Paris Summer (8 page)

Mme.
Durand returned carrying a tray with a coffee
pot and several cups. The conversation was in French
but Janine slipped into the language with ease. When
Mme.
Durand asked if she liked Paris, Janine launched into an enthusiastic response. “Of course! How could
one not love Paris? Paris has all of the advantages of a
large city with almost none of the disadvantages. And
the food! One cannot buy such marvelous fruits and
vegetables in the United States…. Oh yes, Madame
Durand, I love Paris.”

Helene and her mother laughed. At that moment a
girl of about fifteen walked into the room. “Hello. I am
sorry I am late,” she said to Janine in French. Then she
added uncertainly, “Do you understand?”

Janine smiled and answered in rapid French, “Yes.
You must be Jeanne.”

The group chatted for a while about Paris and places
Janine should visit. With three people talking in rapid
French, Janine began to have trouble understanding
everything that was said. Only Helene occasionally
remembered to speak slowly. They were laughing over
a story Janine had told when Helene noticed her
brother in the doorway. “Jacques!” she exclaimed
happily.

“I forgot you were having company today,” he said
stiffly. “Excuse me, I do not wish to intrude.”

“Come in,”
Mme.
Durand commanded. “Janine,
this is my son, Jacques. Jacques, this is Mademoiselle
Halonen, a friend of Helene and the sister of
Mademoiselle Rena Halonen. She is from the United
States.”

Jacques inclined his head slightly and said briefly,
“Enchante.”

Janine responded quickly, “I am delighted to meet
you. I can understand, however, that you might find
your sister’s friends boring.”

He stared at her for a moment. “You are Rena’s
sister? But you speak French!”

She was puzzled by his tone of voice. “Yes, but I
don’t speak it as well as Rena.”

“But no!” four voices said at the same time, then
stopped, embarrassed.

“You speak much better than your sister,”
Mme.
Durand said quietly after a moment.

Jacques sat down and asked for a cup of coffee.
“Your sister,” he said to Janine, “I am surprised she did
not come with you today.”

“Rena is in Switzerland for a few weeks writing an
article,” she explained.

“You will not feel lost being by yourself in Paris?”
Jacques asked. “Or perhaps you are not staying long?”

Jeanne broke in, “No, Jacques, Janine has been
telling us how much she loves Paris. I don’t think she
will mind seeing it without her sister!”

Again the mysterious reference to Rena, the
puzzling hostile undercurrent. Janine hesitated, then
said, “In principle, I am here to visit most of Europe in
the next few months. But frankly I am in no hurry to
leave Paris.”

“Why did you not go with your sister to Switzerland?” Jacques asked. “Then you would not have to
travel there alone later.”

Janine laughed. “Never! Rena and I can never agree
on hotels or restaurants or places to visit. I prefer small,
inexpensive hotels, but Rena likes to be very comfortable. And she likes very expensive restaurants. Since
she is on an expense account, she can afford such
luxury while I cannot. I would enjoy visiting small
towns in the country, but she prefers the large cities. I
would want to take a boat ride, and Rena gets seasick
on calm lakes. We could never travel together! Besides,
I have just arrived in Paris. I don’t want to leave yet.”

“Don’t you listen?” Helene scolded her brother.
Then she smiled. “Even in the United States Rena and
Janine could not even agree how to spend an evening
together. I do not understand how two sisters can be so
different. But of course you are like your father and
Rena is like your mother.” A thought occurred to
Helene. “Jacques, Janine is also interested in gardening.

“Yes?” he asked her.

“Yes,” Janine confirmed. “I prefer home-grown
vegetables. And I like flowers, but they are expensive to
buy in the United States. This past year, unfortunately,
I was living in an apartment and I could not have a
garden.”

“Would you like to see ours?” Jacques asked eagerly.

“Certainly.”

“I warn you,” Jeanne said, “he is a fanatic about his
gardens.”

“Don’t worry,” Helene told her sister, “I will go with
them and prevent Jacques from talking too much. We
must be careful,” she told Janine solemnly, “or you will
not want to visit us again.”

Jacques spoke impatiently, “Don’t listen to them! If
you are bored you can tell me and I will talk of other
things. Come.”

He led Janine and his sister out of the parlor and
down the hall to the kitchen. Jacques opened the
kitchen door and held it for Janine and Helene. As in
the front of the house, a tall hedge surrounded the
backyard, which was quite large. The garden was
separated into six rectangular plots with a stone path
around each. Jacques moved from plant to plant
naming each for Janine. Occasionally Helene was able
to supply the English name for a plant, but usually Janine had to guess. Two of the rectangular plots
looked bare but Jacques explained that he had just
planted seeds there the day before.

It was clear that Jacques was, as Jeanne had said, a
fanatic about gardening. Although she guessed his age
at twenty-six, she noted that he looked positively
boyish as he talked eagerly about his plants. Finally,
feeling somewhat guilty, Janine gave up trying to
follow his rapid French. Most of the terms he used
Janine had never heard before. Noting her friend’s
expression, Helene tapped Jacques on the shoulder.
“Oui?” he broke off irritably.

Helene was amused. “You are losing Janine, my
brother. She does not know French that well.”

Jacques flushed. “My apologies,” he said to Janine.
“I get too excited about my garden. It makes me forget
who I am with.”

She was also amused. “It’s all right. I am like that
when I talk about camping.”

“Let’s go back inside and sit down,” Helene said
firmly.

Once more Jacques led the way. Jeanne and
Mme.
Durand were still seated in the parlor when the three
walked in. “Janine,” Jeanne said, “Helene forgot to tell
us what your field is.”

“I teach math at a small college near New York
City,” she replied.

“Your fiance, is he also a professor at the college?”
Jacques asked.

Janine looked at him blankly. “Monsieur, there is no
fiance.”

“But surely there is someone who is interested?” he
persisted.

Janine shook her head. “Not that I know of.”

“Incredible,” he murmured. Then he spoke suspiciously. “Perhaps you are only interested in a career
and do not wish a boy friend.”

No longer amused at his impertinence, Janine
merely stared at him over her coffee cup.
Mme.
Durand said angrily, “Jacques! It is not your concern.
And you forget Helene is not engaged either.”

“Yes, but she is my sister. Mademoiselle Halonen is
a very pretty young woman!” Jacques protested.

The four women laughed at this typical brotherly
reaction. “Look,” Janine said in exasperation, “I
simply have no fiance. If someone asked me to marry
him and I loved him, I would say yes. But no one has.
That’s all.”

An uncomfortable silence settled over the small
group. Finally Helene began to talk about Jeanne’s
plans to be a psychologist. Janine asked several polite
questions although she did not always understand the
reply. Anything was better than a return to that silence
or Jacques’s impertinent questions about her private
affairs. Jacques, it turned out, worked in a government
office and enjoyed talking about his work. The
atmosphere gradually became more relaxed and when
Janine left, some time later,
Mme.
Durand invited her
to visit again before she left France. “Perhaps before
your sister returns,” Jacques added.

Really! Janine thought as she nodded and said
good-bye, he is becoming annoying. After three hours
of steady French, her head was beginning to ache and
she was in no mood to be tolerant. Helene walked her
back to the station and she took the opportunity to ask,
“What was that all about? About Rena, I mean.”

Helene hesitated, then grimaced. “It was unfortunate. I invited Rena to come for coffee one afternoon, and I am afraid she made a very bad impression. She
kept asking me to translate and when she did make the
effort to speak French, it was very careless. She simply
did not wish to try, I think. And then she kept
complaining about Paris-the food, the water, how
expensive everything was. It was so bad that my family
did not wish me to invite you today.”

“I hope I gave a better impression,” Janine said
seriously. “I can see that it would be easy to
misunderstand someone who does not speak your
language well.”

Helene smiled. “I think my family was pleased with
you. You are so sympathetic to Paris. I am sorry about
Jacques, Janine. He is not usually so rude. I cannot
understand it, and I am sure it is not because he dislikes
you.

Janine smiled and shrugged. “In a way it made him
seem like a brother, and I’ve always wanted one.
Actually, I think you have a nice family.”

Helene smiled affectionately. “Well, we shall
certainly see you again before you leave Paris. And
perhaps you and I can meet in the city before then. I
will call you when I have a few days free. Ali, here is the
station. I am sorry I cannot wait with you, but I must
stop at the market for my mother on my way home.”

They separated and Janine hurried into the station
feeling rather contented. She wondered what sort of
holiday it had been that allowed Helene and her
brother to be home today. She should have remembered to ask. Oh, well, it didn’t matter. She tried to
picture Rena visiting Helene’s family and had to admit
they would not have liked each other. As she boarded
the train, a few minutes later, she was looking forward
to a quiet evening by herself.

Janine woke early the next morning, trying to
remember what it was she had planned for Tuesday.
She knew there was something, but not in the morning.
Shrugging, she decided not to worry about it. If she
couldn’t remember, it couldn’t be important. She went
out to buy a croissant and then prepared cafe au lait
back in the apartment. It was nice, she thought, to be
able to make it strong the way the French did. Rena,
unfortunately, preferred her coffee American style and
while she had been there, her preferences had
prevailed. Janine opened Rena’s map of Paris as she
savored her croissant. The map was a good one,
showing all the major points of interest as well as one or
two of the large department stores. On the back were
Metro and bus maps. As Janine considered the
possibility of walking over to Notre Dame, she noticed
some buildings a little farther east on the map on the
Left Bank. They looked very familiar. “Of course!
What a ninny I am!” she exclaimed. “The algebra
seminar.

Janine smiled. She was looking forward to the
seminar and not just because the subject interested her.
Janine intended to prove to Mark that she did indeed
have a respectable grasp of mathematics. In a way it
was a challenge, and she could never resist a challenge.
Most of her life, it seemed, she had been answering
challenges. As an undergraduate, Janine had encountered a number of professors who felt girls shouldn’t be
in mathematics. This had angered her, and she had set
out to prove them wrong. It was the same thing now
with Mark. She was not going to let him sneer at her. “I
must remember,” she told herself, “to tell Mark, the
next time I see him, how interesting the seminar was.”

She sighed. She could almost hear her mother saying, “Jenny, that is not the way to attract a man! All
you’ll do is antagonize him.”

Quite true, probably, but then Mark was Rena’s
fiance so it didn’t matter. There was no question of
trying to attract him. She wished her mother were
wrong, but if men preferred intelligent women then
why was Rena so popular? Not, of course, that Rena
was stupid. She just never let men know she had a
brain. Well, it’s no use trying to imitate Rena, Janine
thought. I can only be myself. If men don’t like it I’ll
just have to get used to being single. Free! she corrected
herself sternly.

Janine opened the window and stood looking out
over the paved courtyard where two little girls were
playing. Still, she thought wistfully, it would be nice to
have children.

Glancing quickly away from the children, Janine
noticed the sky growing cloudy. I hope it doesn’t rain,
she thought. I’m sure Rena doesn’t have an umbrella I
could use.

Rena did not believe in umbrellas. Nor did she like
rain. But she liked meeting men. “When you stand in a
doorway looking helpless,” Rena had said, “men can’t
help offering to let you share their umbrella. And you
have to stand very close together or one of you will get
wet. And when a man is feeling protective like that, he
is most susceptible to a girl’s charm.”

Janine turned away from the window with a laugh.
Trust Rena to turn any situation to advantage with
regard to men. Well, if it did rain, she could always take
the Metro and she wouldn’t get too wet. But, she
thought, I’d better change back to regular shoes.

The rain held off, so Janine decided to walk, leaving
herself plenty of time to stop and look in windows. She took small side streets and delighted in all the antique
shops. Since she was not attending to her route, Janine
was surprised when she suddenly found herself at
Boulevard St. Michel. It was full of people and cars and
noisier than she had remembered. She crossed quickly
and headed into the maze of restaurants and pastry
shops she had visited with Mark and Rena a few days
before. Unable to resist the tempting smells that
assailed her, Janine stopped and bought a pastry she
had never seen before. It was sweet and sticky and
when she had finished it, she unabashedly licked her
fingers.