Anca
“You guys have the rest of the afternoon free, yeah? Please be back here by 6 p. m., our show starts at 9 p. m.,” Hailey reminds us before she hurries off for a meeting with her crew.
“So late?” Brad yawns and raises his arms over his head in a stretch as if anticipating the late night.
“We’re French ‘ere,” Sebastian says, his accent stronger than usual. “We don’t have early bird dinner at 5:30 and go to bed with the covers pulled up to our chins by 8. We like to party.”
“Why don’t you adopt the same enthusiasm to bathing?” Marius asks, waving his hand in front of his face.
“I do, just last night I scrubbed my armpits very thoroughly.”
Jez moves closer and pretends to sniff Seb. “They still smell, bro.”
“That’s because I used your toothbrush, bro.”
Jez makes a face and I know he’s weighing up the chances of that actually happening.
Sebastian laughs and slaps my brother on the back of his head, eliciting a loud yelp and they chase each other, hollering obscenities, as they run out the front door of the hotel.
Brad wanders off, to find a bed, presumably, and I stand there, not wanting to walk away from Marius. He’s rubbing the side of his head and looking in the direction that Jez went, talking to himself. I can hear mumbles but not words.
Then he turns to me. “Fuck it,” he says. Out of nowhere. “Ready for an adventure?”
“Sorry?”
“Let’s go!” he says, his eyes getting wild.
“Go where?”
“Does it matter?” He asks. And I don’t need to answer, he can tell from the look on my face that I’ll follow him anywhere. “It’s now. Or never.”
“Now.” I say. Like that one word is the most important sound I’ve ever uttered.
“Let’s go then!” He exclaims, pressing a kiss to my cheek while grabbing my wrist and pulling me with him. As I run, trying to keep up with him, I can’t help but hope that I could spend now, and always, with him.
“Taxi!” He calls out to the doorman who waves to a waiting cab. He opens the car door for me and pushes me inside just as we hear Jez and Sebastian calling out to us from the hotel entrance. “Get in, get in!” Marius rushes me, giggling as he slides in next to me. “Vite, vite!” he yells at the driver as he slams the door shut.
I laugh as the driver throws us a weird look. “He doesn’t know where to go, you crazy loon!”
“Just go, man!” He yells and the drivers presses down hard on the brake, just as I hear a hand slam against the window and turn to see my brother’s face. I wave goodbye to his stunned face as the car speeds away.
“Where are we going?” I ask, giddy with excitement.
“Wherever the wind takes us,” he whispers into my ear, “whoooosh.” The look he gives me is so intense I have to turn away. Turn away before I say thing I won’t be able to take back.
“Stop! Arret, monsieur, s’il vous plait!” he yells in my ear just seconds later, killing the moment, and the car jerks to a stop. He’s dragged me half way out of the car before I even have a chance to take a breath. “Come, Anca! Life isn’t going to wait for us!”
“Where are we? We barely drove two blocks?!” I pant, looking down at the shoes slipping off my feet as I run, taking two steps for each one of his long ones.
“Sometimes two blocks is all it takes, Anca.” He gestures with his hand and for the first time, I look up. And gasp.
In front of me is the most beautiful scene I’ve ever had the privilege to see.
A glorious green mountain cliff juts out into the sky, seemingly out of nowhere, and at its feet lies the most crystal-clear lake you can imagine. Like a perfect, flawless pane of blue glass, a window into the bottom of the sandy lake. Small motor boats line the semicircle edge of the lake and a giant expanse of thick, green, luscious grass lies out, welcoming you to spread out your lunch and body against its soft leaves.
“Oh my god. Marius.”
“Lake Annecy,” he says, with both a sense of wonder and pride.
“It’s…”
“Fucking beautiful. I know.”
I can’t even explain it.
Even though the air is almost cool enough for you to see your own breath, there’s something of renewing, refreshing in the atmosphere.
Spring.
This is where spring begins.
In the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.
“Come on!” Marius yells and we’re on the move again, his hand never moving from my wrist as he pulls me across the street and over the grass field.
“We are we going now?” I can barely get out between pants and giggles.
“You ask too many questions, we’ll miss the train!”
I look around and I can’t see any train tracks anywhere let alone a train. And what a waste, a huge locomotive would ruin the scenery anyway. “What train?”
“That one!” Marius points through a gap in the trees, still dragging me along.
I try to squint to see through the gap in the trees, and when I finally see it, instantly drop to the ground, hugging my sides in laughter. Marius stops in his tracks once he realizes he’s lost me and comes running back, prodding my aching side with his foot.
“Ahem, and just what is so funny?”
With some effort, I roll over to my side, one hand shading my eyes to look up at him, the other pointing in the direction of the lake. “That’s not a train!”
“It is TOO!”
“It’s… a… it’s a…” I can’t finish my sentence from laughing so hard.
“It’s a what? It has carriages and a driver and they take money to ride it!”
“It’s a teeny tiny toy train!”
“A-ha! But train nonetheless!
“I was expecting a big one like the one we came on to get here.”
“That’s silly, it would ruin the view!” He scoffs, his arms still akimbo, looking at me disapprovingly.
“Exactly!” I dissolve into a fit of giggles again at the look on his face.
“Come on! Toy train or not, we’re going to miss it!” He grabs me by both hands and drags me to my feet.
The only reason I can move is because he’s dragging me along.
We finally reach the thing he insists on calling a train and find one last empty carriage right on the end. Marius pushes me onto it, and slides in next to me, each compartment only fitting two people.
“Oof,” he says, squishing his body against me. “Kinda tight in here.”
“Biiiig train.” I can’t help teasing him. And he pouts playfully for a moment, before digging his finger into my side making me squeal. He waves to the driver who holds his hand out for payment and then we’re off.
The open carriages rock gently as the “train” pulls out and onto the cement pathway that hugs the bank of the lake. On one side of the train the multicoloured sails of the motor boats lining the water’s edge are bright and brash against the crystal blue sparkles of the lake water. On the other, the grass field is coming alive with families with their picnic baskets who are coming out to enjoy the new Spring sun.
The backdrop of the mountain is dramatic and serene all at once.
I feel Marius’s hand squeeze mine and I turn to smile at him. He smiles back and drops a kiss to my forehead.
I’m in heaven.
The train ride is short, too short. It takes about five minutes to reach the end of the pathway leading around the mouth of the lake.
Everyone but me jumps out, including Marius, he takes off on a run. He finally comes back to the train once he realizes I haven’t gotten off.
“What are you doing? Come on!”
I shake my head, pouting. “I don’t want to! I want to go again!”
He shakes his head and reaches for my hand. “Stay on what?”
“Ugh, fine. I admit it, your stupid train ride was fun. I want to go again!”