It’s a shame really! In this paradise all I can do is sit and watch, well, there are times I stand and watch too, but you know what I mean; right? I just recalled that I do more than that; I also wish. No star is visible though so it is another wasted effort.

By all accounts I already have a lot. Why wish for anything more.

Perhaps what I’m supposed to have are the wrong things; could it be that simple? Health, wealth and happines; maybe the last one says it all. I am not happy though, am I? A bit greedy perhaps, but I want all three things.

I started searching all around me. Nope, everywhere it wasn’t there. Many thoughts came to mind.

‘Be happy with what you have, Jack.’(Even though my name was not Jack, it made me think)

‘You’ve gots to give before you get’(Right, the mantra of those who want something somebody else has and they want it.)

Or one saying something like this might have some meaning: ‘I’ll know it when I see it!’

Add to that: ‘Look beyond the forest to see the trees, even closer to find there are leaves on them!’(Pine trees excluded)

‘Man! A poet I am not.’ I asked myself: ‘What do I want?’

30-40-60 seconds of silence; nothing, nada, I heard no pearls of wisdom and I could not see any swine nearby to go to for their advice. So no answer there either. I made some difficult decisions. Pepsi, Coke, Sprite and water, all were cold but only 1 Coke was left in the cooler. I hesitated not and grabbed it.

I was not quick enough though.

“Oh thank you so much. In this heat I thought I was going to melt away.”

If words were a currency, then I was broke. Just looking at this angel was all I could do. I eventually raised my eyes up to her face. I opened up the cooler and took out a Pepsi for myself and a bottle of water for her. I handed her the water. “Drink some water too, the stuff in the Coke can make you hotter, something you do not need ‘Salome’.”

She lightly hit my arm but smiled and started sipping the water.

“You come here often do you or only on days when the temp hits 99 degrees?(37.22 c) We have more water for you unless things get too hot, no more Cokes though.”

“Are you trying to imply anything?”

“Nope, I thought I was very clear, you, my dear, are very hot. I even gave you the last Coke so that means I am your slave or something like that.”

She turned red. Not Native American red nor from the sun, it was sort of cute on her. “I came to see mine sister play. We don’t have many beaches back home.”

I placed the cooler at our feet, opened a large sun thing and stared at her. “She’s the cute, tall, blond in the white bikini with a red stripe.”

“Yes you are cute. If you are married you can get a divorce and marry me in Vegas.” She hit me again.

“I’m older than her ... and yes, I am married so is she Romeo.”

“I love you! Divorce the cad. Run away with me. Please marry me. I’ll keep you in cold drinks forever!”

The pat on my head, the big head; reminded me of the thing about parting being no fun. I watched as she got up, thanked me for the drinks and walked away. About 10 paces she got before I heard.

“I’m not married though, 17 next week and consume many cold drinks and ‘I am hot’ too. I’m Marta, their sister, only better looking and play too.” The cooler was being opened and the ‘Ahh’ and ‘gurgle, gurgle’ sound followed most of a cold water being guzzled down.

Reality hit me and hit me hard, right between the eyes, all three of them. “Marta, dear heart, you have all the makings of an angel that can have and do anything she wants in life. There is no reason why you should hitch your horse to an old wagon. I was feeling sorry for myself with your sister before.”

“Really! You mean I’d have to supply ‘mine’ own drinks?”

“Never! But the price you would pay would be too high though. I should know! Now where are you from? Not many beaches there ehh?”

“An old place, between Frankfurt and Stuttgart.”

“Mannheim then?”

“Schwetzingen(A Castle); you know it?”

“Only the gardens, never got into the palace part, I’m not sure they trusted an American there. So what brings you to Southern France, and don’t say it was the soda and the beaches?”

“Oh! The beach for sure, perhaps, my sisters being here too had something to do with it. At the castle one may only view ‘old relics’ for so long also. N’est-ce pas?”(Bavarian is a hard language to learn, 3 dialects and not like German for most of them so they use French at times, if the French ‘Grammar Police’ don’t get you.)

“Qui! But you certainly are not a relic. ‘My German, she is not so good’ so will you order dinner for us at Dobler’s there, (A German Inn in Mannheim) my treat.”(In Europe, German, French, English and recently Arabic are commonly used when trying to speak Bavarian)

“Arg! More German food. We have the ‘Big thing there’(Big Mac called McRoyale in France but better than ‘Gros Mec’(Big Pimp) like it was called at first) in Germany a ‘Big Mac’ is called ‘Hambuger Royal TS’ you know.”(Royal no ‘e’ at the end in Europe except in France)

“If you accept escorting me, then anything you want you may have.”

“I want to leave the Castle. There, is that plain enough? I hate it there!”

“If only you were a bit more aggressive and clear about what you want Princess, I might comply!”

They both laughed. “You know I felt I was missing something but did not know what. I thought a wife, but no. You are now my ‘friend’, ‘Spezi ... Lieber Freund’(In Bavarian) someone I’ve never had, even if we do not think alike. Friends can give a friend a gift you know, even make some wishes come true.” She looked at me.

“Although I would like nothing better than to lock you away just like you feel you are now in some kind of castle, but that is not what a friend does to another friend. What I will do is ‘ask’ your family if ‘we’ can do a ‘mini’ tour of what this world has to offer; then you can choose something best for you. I will always be your friend anyway.”

Why do girls, any girls, all girls cry. Happy or sad, a man never knows which. “Let’s go talk to your sisters, see if I can convince them I will not run away somewhere with you. I need to convince myself of that too.”

Astrid and Brigit(Really how Brigit is spelled) were not convinced, not that I could blame them. Marta(I should have called her a force of nature instead of aggressive) convinced them so ‘we’ were going home to speak with Papa next.

The flight from Paris to Frankfurt did not seem very long, but the drive to the castle seemed to take forever; maybe going there for a reason was why.

I had been here before, only as a tourist mind you; Castles were not my usual haunts. Marta looked funny at me when I told her that; not Ha-HA funny but strangly. We entered through a side door. I expected to hear: ‘I’m home’ from her. I was not expecting her pulling me then pushing me ahead of her.

When I saw the mirror-image ahead I could only make a joke. In my ‘not so great’ German with a few words in Bavarian mixed in, I said’: “Guten Tag! I am here to clean all 999 rooms.”

“What has my Schatz(Darling) promised you for this? No. I do not wish to know this.”

“What! You do not care she wants me to take her away from this small and dreary place. Why I’ll bet she has to sleep in the dungeon from what she tells me.”

That got almost a laugh. “Actually I met Astrid, Brigit and Marta in France and had my heart ripped away by them already. If you and Papa allow, I would like to show Marta what the rest of the world is really like before she gives up on this place.”

“So you already know this? You must know it, this is what you say: a ‘fait accompli’.”

“For me: Ja, for her something yet to be learned. You cannot just say how things are, she must see them with her own eyes. Today, she only can see relics from the past here. To some of us, these relics are a good thing.”