It was cold on the train platform early in the morning of November 18th. Commuters rushed by clutching Starbucks in one hand and suitcase handles in the other. Wide-eyed travellers from afar tried to make sense of the dozens of platforms and trains coming and going, most of which were late. A damp breeze blew through the open air station as Pemulis awaited the arrival of his twice-delayed getaway vehicle towards the City of Lights. When it finally arrived 45 minutes after its intended departure time the possibility of making his connection had evaporated but settling into his reserved seat, knowing that while it would be a late arrival he would soon be at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, he finally began to relax and prepare himself for an adventure nearly twenty years in the making.
It was the Spring of 2003. T was a highly regarded and celebrated pickup truck seat technician (or something) for the Ford Motor Company way down in Kansas City where the jazz could be heard through the streets, carried by the wind. It had been an emotionally exhausting but lucrative season in seat engineering and T felt the need to get away. Luckily for him there was no global recession or energy crisis and his brother Pemulis had an upcoming month long break from university in the northern England city of Manchester (I think, or maybe it was Lancaster?). The internet existed back in '03 but it probably wasn't all that used so I'm going to assume he went to a travel agent and bought a paper ticket that came in a little cardboard envelope and quickly whisked himself away to the rainy moors of the Yorkshire Dales (again, approximate).
When T touched down it was clear that given his success at the Ford Motor Company, spending 10 days in an all-but-abandoned former steel town was not for someone of his stature and so him and Pemulis rather roundaboutedly made their way to Rome via Venice (as you do). Rome was hot that year my friends. T and Pemulis ate street pizza, drank Peronis, and watched Indiana Jones e l'ultima crociata while checking the progress of the Stanley Cup Playoffs each morning on a dial-up modem connected computer from the 1990's. It was a simpler time but it ended with a promise: one day we will meet again without family in the way and we will relive the glory days of Rome but somewhere preferably a little colder and rainier.
And so it was that after a not very direct train ride for Pemulis and a week in a literal gold mine in western Africa for T, the brothers reunited almost 20 years later in the city of Paris (made famous by the Netflix special "Emily in Paris"). Eager to set out and experience everything the city had to offer, the brothers thought it wise to save up some energy by sleeping for 2 or 3 hours after a gruelling morning of walking around a little bit and drinking several coffees. Good thing they did because they were able to make it through dinner and even have dessert and a couple of digestifs in the form of the world famous Calvados (eet eez mate vif APPELLZ!)
When the long weekend came to an end a new promise was made: let's do the same but not wait 20 years. We'll wait 20 weeks (or so)!
