By the time Padme’s arms around me pulled me in at the arrival hall at Orly,
she had called her father from Porto,
unable to get on the FlixBus home,
unable to negotiate past new travel rules for teens,
unsure what to do.
By the time she had gotten on a flight to Paris he had booked for her,
sent her travel authorisation for the airline,
she’d repacked,
left with her host family
what she could not get into her tote bag.
She sent us a message and photo,
her long legs behind the seat in front.
“A lot of leg room.”
I had driven from Bordeaux to Paris Orly
to fetch my baby.
By the time we stood in the Orangerie,
surrounded by Monet’s Nymphéas,
we had slept in a small hotel, clean,
near Orly
he had booked for us,
while I was driving.
I had asked him about Paris parking fees,
got the all-clear,
because it was Sunday,
walked through the Tuileries,
into the two oval rooms,
water lilies,
willows,
water,
sky
around us.
By the time we heard,
“Next station, Shibuya,”
we had walked
through Palais Royal,
into the Japanese quarter,
along rue Sainte-Anne,
stopped at Kodawari Ueno,
rooms made like the little restaurants
under the elevated railway at Ueno Station,
signs,
counters,
train sounds rumbling,
“next station” announcements,
not music.
Next stops: La Taverne de Zhao,
for dumplings and Xi’an noodles spicy, fat, for me.
Matcha mille-feuille for Padme at Shodai.
My baby across from me,
sitting straight,
long taller than me.
By the time we got back home to Bordeaux,
we had walked through Paris,
driven from Paris to Bordeaux,
me texting him along the way,
“We are charging now. Will charge a little longer.
Then I’ll go to petrol station to get coffee and drive another 2.5hrs home”
Him at his desk, at home,
with baby one in bed with a fever,
baby three unwilling to sleep without me,
Bali and Symi playing fetch in the lounge.
“Don’t push.
If you need to rest you rest.
If you come home at 4 am you come home at 4 am.
If you need to sleep you sleep my love.
No rush.”
By the time I fell asleep, he said to me:
“Baby two is home, BB. Sleep sleep now.”