chimed in They have a great civilization there He started reeling off all the different cultural attractions we were going to enjoy Let’s see There would be castles and plenty of ruins courtesy of the Romans but without any skulls and piles of bones Pieces of aqueducts oppidums and all sorts of other things I had never heard of My father went on and on The trip was going to be like Asterix but without the jokes Or like a year-long history class without recess I looked at my parents They were smiling away But I couldn’t believe it They had secretly planned the whole trip without even talking about it with me I didn’t want to leave my friends my school and my neighborhood I didn’t want to spend a year in a tiny village named after a vegetable hidden away in the mountains somewhere How come parents think they can just decide for you It’s not fair And that’s exactly what I told them
You’ll make new friends my mother said You’re good at that It will be an incredible experience I’m sure it will change your life I like my life just the way it is You’ll remember the trip for years to come my mother went on You mean I’ll have nightmares every night You’ll see Charlie my father said It’ll be a great adventure And we’ll be back before you know it You’ll have some great stories to tell your friends I hated to admit it but he did have a point My friends were always pretty impressed by my travel adventures In the end I made a deal with my parents After our year in the village we would go to Paris and see everything on my list My little brother started jumping up and down like a frog He grabbed Miro our cat Miro he yelled Guess what We’re going to France I saw my parents look at each other Then I understood Miro wasn’t coming with us
We lose my brother on the airplane ONE So there we were on the day of our departure at the beginning of an incredible adventure as my mother would say but we were too disorganized to get out of the house As usual my family made a big embarrassing show for the whole neighborhood First Miro decided to hide He didn’t want to leave home either My mother and I walked around the house and up and down the alleyway calling his name Finally I discovered him underneath the front porch I crawled under and grabbed him But Miro can be really stubborn sometimes He dug in his paws and refused to budge When I finally managed to drag him from under the porch we
