An Unexpected Detour to Paris

That disrespectful piece of shit came out of nowhere.

I was standing in front of the train station and speaking on my cell phone and then it happened. Someone noticed that I was distracted and ran up behind me, grabbing my knapsack and running off with it. I tried to run after him but you’d think my thief was Usain Bolt by the way he just vanished into the crowd in a matter of seconds. I was backpacking through Europe, and I had just lost the only thing that meant something to me. I had my clothes in there, my wallet and my passport. Everything I needed to get on my train and stay on schedule. That bastard had just seriously fucked up my day.

During my futile race to catch my thief, my mother had hung up and I was unable to call her back. I had lost everything I had and I did what any other twenty-five year old woman would do at this point: I cried. I didn’t open wail like a baby, but I couldn’t stop my eyes from watering as I tried to think about what I was going to do. Obviously I would need to hit the nearest embassy, but there was no telling where that was in this country. So many questions were popping into my head and I didn’t know where to start.

I was suddenly startled when someone tapped me on the shoulder for behind. I jumped back and standing beside me was a young man who was only a few years older than I. He was dressed up but had his suit jacket over his shoulder because the weather was too hot to have that many layers on. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Thank goodness.” I said as I breathed a sigh of relief. “Someone just stole my bag. Everything I owned was in it.”

“I’m sorry to hear about that.” The young man answered. “Where were you heading?”

“Out of the country.” I answered. “Now I need to get a new passport.”

“Well, that means you need to head back for the capital.” He replied. “I happen to be heading that way if you’d like to come along. You don’t need a passport to travel that far.”

“I don’t have any money.” It was a lie, but I had no where near the amount I needed to take a train to the capital.

“Don’t worry about it.” He said with a smile. “I could use the company, especially with someone from my own part of the world.”

“Thank you.” I said as we started to walk towards the train station. “My name is Karen.”

“Hello Karen.” The young man said as he offered his hand. “My name is George.”

I reached out and shook George’s hand. He seemed very nice and since all we were going to do was ride a train full of people, I didn’t have to worry about him trying to take advantage of me. Being with him and on my way back to the embassy seemed a lot safer than standing out in front of the station with no means to help myself. I watched as George walked up to the ticket booth and purchased two tickets for the capital. After getting the tickets from the clerk he immediately handed one of them over to me, a gesture to make sure he was someone I could trust. “Thank you.” I said as I took the ticket and put it in my pocket.

“You’re welcome.” George replied as he held the door open for me to walk through into the station first. George had checked in two bags when he got our tickets so there was nothing for us to carry onboard, just ourselves. We strolled through the lobby towards the train, which apparently was leaving very soon. I had no intention of waiting around as I wanted to get to the embassy as soon as possible, which meant sooner was better for me. Having to replace everything was going to be a hassle. I was going to be in the capital for at least a few days and that was going to fuck up my entire schedule. Still, I had caught one break being with a young man from my own country that wanted to help out in my time of need. I still kept an eye out for the nearest exits in case George turned out to be another creep that wanted to get into my pants. Yet from what I was gathering by his behavior, George was a true gentleman. Thankfully for me, chivalry was not dead on this day.