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I slip away to the bow of the boat and watch the scenery slip by It’s cooler down here in the canals, under the narrow arched footbridges And it senerations of history are stored in the alls If these walls could talk, I wonder what secrets they’d tell

When we get to the first lock, Willee to show ates, rusted the same brackish color as the water, close behind us, the water drains out froates reopen to a lower section

This part of the canal is so narrow that the barge takes up almost the entire width Steep embankments lead up to the streets, and above those, poplar and elentle respite froust of wind shakes the trees, sending a scri," Captain Jack says, sniffing the air like a rabbit I look up and then over at Willem and roll my eyes The sky is cloudless, and there hasn’t been rain in this part of Europe for ten days

Up above, Paris carries on, doing her thing Mothers sip coffee, keeping eyes on their kids as they scooter along the sidewalks Vendors at outdoor stalls hawk fruits and vegetables Lovers wrap their arms around each other, never e, serenading it all

I’ve hardly taken any pictures on this trip Melanie teased me about it, to which I always said I preferred to experience soh, really, the truth of it was, unlike Melanie (anted to remember the shoe salesman and the mime and the cute waiter and all the other people on the tour), none of that really mattered to hts The Colosseum Belvedere Palace Mozart Square But I stopped They never cas

But there are no postcards of this Of life

I snap a picture of a bald irl in thepetals off a flower Of a couple, unabashedlythe waterside Of the Danes, ignoring all of this, but having the ti cards

"Oh, let , a little wobbly, froolden?" She turns to the table "Bert, was I ever that golden?"

"You still are,have you been married?" I ask

"Thirteen years," she says, and I’ if they’re stained, but then she adds, "Of course, we’ve been divorced for ten"

She sees the look of confusion on es"

I turn to Willehs just as Agnethe takes the picture

A church bell rings in the distance Agnethe hands back the phone, and I take a picture of her and Bert "You will send me that one? All of the ones?"

"Of course As soon as I have reception" I turn to Willeive me your number"

"My phone is so old, it doesn’t ith pictures"

"When I get home, then, I’ll put the pictures on h I’ll have to figure out a place to hide the pictures froh h, I realize now, only for another month And then I’ll be free Just like today I’m free

He looks at one of the pictures for a long time Then he looks at me "I’ll keep you up here" He taps his teet lost"

I bite my lip to hide my smile and pretend to put the phone away, but when Captain Jack calls to Willem to take the wheel while he visits the head, I pull it back out and scroll through the photos, stopping at the one of the two of us that Agnethe took I’ I runit to emanate some sort of heat

I put the phone away and watch Paris drift by, feeling relaxed, almost drunk with a sleepy joy After a while, Wille of the water, the babble of the Danes Wille it from knuckle to knuckle I watch, hypnotized by his hand, by the gentle rocking of the water It’s peaceful until the Danes start bickering, loudly Wille whether soraphic film

"You speak Danish too?" I ask

"No, it’s just close to Dutch"

"How es do you speak?"

"Fluently?"

"Oh, God I’et by in German and Spanish too"

I shake my head, amazed

"Yes, but you said you speak Chinese"

"I wouldn’t say I speak it so much as murder it I’m kind of tone deaf, and Mandarin is all about tone"

"Let me hear"

I look at hi else"

"Wo xiang wen ni"

"Now I hear it" He covers his head "Stop I’ from my ears"

"Shut up or you will be" I pretend to shove hiive hi

"You just"You’ll never know"

"What does it rin "You’ll have to look it up"

"Can you write it too?" He pulls out his little black book and opens to a blank page near the back He rifles back into his bag "Do you have a pen?"

I have one of those fancy roller balls I swiped from my dad, this one emblazoned BREATHE EASY WITH PULMOCLEAR I write the character for sun, ly

"And look, I love this one It’s double happiness"

"See how the characters are symmetrical?"