do not call me that.’

  ‘Call you what, my boy?’

  ‘Leon! I don’t want to hear that name ever again.’

  ‘I know you’re upset—’ tried JJ.

  ‘I am not a child. And no, this will not go away and I will not forgive him, if that’s what you were getting ready to say. I don’t want his name. I don’t want anything from him. My name is Alexander.’

  With the same intensity he had loved and admired his father when he was young, he hated him now. For what he had done to him, for not accepting help, for being a coward, for not being who he thought he was. He wanted nothing to do with him.

  The media covered the case for weeks. The fraud, the bankruptcy, the drinking, the attempted murder, the suicide. Journalists followed their family day and night, harassing them. His mother wasn’t taking things too well either.

  ‘I’m leaving,’ she said one afternoon, as she sat by his bedside.

  ‘Going home?’ asked Alexander. ‘Yes, you should. There’s nothing you can do here. The doctors are taking good care of me and JJ refuses to leave anyway.’

  ‘No, I mean, I am leaving the country.’

  Alexander didn’t expect that and didn’t know how to react.

  ‘Like you said, the doctors are doing everything they can, and you’re out of danger now. It’s just a matter of recovering and whether I am here or not, it doesn’t make a difference.’

  ‘No, that’s not what I meant.’

  ‘I know,’ she said, ‘I have to do this, Leon—’ She paused. ‘Alexander. Just like you are trying to get rid of everything linking you to him, to our old life, I am doing the same. I can’t deal with this circus anymore. I can’t. I’m exhausted, there’s no more money, I’m being watched by journalists all the time, and the people who once looked up to me and envied me for my good fortune have turned their backs on me. Your aunt and uncle are selling their house and moving to London. They have graciously invited me to go with them and I already told them I’d be happy to.’

  Alexander took a deep breath and tried not to cry. His mother was leaving him alone again. When he was a child and she didn’t oppose him being sent to Europe, Alexander was hurt. It felt like she’d abandoned him. Now she was doing it again, choosing a life without him. How could she leave him like that, in the hospital, not even knowing what would happen to him?

  His expression must have betrayed his thoughts, because she got closer to him and took his hand in hers. ‘I have no life here. He made sure we have no life here anymore. And I want to get as far away as I possibly can. I’ve never felt more humiliated in my life. You might blame me for running away from it all, but I’m asking you – if you can find it in your heart – to forgive me. To understand.’

  ‘I understand,’ he said quietly. Unconvincingly.

  ‘I will of course call you and write to learn news about you and how your treatment is going. I have faith that JJ will do everything he can to help you, or I wouldn’t leave you. And, remember, wherever I am, my door will always be open to you, my son. Once I get myself settled in, you can come and stay with me for a while, if you want.’

  He smiled sadly.

  She got up to leave. ‘Oh, before I go, I mustn’t forget to tell you I have petitioned to have my name changed back to my maiden name. As long as I am called Catherine Price, I will never be free of this stigma. I suggest you take my name too, if you want to stand a chance at a fresh start. Whether here or somewhere else.’

  Alexander agreed and in less than forty-eight hours, Alexander Leonard Price was no more. Instead, Alexander Roberts lay in a hospital bed in New York, with his godfather by his side, saying one last goodbye to his mother and not knowing if he was ever going to walk again.

  *

  Alexander was in the hospital for two months. And during all that time JJ stayed with him. He only left to take a shower and change his clothes and sometimes, following Alexander’s repeated requests, he would go home for the night.

&nbs
p; Nicole came too, almost every day. She had canceled her cruise with Vincent so she could stay by Alexander’s side. She brought him magazines and sweets and entertained him for hours with her hilarious stories about her new friends from New York, and kept talking about the future, making plans for the two of them in New York for the next four years of school.

  She even brought Vincent a couple of times, and it surprised Alexander to hear he insisted on coming.

  ‘I’m sorry I ruined your summer,’ said Alexander to Vincent on one of those visits.

  ‘It’s alright, trouble. You just focus on getting better, then we can all get out of here.’

  Alexander smiled. He was making progress, but not as fast as he hoped he would, and the rehabilitation program was excruciatingly painful and difficult.

  ‘There’s not much for Nicole to do around here. Why don’t you two go at least to Newport if it’s too late for the cruise? Spend some time at the summer house.’

  ‘I tried to talk her into it, but there’s no reasoning with Nico.’

  ‘You know I’m still here, right?’ said Nicole, scrunching up her nose and making a funny face.

  ‘Yeah, well, you are stubborn,’ said both Leon and Vincent, agreeing on something for the first time in their lives.

  Alexander would’ve preferred if she had listened to them, because it would’ve made him feel less guilty about what he was about to talk to her about. All those long hours in the hospital had given him the chance to really think about what he wanted to do. And he’d promised himself that if he ever walked again, he would stop listening to what other people told him he should do, and instead listen to his heart. Because, as he had discovered two months before, life was too short. Too short not to do what you think is right.

  He knew his conversation with Nicole needed to happen sooner rather than later, but selfishly kept pushing it back, because he enjoyed her company and was afraid of the outcome. The worst possible scenario was that Nicole would make him choose, but he was hoping it wouldn’t get to that. She was his best friend and he didn’t want to lose her.