An Artful Escape (France)

An Artful Escape (France) — page 7 — ground Grace’s legs wobbled by the time they got down and walking on flat ground felt strange at first As they crossed a plaza Grace turned back to take a photo The Eiffel Tower was so tall it hardly fit in her camera screen The purple and gray clouds swirling behind it made a dramatic picture The lacy metalwork of the tower seemed delicate and fragile from this distance They had actually gone up in that to the top platform Just thinking about it made her feel a little sick She hurried to catch up with Sophie and Jaden We should bring Mom and Dad and Joy back here one day Grace said Their mother usually taught at a university in Seattle She was a guest lecturer in Paris for the summer It kept her very busy Their father worked from home writing articles about travel and food Now he also took care of their new adopted sister Joy was two years old but she’d only joined their family a few months ago after Mom and Dad brought her back from China Grace was adopted from China when she was a baby too Jaden was also adopted but from within the United States They were all enjoying living in France for the summer With Mom and Dad so busy Grace was glad they had Sophie The French girl was more like a friend than a babysitter and they got to go to many more places because of her They entered the Paris Metro the subway system The underground trains could take them all across the city That meant they could visit places without needing someone to drive them And it was fun riding on the trains like locals instead of tourists Tourists rode the trains as well you could pick them out by their confused expressions as they studied the maps Grace now understood that the colored lines on the map showed the various train paths She could figure out how to get to the station

An Artful Escape (France) — page 8 — near her house from almost anywhere They got off the train near the house Grace’s family was renting Sophie said We will buy some food and take our picnic inside today Almost every day they bought food at a little shop and had a picnic It was one of Grace’s favorite things about Paris They argued about which cheese to buy Jaden liked the mild ones but Grace preferred stronger hard cheeses Sophie liked the stinkiest blue cheeses best They wound up getting some of each along with some fruit and a fresh loaf of crusty French bread Their rental house was in a long row of houses all together in one big building the whole block long From the sidewalk steps led up to the front door of the narrow three-story house Sophie’s house was next in the row At the back of each house was a tiny garden and behind that another line of row houses They went in and let their father know they were home He was in the middle of writing something and Joy had woken from a nap so they took the little girl down to have lunch They sat in the kitchen eating bread cheese and fruit while rain splattered against the windows What are we going to do now Jaden moaned Sophie frowned for a moment I know We will explore the attic Why what’s up there Grace asked Sophie shrugged Who knows But the woman who lived here before you is very old I heard that when she went to live with her granddaughter and they cleaned the house they found the attic packed full They decided it was too much trouble to go through everything so they simply left it Things must be very old

An Artful Escape (France) — page 9 — You’re probably right Grace said The attic was so cluttered and dusty we took one peek and haven’t been back Wouldn’t she just put her old junk up there Jaden asked Sophie shrugged again Maybe junk but maybe treasures We won’t know until we look

An Artful Escape (France) — page 10

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