The Unsolvable Equation

Thirty-four

After spending over a week visiting different French schools and getting shown how inferior her skills in that language really were, Alexia was more than ready for the official sightseeing leg of trip to France. Sightseeing didn’t normally excite her very much, however it sure beat having a reality check in the intellectual department. Besides, what could possibly be the cons of strolling by the eiffel tower with a charming, intelligent and witty man such as Almier? Alexia had been trying to conceal her girly desires all day, but couldn’t help looking forward to their visit to the heart of French tourism, and for reasons she wasn’t exactly proud off, too. Screw that, we’re in France! I’m allowed to harbour little Romantic desires once in awhile, too!

So, by the time their tour bus had pulled up by the famous landmark, everyone in the bus, including, or rather, specifically, Alexia, had their faces pressed against the windows, looking like first graders on their first field trip to the outside world.

“Holy shit, it’s the eiffel tower.”

“Oh, wow, it’s even bigger in person.”

“Damn, are we actually climbing all the way up there?”

Alexia turned to Hannah, who was staring out the window at glassy eyes. “Is this real life? Or is this fantasy?” she heard her mutter.

We’re at the Eiffel tower. One of the world’s most famous landmarks is standing right outside my bus window, and I’m about to approach it! This is actually pretty cool,Alexia gushed in her mind, staring at tower with a sense of wonder and amazement that she hadn’t felt in a long time. The last remotely famous place she had been to was Mount Rushmore, and she had been three then, too young and ignorant to recall anything of significance. So being here, at the Eiffel tower, with the appropriate mental capacity and ability to register the value of her visit, was a pretty superb feeling.

“Did you know,” Qi said to her once they had exited the bus and were slowly gravitating towards the tower. “That there used to be Gestapo torture chambers below the tower during the 1930s and 40s?” Her eyes glimmered at the exciting fact that they would soon be standing above a place of mass bloodshed.

“How do you know this?” Alexia asked, mildly disturbed.

Qi shrugged. “Read about it in a book a few days ago,” she grinned, as if the memory of reading about the masses being tortured to their deaths brought her some sense of pleasure. “The more you know…”

Alexia roller her eyes and laughed at Qi’s typical sadistic nature that she had grown accustomed to over the past few days. “Let me guess, you’ve memorized all the facts and figures of the guillotine, too.”

Qi smiled proudly. “You bet it! 15 000 during the French Revolution and another 20 000 by the Nazis during World War II. And did you know that when beheaded, the head is conscious for long enough to perceive that it’s been beheaded. This usually happens while it rolls along the ground or into a basket. “

She knows this like I know my physics. “That’s disgusting.”

“That’s history, my dear. And it’s French history, too, in case you forgot where we were,” she pointed to the Eiffel tower and raced ahead to join the rest of the group.

“How could I ever forget?” Alexia muttered with a wry smile, and followed after her.

“Hey,” she panted as she caught up to Almier, who was staring up at the tower’s bottom like the awestruck tourist she had been since day one.

“Pinch me,” was his breathless reply, his eyes still glued on the landmark.

Alexia laughed. “Oh, now you understand how I’ve been feeling these past few days,” she teased.