CHAPTER 33

  TO NEW BEGINNINGS

  On the way back to the farm from the train station, Vincent, Mimi, Mum, and I all sat in the cab of the truck. The afternoon air was much too cold at this point for anyone to ride in the back. On the way, we stopped at a tavern for dinner. Our dinner conversation was much quieter without our loud and cheerful companion. It was obvious that something was missing.

  The tavern sat alone on the small country road back to the farm. It was a small place with only three tables and a small bar with two stools. The walls of the tavern were decorated mostly with war memorabilia from GIs who kept the place running during the war. When the owner found out Mimi and I were Americans, she excitedly showed us some of her most prized possessions, including a small replica of the Statue of Liberty. She was very proud that her country had given such a gift to the country she saw as her family’s savior from the ravages of war.

  The food was hearty home-cooking and served with the best of the local wines. It would be our last dinner with Vincent. We would leave for Norway by train the next morning. He would be traveling back to Rouen for the holidays after we left. He told us he had plans of spending them with some friends from the university. As we were finishing up the last of the wine and bread on the table, Vincent made an announcement.

  “Well, I officially resigned my position at the university.”

  “What? When?” I asked.

  “I sent off a telegram at the train station.”

  “Why?” Mimi asked. He had given us no indication that he was going to do it.

  “Being here with all of you this summer has been an enlightening experience. It has been some of the best times of my life. As good as our first trip to Paris was, Jackie boy, this was even better than that.” He nudged me under the table, which Mimi was quite aware of. She just shook her head.

  This trip had been good for the two of them. It really helped Mimi to get to know Vincent better. It really helped that the two of them planned and worked on improvements for the farm together. While she never did get her cow, the two of them enjoyed their runs into town for shopping. It became their ritual together.

  Vincent continued, “I was fortunate to have had the three of you here with me. Had that not been the case, I would not have found that clue on my own land. That was enough for me to continue with my own quest. Had you not been here, I would have just given up and ended it, maybe even sold this farm. Jack, you inspire me. You always have.” I was sure the wine had gone to his head, since what he said sounded more important than it should have.

  “Jack, I decided that I must continue my quest. A quest of my own for dragons. Like your giants, Jack, my faith has been renewed to find a similar truth about their existence. This is something I must do. Time will be of the essence, and I can’t bear to think about what I would miss if I stood there in a classroom all day. To teach is to repeat what you already know. I want to find what is unknown. To find and slay my own dragon.”

  He stood up with a wobble in his step. “To slay my own dragon is the quest of my life,” he said and raised his glass in a somewhat drunken stupor. The other patrons of the tavern looked over at his antics.

  Mimi reached over and pulled on his elbow to get him to sit down. I looked in his eyes and saw he was very serious in his foolish behavior. Here was a man who felt he had lost his entire life. Lost by the direction he was pushed into by his parents. He looked at me with truth in his eyes. Vincent had always worn his emotions on his sleeve. Eager to share with anyone the hurt he suffered from his parents keeping him at arm's length. Theirs was a life of giving orders and writing checks as substitutes for love. As much as Vincent had used the situation for his own gain, he was bored with it all.

  Back when we were in college, he clung to my dreams. He had never really been allowed to verbalize his own dreams in his family. His parents had always told him what he would do, when he would do it, and what the next step in his life was. He stayed in school for as long as he could to avoid taking the next step. While he was himself French, he thought of France as his prison. The place he would be forced to return to when school in the United States was done. Upon his return, he continued his education and went after his doctorate. Upon getting his doctorate, his father had secured him a job right away. It was no surprise to me that he would look on his teaching profession as a prison since he had no real choice in the matter.

  His parents were wealthy, and Vincent would not have to work to ensure any financial stability. Instead, they felt that their son had obligations to give back to society. While he was not one for medicine or religion, teaching would be the next best thing to ensure he was being obedient in a productive way. He now looked at teaching with greater disdain than ever before.

  By his resignation, he was granting himself a pardon. Obvious to us was the fact that at his adult age, he was exercising his right to go his own way in life.

  This did not seem like the most responsible thing to do. I knew Mimi would be thinking the same thing. She would not approve. I felt guilty, yet at the same time, I was jealous.

  My own journey had taken its toll on my marriage to Mimi. There was only so much more she was going to take. In my head, I was already planning the next steps in my quest, but I knew in her head she was already planning our next steps as well. She was certainly thinking it was time for us to settle down. She was hopeful that my journey had come to an end in the middle of a field on a farm in France.

  Yet, I was already dreaming up where I would go from here. I knew full well that I would not likely be returning to Europe to continue my quest. Nor would I be able to pursue leads in any other parts of the world. I would have to contain my journey to the boundaries set by the United States. I was fully aware of what Mimi had sacrificed coming here. I understood that I had to give back a little. Mimi wanted to start a family, and I had put it off until after we returned from Greece.

  I guess I wanted Vincent to understand that he was making a huge sacrifice in his life to pursue such a quest. I was even feeling guilty that I had “inspired” him to do such a thing. My competitiveness with him was also getting the best of me. Part of me didn’t want him to get further along in his quest than I had.

  “Vincent, you must be drunk,” I insisted.

  “Maybe I am,” he said. “But when I sent that telegram, I was sober and in my best sense of mindfulness.” He sat back down and reached over and grabbed my hand. “Jack, if I left my quest here, what would I have accomplished? You and I made a list of our dreams and goals. That list was originally controlled by our lack of true desires. Goals like a grade point average and the simplest of teaching positions were trivial things. You know as well as I that the list took on a life of its own when we unleashed the real dreams you and I had.” He leaned in toward me. A glassy film over his eyes filled with fear and hope.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “Jack, I have to admit that I have been a bit jealous of you.”

  “Of what?} I answered, I couldn’t even imagine. “When I saw you teaching in that hall at the university in Rouen, I saw a man with such confidence and such power. I was the one who was always envious of you. I seemed to struggle through things that you did with such ease.”

  He answered, “I have been jealous of your thirst for your dreams and your independent American spirit. You wrote those dreams and goals down back when we were just kids, and yet you had the full intent of accomplishing every wild idea. I wrote them as the only means of dreaming. I had no intention of fulfilling those dreams. I thought we wrote them down to get them out of our system. Childish dreams that intellectual men like us would never imagine pursuing. You moved forward with your dreams. Then, when you got the money to go to Greece, you were living that dream. I was jealous.

  That is when I went out and bought the farm. The funny thing about it was that it must have made my parents happy. They would have loved the fact that I was buying a place in France. I even tried calling you before you left for Greece to let you know I was making things happen, too. The next thing I know, I’m teaching my summer session class, and you walk in, and it changes everything. You came here and helped build the foundation for me to work on. You stepped in like fate, and it changed my life, Jackie. And I am not about to make an about-face and stop what I have waited a lifetime to start.

  I didn’t know what else to say. I was flattered that he found it all so inspiring. I felt the same way. I wasn’t about to let this be the end of the road for me either.

  Mimi jumped in, “Vincent, what are you planning to do?”

  “Well, I will probably lock myself into my research and wait for the spring thaw. By then, I should be ready with a plan on where I will go from here. I really have no idea. I just know I need to follow the path that has been set here. I must work until I slay my dragon. I will not stop until I find it.”

  “What about what you did find on the farm. Isn’t that of value? Isn’t that the end of it all? Aren’t you going to let the world know what we have found?” Mimi asked.

  Vincent and I had already agreed that we would not make our discoveries known just yet. I was not in it for fame and fortune. I was no Bayne, and neither was Vincent. This was for us and us alone. There was no hurry to go public. The farm and the castle mount were on land owned and secured by Vincent. He was not about to let any “Giantologist” on his land.

  I knew that keeping all of this to ourselves would surprise Mimi. I figured that I would write a book about Gayant and Mount Fillon someday, just not yet. I had planned to include some of what we learned here in my college lectures at some point.

  I also knew Mimi was concerned about how I was feeling about what Vincent was planning as his next step. She was worried it would give me ideas. I feared that his news would bring up a discussion between Mimi and me that I was not prepared to have. I knew the moment we were alone, she would want to know what I thought and if I had intentions to continue on this journey as he did.

  In her heart, I knew she already had the answer. She knew me well. She was just hoping that this was the end. In fact, the three of us sitting at the table knew it was not the end of the road for any of us.

  We left the tavern, and the ride to the farm was a fun one. Mimi drove the truck, as Vincent and I were in no condition to drive. The two of us rode in the back and yelped and hollered and acted foolish. The winter night was frigid, cold, and sobering. I avoided talking about Vincent’s big announcement. I was avoiding having to think about the conversation Mimi and I would likely have on our last night on the farm. We just laughed, hollered, and played around like foolish schoolboys in the back of the truck. When we got back to the farm, we all retired to our rooms.

  “So,” Mimi said once the two of us were behind the closed door of our room. To avoid her conversation, I had immediately begun actively packing up my belongings. She followed suit on her side of the bed. “What did you think of Vincent and his big speech at the tavern?”

  I answered, “It was interesting. Vincent has always been a fly by the seat of his pants person. We’ll just see how long this lasts.”

  Mimi stopped to look at me and said, “No. It sounds to me like he has been thinking about this long and hard. Probably more than he even let on. I guess I was surprised by it since I had no idea that for him the journey was only just beginning.”

  “I was just as surprised,” I answered her with some anxiousness. She came around from the other side of the bed and grabbed my arm. She sat on the bed next to my suitcase and made room for me to join her.

  “Were you really surprised, Jack? I have a feeling the only thing you were surprised about was the fact that Vincent was doing exactly what you had been feeling.”

  I stood up. “No,” I said. “That is not it at all.”

  “So, what is it supposed to be? What is the plan? Because I know you too well, Jack. I know there is one.” Her irritation was getting the best of her, and her voice was raised. She was now standing upright next to me.

  “Mimi, look at me,” I said as I put my hands in hers. “I know what this all is, this summer, this year. This was my time. And look how far it got me. I am grateful. I also know what it means to return to the States. I know what it means to you and to me. You have to know that our return to the States does nothing to stop what is in my gut. This is a dream for me. While the journey will not stop here, I know that when we get back home, it means going back to teaching. It means we get more in touch with each other, it means settling down and starting a family. This last year has been incredible. I know that. You have been incredible. You’re here this entire time shows me how much you love me and how dedicated you are to us. Do not think I have forgotten what going home means? I haven’t forgotten.” I said it as if it were a life sentence.

  I knew what it meant just as I knew what it meant when Vincent was making his speech. He was ruining any plan that I was trying to formulate in my head about my next step. Now I had to deny what I really wanted to happen. I knew I had no right to expect anything more than what Mimi and I had planned.

  “Mimi, understand that I am ready and able to give you what we are returning home to do. Please understand that I am also thinking about what this quest means to me. It’s far too much a part of me. Okay?”

  She answered, “I know that. But to what end? Jack, I do not want to lose you in the process.”

  I was stunned that she actually thought that she might lose me. In my mind, there was no way. I didn’t know what to say.

  I said, “You won’t. When we get home, I will take a break for a while. This is important to us. I know.”

  That next morning, we left for Denmark on our way to Norway. Vincent drove us to the train station. The ride was quiet. At the station, I pulled our luggage out of the back of the truck as Mimi said goodbye to Vincent.

  “Mimi, I cannot thank you enough for everything you did for the farm and for being here this summer. It really made a big difference having you here. Thank you.”

  He then reached out to hug her. I was grateful that the two of them had become closer on the trip. I was also aware that Mimi was leaving Vincent resentful for what she knew he was putting in my head.

  She said to him, “Vincent, I certainly hope you find what you are looking for. I agree with what Uri told you. Don’t be alone.”

  To which Vincent replied, “Mimi, I am not alone. In my heart, I know I have you and Jack with me. I am grateful to have such fine friends.”

  I placed our luggage on the platform, then walked over to Vincent to say goodbye to him. Mimi stepped away to give us some time. She went over to our luggage to check on Mum, who was sitting in her travel crate.

  I looked at Vincent, and he smiled at me.

  “Jackie, this is where our road separates again. You and I have had a way of coming in and out of each other’s lives. I am certain this will not be the last time we collaborate.”

  “I sure hope you are right. You have been a good friend,” I told him.

  “We don’t need hope, Jack. We have fate. Fate continues to bring us together. Thank you for coming this summer. It has changed everything.”

  I answered him, “It certainly has.” I was referring to the fact that he was just beginning his quest while mine seemed to be coming to an end.

  “Frenchie, take care of yourself. And keep in touch. Let me know where your quest takes you.”

  “You know I will.”

  I looked forward to us traveling by boat along the Viking shipping lanes to Canada. Our charter would take us to St. Johns, and from there we would take a boat to Boston. From there, we would take the train home to Iowa. I believed this was a similar route many European giants took when they settled into the new world.