It was my first leg of the journey by train, and quite frankly, I didn't know that it could be quite so dull at times. I was alone in a sleeping car designed for four, it seemed, so apparently I chose well on the timing, it being the off-season for such passage. I was definitely not in a great rush, as it happened, but I still wanted to actually enjoy my vacation, having taken it just after my wife and I had a rather big spat, with no guarantee of a solution yet.
Such were my thoughts as I sat in my rather bored mood, staring out the window, feeling a bit like that man from "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers. You know that song, "You gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run... " right? Okay, so I'm dating myself a bit here, knowing that song so well. I had wanted to escape stress, but had fallen into tedium somehow. I shrugged and decided that things were bound to improve. I was in another country, checking out the vistas and far away from the constant crises back home.
"Parlez vous francais?" I abruptly heard a soft, feminine voice disrupt my musings and memories.
"Um ... no, sorry. I don't speak French, if that's what you're asking. Are you assigned to this car?" I asked the owner of said voice.
"Oui, monsieur. Pardon me ... I do speak English, just not as fluently as I might like. So, you see, we are both in ... similar ships, is that the saying?" the young woman asked me as I looked up, finding her to be an extremely attractive young lady of about twenty or so.
"It's an American saying, and it's 'we're both in the same boat.' But it sounds to me as if you got the point of it, anyway. You deduced the correct meaning behind it, which is what matters. Mark Clark, like the general," I offered a handshake as I rose to help her with her luggage, not bothering beyond the initial query at this point.
"Merci beaucoup. I am Fleur Masson," she told me in a very soft, low voice, even now.
After all, even if by mistake, why wouldn't I want my fellow passenger to be this lovely young foreigner? She took my hand and accepted my help, which was nice, because I wasn't ready for a lecture on condescending or patronizing misogynistic behavior as a reflection of the patriarchy or any such nonsense. I didn't like every aspect of chivalry, but I definitely thought that particular brand of feminism, along with the kind that wanted special treatment and equal rights at once, were both disturbing forms of fanaticism. The one failed to distinguish between genuine, voluntary acts of kindness and courtesy and real attempts to oppress someone, while the other treated men as nothing more than a servant class until supposedly we had atoned for the crimes of our ancestors or some bullshit like that.
At any rate, I was more than happy to assist the young woman, who I assumed to be French unless I knew otherwise, into the sleeping car in this part of Europe. I believed that we were still in France, so it made perfect sense to me at least to take for granted her nationality. She helped me with helping her out, which was a nice form of cooperation (take that, cynics!) as well as a nice start on a tongue twister. I sat back down as she took out a copy of Le Monde and began reading it quietly, presumably in French as well.
At least, I figured, my present company was pleasant enough, even if rather quiet. Of course, the French were notoriously aloof with strangers, anyway, so this could be normal behavior for her, right? I looked out the window again for a while when I felt it ... against my left foot. It was her right foot, and it was shoeless now. I looked over at Fleur and noticed that she had a cigarette in her mouth, which she puffed on casually as she moved her foot coyly against mine.
I wondered if she could see my wedding band, and if so, how that might affect things, so I moved my left hand over to my face, allowing Fleur a glimpse of this important piece of jewelry. It often magically served as woman repellent, at least in some circles, but I was curious as to the impact here. Fleur gave me a very innocent smile, as if the foot contact was accidental, but I no sooner looked away than I felt her foot against my left calf now.
I decided to try reading a bit and see if this affected her, even though the books that I had on me were books saved up for when I was sufficiently bored, as the other books I had donated to my son's latest reading project. I loved to read, don't get me wrong, but popular fiction seemed to have declined and I now suffered sufficient eye strain that too much reading could bring on migraines these days. I made a halfhearted to get through a second reading, no, a third, of Red Dragon, a nice enough Thomas Harris novel, but I wasn't honestly in the mood for reading about the abuse that the villain endured as a young boy at the hands of his grandmother. It was just frankly a bit depressing to reread something like that in light of my marital troubles with my wife, Janine.
Sure enough, I felt that foot against me a third time, only now it was bolder, gently caressing my thigh. This time, Fleur actually removed her beret, put her cigarette out, and leaned over to kiss my left hand, even my wedding band. Then she smiled sweetly at me, as if she was completely innocent of any kind of seduction or attempt at the same. I started to look away, feeling a little uncomfortable now, but Fleur wasn't having it. She put her beret in my hands and literally let her hair down in front of me.
It was a very pretty head of dirty blonde hair, actually, and she looked absolutely ravishing by any standard. She smiled at me and showed me the wedding band on her own left hand, thus making all of the pieces fit into place, or at least the ones that mattered. Fleur was a married woman, too, albeit rather young compared to most wives that I'd met before. She winked at me and brought out another cigarette, gesturing for me to light it for her. In a moment of weakness, I lit the damn cancer stick for her, not wishing to be rude.
Fleur smiled sweetly at me and resumed her teasing, now putting her feet closer to my groin, inching her way to my cock and balls. Now, whatever my marital issues, strange as it might seem, an absence of sex wasn't one of them, so I was well aware of signs that a woman wanted me to take her to bed. Janine had pulled enough hints over the years that I caught on fairly well. She had other issues, but I never had to live as a monk. My wife simply enjoyed sex too much to give it up even when we bickered and fought over something petty. In fact, that led to some of the best carnal relations of our marriage, whether for make-up or for angry sex.