My Wildest Travel Adventure At A Foreign Land
Life can be both beautiful like summer flowers and autumn leaves.
I was sitting by the window in this little cafe, watching the wind sweeping the fallen autumn leaves to the one side of the walk.
Another autumn in Paris. These autumn leaves reminded me of home, of my mother and father hugging me goodbye at the airport and not leaving until I vanish into airport security.
Memories flew. This water tap was hard to close.
I laid back on the chair and made an effort to control tears from dropping. I took a deep breath and looked for something to wipe my eyes while regretting this moment of the outbreak.
I remembered telling my mother that I sometimes feel lonely and everyone is too busy to stop for one another here. I also told her to not worry that I like wandering around the world and I hated people looking at their phone screens all the time.
Coffee went cold. I decided to go back to the attic also the studio. I looked up and it was already sunset. I also saw a Chinese person looking at me. This place is hard to run into other Chinese unless you try really hard looking for them.
He walked into the cafe. I waved and invited him to sit across me. He did then I felt a little awkward so I reached for my pocket, took out my phone and started to pointlessly check messages.
He looked at me and shook his head. “You look busy?” He said.
Max, the cafe owner, brought a coffee to us and winked at me. He must have felt happy for me, this Chinese girl who came to this cafe alone every day is finally making some friends. I felt ridiculed at the thought of him thinking seeing another Chinese would make me happy all of a sudden. I looked up again and he seemed to be a nice person.
“I saw you from outside. You seem sad.” He opened a line.
“I’m alright, just a little homesick.” I took another drag, eyes falling on the floor. I don’t like people seeing through me and this encounter felt too much like a scene from a classic romantic movie.
“Where are you from?” He asked.
“I live in Australia and I have been travelling around. ” I’m afraid of being labelled and this conversation falling into the routines of icebreaking where they tell me they know something about Shanghai, then nod and agree politely although I haven’t lived in Shanghai since 15. It’s my hometown but I hardly find connections with it.
“Have you visited there before? Australia is a beautiful country.” I decided to take this to more familiar territory.
He said no and asked how long I have been living in Paris.
“About a year and a half.” I said.
“What do you do?”
“I freelance. Sometimes I work at cafes. ”
“Is life good?”
“I had some savings and sometimes I get some translation work.” Answering all these questions made it all clear to me that my life is drifty and I live on fragmented memories.
“What brought you here?”
“Do you know what I thought when I saw you from the outside?” He didn’t answer.
I didn’t want to know so subconsciously I looked down at my phone again and asked again.
“ What brought you here? You know there are not many Chinese travellers these days.”
“I work on a boat. I will go back next year to see my mother, my sister…You know where my family is. ” His voice cracked a bit, “This is the nature of the job, going from one place to another. I am here today and not sure where I will be the next day, living the life of a Mayfly. ” He had this sense of self-deprecating humour but he didn’t look very happy with his life. I wondered if only I saw myself in his reflection.
“When is your boat leaving here?” I asked.
“We came here yesterday. The boat is leaving in two days. Early in the morning.”
Leaving in two days. I thought to myself, so he only got tomorrow in Paris. All of a sudden, I felt the urgency. I felt the urge to ask him to stay. I wanted to ask him to stay for a few days more. I wanted to ask him to stay not for me, but for Paris. I wanted to ask him to stay …But I didn’t say anything out aloud. After all, we are just two strangers who met at a strange cafe.
I decided to go. I left the money for coffee on the table and made a run for the door.
“It’s nice meeting you today. I have to go. All the best with your future endeavours. ” My mind was definitely reading from a script on a printed farewell card and of course, the most genuine words came out.
The moment I closed the cafe door behind me, I felt regret. I knew I needed friends. I wanted to feel happy. I cannot allow myself to drain into these emotional moments. Why did I run away? Why couldn’t I say something out aloud at the time? I got home, ran upstairs to the attic. My face fell onto the pillow. The dam collapsed.
I woke around 11 the next morning and called sick to work. Max’s cafe just opened. It is always empty.
Max left our empty coffee cups there. What lousy services! I still sat down at this old table. I just wanted to look at the empty streets, withered branches and autumn leaves today.
“You smiled and talked to me of nothing and I felt that for this I had been waiting long” — Rabindranath Tagore
Wind chimes rang. I saw the cafe door open again from the window reflection. A tall figure came through the door and walked straight towards this table. A hand tapped on my shoulder, then I saw a familiar face sitting across the table from me.
We sat almost silently with each other just like yesterday. How strange it is to have met a stranger at a strange place and felt at ease!
It was a short afternoon. We did not go to see the Eifel Tower, the Louvre, and Arc De Triomphe. We sat on a bench at the Seine river, arms around each other, and watched the river flow.
I told him it was my birthday that day.
There was a lady selling daisies so he bought a bunch and wished me Happy Birthday. It was already sunset. We did not have much time left.
He took my hand asked me not to leave him. It’s about time. It’s time to go. He needs to leave with the boat and I need to go back to my attic. I threw the daisies into the water and the river took them away.
They all shall pass — Happiness, sadness, loneliness, love, hate, gain and loss…like the daisies and the river.
“Let life be beautiful like summer flowers, death like autumn leaves.”
— Rabindranath Tagore
But next time, my friends, when you walk past a river or a building and see a couple looking deep into each other’s eyes, hugging and kissing like there is no tomorrow. The truth is, they only have today.
