Chapter 6- A tale of two cities

Chapter 6- A tale of two cities

It was almost 5:00 in the afternoon and it's been 2 days since Jamie and her father Percy have left Hamburg and crossed the German borders to stay at Belgium first. They slept at a nice, avant-garde hotel in Brussels and they also had a morning excursion around(and took pictures on great monuments and places) before they got into the great European highways again that afternoon. Now they arrived in France some hours ago and now they're heading off to Paris. "How long are we gonna hang out in Paris dad?" Jamie asked while she was sitting on the back, reading a muggle novel about a very young criminal mastermind called Artemis Fowl with a few pillows beside her. Percy was on the driver's seat but with his hands busy tinkering with his digital camera and not on the wheels but were magically controlled smoothly by him. "Maybe around 3 days and after that we're heading to London and that's a long way to go." Percy turned his head to Jamie, "Oh, that's fine. I would love to shop around in Paris and see the Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tow-" Jamie said, until she got sight of a faraway Eiffel Tower, which got her jaw drop. "Oh my gosh, dad it's the Eiffel Tower!!!" Jamie pointed at the famous tower to her dad, who was also so awestruck that he stopped tinkering his digicam for a moment. "Oh yeah...it's the Tour De Eiffel. I used to study about it on my college days as an Architecture student. It was an early example of wrought-iron construction on a giant scale." Percy said.
"Oh my, we're getting near a toll gate, i should better get my hands on the wheels again or else the muggles will be frightened when they see me not holding the wheels and at the same time keeping it under control." he added, Jamie laughed a bit and she put her Artemis Fowl book down, reclined in the back seat and fell asleep.

Jamie woke up from a slightly deep sleep. after she stirred up her senses, she found out that she's in Paris already but they are stuck in a middle of a heavy traffic and a song by Avenged Sevenfold are playing on the car's stereo while her dad was singing along on the chorus. "yawn...Dad, are we in Paris already? and where are we gonna stay?" Jamie asked as she stretched her arms, "Yes hun, and i read a while ago in our Paris guide book, the best place to stay at in Paris for us is Galileo Hotel, which is on the 8th arrondissement-near Champs Elysees. Its' a charming place and i want to see how good the architecture is there." Percy said as they moved slowly along the traffic. They came near Champs Elysees 15 minutes later, crossed into a tony neighborhood and stopped at a sophisticated town-house hotel. "Okay, this is the place we're staying here in Paris." Percy smiled as they unloaded the bags they'll be needing for three days. They entered the very charming French hotel, went into the reception area and got their keys to room 501. "I thought the guy who owns this place was Galileo Galilei, but's it wonderful all the same..." Jamie said as she and her dad are on the elevator with their French bellboy who was carrying their bags. Then they went inside the room and the bellboy left them. "Kinda weird but that bellboy kinda look like your friend Henri, in a very uncanny way." Percy said as he slumped tiredly into a simple but elegant looking, comfy chair. Jamie was sitting on the glass-covered veranda and she was surfing the internet with her blue Mac Book. "But dad, Henri is French. Of course he'll naturally akin them." Jamie said.

for two and a half days they went to the Louvre, some fancy French shopping centres, Notre Dame, Arc De Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. Percy was a bit of a "cam wh*re" when it comes to taking pictures of famous buildings that he had more pictures of the architectural stuffs than pictures of themselves in them, but you can find out a lot of interesting facts from him when it comes to architecture. "Notre Dame was about to be demolished when Victor Hugo's novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" got famous and that made the people plead not to destroy the cathedral and restore it. And that's how Notre Dame is still here." Percy said as they were wandering around Notre Dame, admiring it's beautiful, Gothic design. They also climbed on the top of Paris' Eiffel Tower later that afternoon, where Jamie felt she is suffering a bit of vertigo but got a hang of it when she saw the spectacular view of Paris. "Whoa, these breathtaking views really take my breath away or perhaps it is the lack of oxygen in this high altitude..." Jamie said in a wickedly witty way as she caught sight of Paris high above the Eiffel Tower. She took a seat on a bench beside her dad, "Dad, im gonna ring in Raimund on my phone and hear how he's doing." Jamie said as she took her black T Mobile Sidekick II and rang Raimund, like she does 2 times a day since they've gone away from Hamburg.


The last time Jamie rang him was this morning when she and her dad were having breakfast at a French cafe near their hotel and Raimund said he just woke up 5 minutes before she rang him and he's still in bed.
Finally, Raimund answered the overseas call from his best friend on his red T Mobile Sidekick II. "Hallo, Jamie..." Raimund said, "Hey Raimund, guess what? im on the top of the Eiffel Tower!!!" Jamie cheerfully said. Raimund squealed like a girl when he heard it and then "Oh my gosh, Jamie!!! im jealous but im happy for you...", "The sight here on top is breathtaking, but i think it's the lack of oxygen why my breath was lost when i saw Paris on top of this, hehe..." Jamie said amusingly, Raimund laughed too. "So, what are you doing right now? sleeping again?" Jamie asked, "Nothing much, watching TV and raiding the fridge as usual, but Ina's here a while ago in our place." Raimund said, "What did she do in your place?" Jamie questioned, "Eat lunch with me, my little sis, mum, dad and Dean..." Raimund answered, "So Dean's there as well. i bet he ate a lot, even some of the furniture.", "Yeah, that explains why Dean is ginormous..."Raimund said "...And just before Ina left, she had a conversation with Alyssa's pet cat Hermione in the living room. Funny, isn't it?", "With your little sister's cat??!! Oh my gosh, that is soooo ridiculous!!! Wonder what on earth are they talking about? The latest summer trends? " Jamie chortled.

The next morning, Jamie and her dad packed their bags, checked out and left Paris. It feels bad to leave the magnificent "City of Lights" behind but at least there's somewhere as better, London, their next destination. As they drove away in the sunny French expressway, Jamie and her dad are listening to music and talking about random things.
"You know Raims, it really feels awesome walking around Montparnasse and shopping around Champs Elysees. And La Defense was great, i think it's the place where TH took their music vid "1000 meere". and i can't believe the glass pyramid on the Louvre is designed by a Chinese architect...." Jamie babbled to Raimund as they are exchanging news on their phones. Jamie was somewhere on the road in Picardy while Raimund was on their way to Berlin with his little sister Alyssa and their 22 year old cousin Veronica. Half a day later, they had crossed the English channel from Calais and now they're in England, specifically resting in their hotel room in London. Her dad was sleeping soundly while she was surfing the internet with her mac on her bed.

Jamie opened her myspace and she saw a kind of notifications in her homepage that Aslana posted something in her blog. Jamie felt so curious about what Aslana posted so she went to Aslana's myspace blog. She was shocked when she saw another picture of Aslana with Johannes partying together in a Hamburg nightclub. Aslana was wearing an erogenous, black dress and studded stiletto heels and Johannes a black, Jaded by Knight tshirt and skinny jeans. They seemed to be dearly close to each other, Aslana gyrating around a seduced Johannes. Jamie then quickly read the whole post which is originally in German:


"Celebrating our month-sary!!!

mood: in love
music: Schrei, so laut du kannst!! by Die Argyles

Johannes took a short time off in his really busy schedule singing around for stupid and crazy fan girls that really make him sick. me, Johannes, Denise and Mara went to an awesome nightclub and we danced around and drank till around 11 PM. The picture above was taken by Denise, and we really look awesome. then me and Johannes left Denise and Mara and went to his place and there we "made love" till morning yesterday. He also confided during our "lovemaking" that he is so fed up with his fame that he wanted to quit and be with me but his bandmates and management wants to hold him coz they're all greedy and Johannes is famous. I really love Johannes beyond words and i don't want him to suffer and all that. He had so many personal problems beside his awful bandmates, greedy managers and those dumb and naive fan girls who thinks he's as pure and innocent as a saint. well, it's wrong that he's really innocent and good as he portrays-it's an act. so girls, better stop dreaming about him and get on with life, especially to the one freaky Canto fan girl who thinks his image on stage and off are the same. it's not my fault why he's faking himself.
and for the others stuffs, his bandmates are are getting lots of attention coz of him, the management is getting a lot of money because of him, and of course, who wouldn't forget those stupid, good-for-nothing fan girls and paparazzis who did nothing good but instead made my honey's life worse by chasing him down the road, getting crazy over him and those sort of stuffs. he has a life, and i feel sorry for him. But i know he loves me better than everyone else and im the reason why he still had the strenght to hang on tight. "



Jamie never felt this bad since her mother left and never saw her again. As well as a feeling of badness, she also felt betrayed, jealous, sorry and heartbroken at the same time about someone.
Jamie stood up, shaking and cold on the inside, then tears fell out from her deep brown eyes. She poured all of her bitter melancholy out silently, so her dad won't wake up finding her in so much distress. For many years now, she had been a total follower of Johannes Trümper but never saw him before. She loved his enchanting songs, his captivating androgynous looks, his unique sense of style and his witty personality. She even admitted to herself one time that her heart goes to Johannes but now, all of her admiration shattered since she first saw Aslana's proof a month ago and now, the scars deepened and healing it would be a hard challenge. Not only he belonged to someone she loathed for a long time but he was also known his personality was as fake as a bad rip-off Barbie Doll. Johannes Trümper is only an act and someone who is a tired and pitiful bloke plays as him. Aslana was right about her, the " freaky Canto fan girl" she referred to is obviously her, Jamie thinks Johannes is great but now she knew the horrible truth. Jamie was so disappointed because she fell for someone who only played her feelings like a toy and made her, for everyone else, "freaky".

"Face it Jamie, there is really no Johannes Trümper here on earth." she muttered to herself as she wiped the last few tears from her eyes. She was now standing on the terrace of her room, facing the sparkling, modern London skyscrapers. Then from a distance, two small dots came flying towards the terrace and Jamie wondered what are those. Then the dots got bigger and bigger until it was evident that they are owls carrying letters and they are flying towards her. Jamie wondered if the letters belonged to her or to her dad and of course, who sent those letters?