The Monet's residence is a pretty place, a very pretty place. Luckily, on the day Eric visited it, there weren’t that many people crowding it.
The amazing thing about that place is that in every flower, every view, every perspective, you could easily visualize it as some painting from the big master.
You could probably stay a whole day there taking pictures and it wouldn't be enough. The light there was incredible, and Eric realized how it had been possible for the same little pont to be painted so many different times. It was a really good recommendation from Alice, and even Eric couldn't deny the beauty and purity of that place. He bought a t-shirt from the souvenir store, and a postal card to Alice.
When Eric finally left the residence, he was starving. He noticed there was a restaurant and a small coffee place really close by. He decided to just have a sandwich and a couple of fruits. In the small coffee shop, there was only two small tables outside, and being alone in such a tiny place, Eric started to talk with the cashier. She didn’t look older than twenty years old, maybe even seventeen or eighteen and it was the chilliest person in the world: She had amazing blue eyes, a very friendly voice, was a little bit overweight and seemed to be a very smart girl.
In that region, where time seemed to have stopped, the girl smoked near Eric, in front of the coffee place, in some sort of break she was giving herself, and every puff of smoke took an eternity.
Eric stayed sitting in that tiny table, and while he was eating his apples and enjoying the view, he realized that, for whatever reason, he would remember that moment forever: The girl smoking her cigarette like she didn't have another care in the world, the trees swinging by the gentle wind, the sun shines that were moving accordingly to the crown of the big trees... the natural light, along with the flowers and trees that they had around them, creating an amazing oniric figure.
Even the little bee that was flying around Eric's apples while he was still completely absort on his thoughts.
He was alone, he was in silence, but everything was ok. Everything would be fine, by one way or another...
After that small piece of eternity, he said goodbye to the girl and to the view. He still walked around a little bit, and even went to the cemetery where there were some tourists. He finally went back to his car, sat beside it, near the road, and stayed there for what seemed to be another piece of eternity, completely absort on his thoughts, memories and doubts.
“Something has to make some kind of sense in this life”
Then, he got the car and went his way to Rocamadour.
“Hey baby, I hope you're okay, and enjoying your trip. Just letting you know that everything is almost done now and then we'll need you here again for our meeting. Take care. Marie”
Rocamadour is a village ingrained in stone, on the mountains, and probably lived by its tourism. The general feeling there was very different than in Giverny: there was a lot of tourists, in the stores, in the cathedral, in the camping places and on the big stairway they had near the small Centreville. It was also pretty impressive, not gonna lie.
Eric slept in a really small hotel, besides the main road, where fifty meters down there was the stores and markets, and just crossing the street, there was this observatory, really high up in the mountains. It seemed to be a really nice village, but he didn't have strength to go out that night: He decided to stay home and read to sleep.
He didn't do much other than walk around during the day, eat, read, and sleep.
Five days later, he went back to work, after visiting his parents in Toulouse.
They would approve the idea for the festival.
- It's hard man. It has to work out, I'm afraid I have no credit left after that...everything I have and I could owe will be officially invested... - Mike
- And did my dad agree to this? - Eric
- Well, he was pretty cautious about the whole thing. He thought it would be better if I invested in other things, mutual funds, bank, stock market and whatnot....and not owe that much money anyways... Wait for the center to settle, you know. But, I'm not sure I'll have all this opportunity forever, right? Having you guys here in Paris to help and whatnot... - Mike
- Yeah, I see. Well, it's a shame Tom couldn't get on board with this project, hun?
- Yeaah...
- … Anyways, what about the meetings today? What are you expecting?
- A lot of understanding from the dance school...
- You think they'll like the idea of the festival?
- Yeah, very likely they will, they would benefit from it too, right? But who knows... We have to see if they would like to share some of the costs too
- Oh ok, well, let's pray then...
- Yeah – Mike paused for a sec – And... What about Marie hun?
- What about her?
- How are you guys going?
- Ah... She has been working a lot
- That’s not what I asked…
- I know...
- And Alice?
- Ah man, it's so complicated...
- Ok... well, if you don't wanna talk about it, I understand....
- I do wanna talk about it, but what can I say, really?
- Yeah, I understand... But hey, you should think about it... It's been what? A good while that you and Marie know each other. She's still by your side. And it's been like...more than six months you don't see Alice. For what I'm getting, she still has the hots for you – He smiled – Aaanyways. What I mean to say is....fuck man, open your eyes, because they won't be single forever, you know.
- I know...
- I don’t know if you realize it, but from the moment Marie wakes up, until she goes to bed, there are people trying to get to her. Students, assistants, teachers, random people on the street …. And Alice, man, you don't even know if there she isn't dating anyone right now.
-...
- Well, I'm sorry, ok? But I guess I needed to tell you this. - Pause – When we were in St Jean, there was this Italian guy, living next to us...a completely douche, always hitting on Isadora. When I saw that, I forced myself to take an attitude.... It helped me to get out of my comfort zone and do something about it. I just hope it helps you too....It's just cuz...I never saw you by yourself like this... I guess I just think it's weird what’s happening between you and Marie right now, always looking to be together, but not really being together, you know? On and off thing... Do you really think that that's what she wants? ... I mean, it’s not like you guys didn’t get along well, right?
Eric understood it.
- I just think that eventually you'll have to figure out what you want Eric. Do you notice how you and Marie just can't stay apart from each other? Don't let these things pass by, man... - He waited for Eric to say something, but he just nodded – Well, ok... Let's go eat something then because I still have a bunch of classes to teach today....
There was so much to be done: Besides the renovation of the school, now there was this huge project of having a culture festival. There was a lot of money to be gathered and invested, people to be hired, dates to be confirmed, and details to be made aware of. So much work just for the project to get ready.
The preparation for the dance school was in its peak, and there was a big part of the music school that was still bei
ng built: the auditorium for example that would be essential for the festival.
The dance school agreed with the idea, so they would start to make their side of the work when the time would come: they would prepare choreographies, call for the competition on their side, try and get some sponsorship and even help with a couple of people to work on the festival organization. They were taking care of the renovations for their side of the school, and Mike loved it, because then he didn't have to worry about it.
Besides the class rooms, there was still the offices, the teachers room, washrooms, parking lot, elevator and everything else. It was becoming a huge place, with three floors.
They had separated an open space to exposition, which artists could pay to show off their work – pictures, painting, and sculptures. A nice lounge, rest-y living room, and an exclusive room for dancers. They even had showers there.
During all of this, a drama school became interested in joining their center. After some negotiations, where they decided the number of rooms they would have, how much they would pay for it, and as they compromised themselves to pay their share of the renovations, the center grew even bigger.
In the middle of these renovations, even though they were trying as hard as possible to not disturb the classes, working mainly in the mornings, it was a real luck the fact that the classes had a good acoustic isolation. Unfortunately, most of the other rooms – The offices, mainly – didn't, so they had to rent a place to work near the school, which was an insane amount of money, and probably a really bad decision, with people constantly having to run between the two places.
Eventually they settled everything for the project, specially about the festival, which would have everything mentioned by Eric, but also movies presentations and competitions, plays from the drama school, a short movie competition, and a photography competition.
They were approached by two large companies offering massive sponsorships for the project and I'm only mentioning them, not by their name, but by their last name: Meirelles, but mainly, Montini.
When Eric, Marie and Mike learnt about that, they just looked at each other and nobody had to say anything: They all understood.
It was one of the hardest decisions they made, but in the end they wanted to do that by themselves, or it would never truly be a reason to be proud of. They chose to ignore the easy way in exchange of the...well; you can't actually say it was the right one, could you?
In exchange of the independent way. They would fight for other sponsors in the months to come.
Eric and Marie had the idea during a random talk of making a workshop specifically about rock music: The history of rock, styles, sub-styles, personalities, trivia, how to criticize it, how to listen to it... Eric ended up being responsible for that and Marie decided to organize one about classical music, thinking that that wouldn't take that much of her time, because at that particular moment her schedule was already completely full.
Eric started to literally study everything he could about that subject, day after day. He had also started training with Mike, to get better at playing the guitar (now that his hand was a hundred percent again) and he was even taking singing lessons with this really good and experienced teacher.
When the renovations were finally over, Eric started to train with some students ( in the studio or even in the class rooms ) .He was just trying to help as he could (in the office, finishing his workshops and even going after people in Paris that could go and talk during his workshop and spread some wisdom and experience.)
With the school finally done, they were able to seat back and watch what it had become. They actually got a bit scared: It got insanely big.
It was a weird moment the first time they actually realized the amount of people that was passing by their school, taking classes, chilling, making friends and just having a good time.
The marketing for the festival started with by the end of their workshops: It got a bit rushed to do everything they had to do at once, but everything worked out fine.
Mike was with an insane schedule between taking care of everything in the cultural center, being the central figure of authority there, teaching classes, training with Jan and Eric, and everything else he had to do.
Marie, too. The three of them were exhausted and it was only the beginning: The festival would be six months from that point.
When Eric finally gave his workshop, at the newly finished auditorium, Mike and Marie made sure they would be presents every day, at least for a while, to check it out. It was completely full, and they took the opportunity to publicize the festival. It was a completely success.
Eric only accepted half of the money the workshop had made and the rest he insisted Mike should have it as “the rent of the auditorium”. Mike eventually accepted that.
The day after the workshop was over, Mike, Marie and Eric were signing everything to actually create the company that would organize the festival – with the sponsorships included. Mike wasn't speaking much, but by the size the school ended up having and by the size of the prospects of the festival, it was pretty clear that he would have a huge problem if the festival didn't give him a lot of profit.
Besides that, they had to answer several questions about the festival to journalists, photographers and bloggers in the days that followed. A journalist that Alice had as a connection in Paris (a friend of a friend of her uncle) eventually got in contact with them and asked for an exclusive interview with the three of them. And it would be worth it.
There was a bit more than five months for the festival and they were sleeping during the last weekend they would be able to afford to take a break before diving into the turbulence that would be those next months.
The streets in Paris seemed to be shutting down. The air itself in Paris seemed to be turning off. They eventually had to go back to that insane routine without any doubt as an option.
Marie was looking for Eric's hands in the darkness.
Marie had always been looking for Eric's hands in the darkness
Eric had a really sexual dream one night: He woke up feeling sort of lost and confused, because, for starters, he had the strong intuition he knew that girl from somewhere, and second, feeling bad for having loved Marie, sleeping with her and having woken up after dreaming with another woman.
He couldn't get rid of that dream, so he started to try to think about the girl he had dreamt about. Eric had had sex with hundreds of girls since he left Brazil, and it could've easily been an impossible task to remember one specifically... not like that. But a memory, when yours, doesn't matter about whom, turns out to be only yours, having nothing to do with the real person anymore, for good or bad. It was never about the girl, but the dream about her.
Intuitively, he was sure that he had never had sex with that girl before: it was desire of the unknown he was feeling. An instinctive desire. Like when he would be on tour, choosing with who he was going to sleep with that night.
Coincidently or not, he figured out from where he knew that girl a few hours later: It was his dad's assistant.
“Nothing easier” He thought to himself. Then he looked at Marie and felt of disgusted of himself for thinking that, especially when she hugged him minutes later, with the greatest affection in the world.
He had to go and take a cold, cold shower.
- O
k, ok, Listen up... - They all eventually made a bit of silence during the breakfast – I'm going to go have lunch with him, and then we'll meet you guys here with mom. - Eric
- At what time?
- She arrives around four, I think, so we won't be coming before that...
- Hmm...
- Sooo... you guys have enough time to clean the house and make sure you have nice little stories about your routine and about your last few weeks, hun? - Eric
- Ok... Sure
- … You do realize you're doing the exact opposite of what you should actually do as an older brother, right? - Gustavo being malicious
- Yeah... - Eric starred at him – Now eat your food and shut up....
- What time are you meeting dad? - Isadora
- At one
- Where?
- Bistrô Île Saint-Louis
- The one that is like...always packed? Why doesn’t he just come here?
- Not today.... I think he just needs to do something around his hotel or something like that. I didn't quite get that part.
- Did you make a reservation?
- Something like that... Mike, can I borrow your car? - Eric
- Sure man...
- Do you realize you cannot legally drive, right? - Gustavo, smirking at him
- Yes I can, I already took care of my situation. You, in the other hand, every time you get on that car....well, I won't even say anything anymore...
- Sure...- Gustavo didn't care
- Anyways, Eric. There's still three hours before your lunch - Mike
- Yeah, I know...
- Uau, I told you'd get bored with Paris - Gustavo
- Actually I said that – Marie smiled – … We could go visit my aunt, hun? She's back in town after a couple of months... We could probably have lunch with her...
To the Paris of our dreams Page 25