Page 19 - NyghtVision Magazine Volume 2 #2

FALCON 14

fumbling to find our tickets and passports…. spective as I am, Paris in the morning finds
And the flight? Well…. me even more so. And it is OK. The smoky
Full doesn’t describe the flight. The seats were darkness of the coffee rises around me, and
so close and so narrow that even I (thin as I the air is rich with the scent of its darkness.
am) could not quite reach my feet to remove I don’t need to
my sneakers. But it didn’t matter. Paris was drink the coffee
at the other end and tired didn’t begin to de- to savor its rich-
scribe how I felt right now. Movies and sleep. ness. I just take
That was all I wanted…… At best I managed a deep and last-
about four more hours of sleep. ing breath, hold
it deep in within
The rhythm of the taxi’s tires against the me, and let the
pavement was almost enough to lull me to experience fill
sleep. And it me.
would have,
had it not been I first came to
so long since Paris in 1996.
I had been in To be honest,
Paris. But I I hated it. I re-
didn’t want to turned in 2001.
let a moment A part of me
go, even as we never left….
wound round …I laugh. Loud enough I think for the whole
the city on neighborhood to hear me. I exhale all the air
highways that in my lungs in order to get into the shower. I
look like high- am not laughing because of that – I am laugh-
ways everywhere else in the world. But, I was ing because JD – who is here with me – my
headed “home” – home to the city that has ever present travel companion and COO of
always had some strange and our firm – is 6’4” tall and
unusual hold on me. a good 230 pounds -- will
It was around 1:00 PM Paris never squeeze through the
time when we arrived at the narrow opening. Or so I
apartment. More than comfort- envision him struggling to
able, I would spend the nyght squeeze in or perhaps nev-
on a well worn futon of sorts. er get out.
But it didn’t – and couldn’t The last of my coffee cools.
matter – I was in Paris. That The day has started and a
was what mattered. ten minute walk from here

It is a gray day here today. As I like to do when we begin a full day of meetings with DxO
I am here, I am drinking Italian coffee brewed Labs, our partners. Outside the tall windows
a bit strong, writing and spending time catch- the day unfolds. Busses. Cars. People. Paris.
ing up with myself. Even for one as intro-

nyghtvision magazine volume 2, number 2, summer 2012