The Email that Never Came

The Email that Never Came

So after "The Paris Train Incidient", we discovered that we forgot to tie up some loose ends. Before Adrienne hung up the phone on her parents at the Paris Train Station, she told them that she would call back in 15 minutes. Her plan was to call back at the hostel. At the hostel, we discovered that there were no phones that could dial out internationally. In our tired state, we ended up just eating and sleeping while her parents were still expecting a phone call.

We forgot to follow up. We also overslept our train to Milan, Italy and were already tackling our next problem of "Where do we want to go?". The person checking for available seats just looked at us with an incredulous stare each time TravelingPartner and I opened our mouths and sprouted out that we whimsically wanted to visit said country. The conversation went like this:

William: "We overslept our train to Milan, Italy. Is there any more available seats today for Milan?"
Train Employee: "Let me check... nope, not for today"
William: "How about to Italy in general?"
Train Employee: "Let me check..."
Adrienne: "I've already been to Italy. Can we go somewhere else?"
William: "How about Bern, Switzerland?"
Train Employee: "Let me check... fully booked for today"
William: "You want to go to Barcelona?"
Adrienne: "Sure!"
William: "What about Barcelona, Spain?"
Train Employee: "Um... let me check... none available today"
Adrienne: "What about Vienna, Austria?"
Train Employee: "Let me check... yep, I can get you two to the next train in an hour and a half, but it leaves from another station"
William and Adrienne look at each other.
William: "Perfect, we'll take it!"

We asked for trains to Bern, Switzerland all the way to Barcelona, Spain. and ended up just going to Vienna, Austria. It was pretty hilarious at that point; we were so accustomed to going wherever the train would take us that it was beginning to be fairly routine. Paris was also starting to get very expensive so we just wanted to get the hell out of there.

While we were contemplating where to go, Adrienne's parents were still concerned about the welfare of their daughter. Before we left, Adrienne had left her parents the contact information to reach my parents in cases of dire emergencies. This situation neatly filed under the "Dire Emergency" category.

Last they knew, their beautiful daughter was in a foreign country where she did not know the local language and had no place to stay. They knew that it was nightfall, we had little cash, businesses were closed, and we had never been to that part of Paris before. I was also a mysterious person who they've never met and who only knew their daughter through Peace Corps.

So Adrienne's parents called my parents. Little did they know of me and my reclusiveness. The call did not alleviate their concerns, but only frustrated them more. From what I've asked around, here's what happened:

AP = Adrienne's Parents
MP = My parents
MC = My cousin

Adrienne's Parents call up my house.
Ring Ring!
My parents pick up the phone.
My parents: "Hello?"
AP: "Hi, is this William Liu's parents?"
MP: "Yes. William's not here right now, he's in Europe somewhere."
AP: "Yes, I know. This is Adrienne's mother. William is traveling with my daughter."
MP: "Yes, William is in Europe."
AP: "Yes. The last I heard from them, they had no place to stay, they were in a train station they've never been, they didn't have much cash, and they said they would call me back in 15 minutes, but I haven't heard from them in a couple days. I've emailed them and I haven't gotten a response. It's not like my daughter to ask for help, and then stop all communication. When was the last time you heard from William?"
MP: "William's in Europe, he'll be back later. Don't worry, William always finds a way out of sticky situations"
AP: "..."
MP: "Do you want to talk to his cousin? She knows computers, they might have contacted each other."
AP: "Umm... Yes please"
My parents pass phone over to my 16 year old cousin.
My cousin: "Hi"
AP: "Hi, when was the last time you heard from William?"
MC: "Last week"
AP: "Do you know where he is and if he's ok?"
MC: "Yeah, he's in Europe. He'll be back later."
AP: "Have you talked to him recently?"
MC: "No, but he always manages to get by. Don't worry"
Adrienne's Parents repeat our dire situation.
MC replies back "No worries, they'll be fine."
AP: "........."
AP: "Ok, thank you. Bye"
MC: "Ok, Bye!"

Adrienne received an email from her parents and her friends. I received not even a single email! Let's not go into further details about that...

[Updated] It's been a few days since I've been back and during a dinner my mom casually said, "Oh, while you were gone, someone called for you. It was someone's mom. They wanted to know where you were."

I laughed.