TRAVEL
BIRTHDAY IN PARIS (I): Pssssssst...
by Sabah el Fizazi
June 24th, 2024
“Pssssssst…” That was the SOUND I heard as I walked into Central Station at 7 AM, on my way to catch the 7:24 Eurostar to PARIS. I looked up, and there she was, my dearest friend, MISS COLOUR; we were screaming, hugging, and laughing hysterically. What a pleasant SURPRISE! We got her a COFFEE and a MINT tea for me and went to the platform, where the train was due to arrive in less than TWENTY minutes.
Miss Colour gave me early BIRTHDAY presents to open on the train. We talked about her plans for the day, and suddenly, I looked up in HORROR at the board; there was an announcement: a 25-minute DELAY. Still in a positive mood, we made a tour of the platform, LAUGHING and shouting some more, and then I looked again with MORE horror. There was a new announcement that the delay would be 45 minutes. Miss Colour, who was now SORRY she hadn’t stayed in BED, was hold by me so she couldn’t FLEE. I promised to mention her in MY BOOK just to get her to stay with me.
“THERE WAS A NEW ANNOUNCEMENT
THAT THE DELAY WOULD BE
45 MINUTES.”
I found a seat in THE Eurostar café where we could get FREE drinks during the delay. We shared ONE CHAIR and tried to be as subtle as possible with all the STRESSED people with their desktops around us. Was I the only person going to Paris for FUN? Anyway, a third announcement was that the train was now 60 minutes late. I wanted to CRY; it had happened to me before that the train had been cancelled. And as it was my birthday the next day, I wanted TO BE in PARIS.
POOR Miss Colour looked SLEEPY; she had had a big festival the day before. I wanted to let her go home, but I also NEEDED her to keep me sane for those sixty minutes; I held on to her ARM. We posed for pictures to kill time. “When I arrive on Friday, will you be here waiting for me?” I asked her. She looked at me with deadly eyes and said in an AL PACINO kind of way: “Don’t even GO there…” And we laughed as only we can LAUGH.
“SHE SAID IN AN AL-PACINO KIND OF WAY: “DON’T EVEN GO THERE…”
Finally the stressed PEOPLE around us started to RUN out of the café and WE ran after them and saw the RED Eurostar pulling into the station. I WAS SO HAPPY. Miss Colour was even happier. She helped me onto the train and we laughed and shouted and hugged each other even MORE hysterically… I opened my birthday presents on the train, but the REAL present was the MOMENT I heard: “Psssssst”!