Chapter 15
Frida Rodriguez ... En Route
March 29, 1992
Paris, France
Bonjour Kate,
Remember how I told you Kirby met some foreign correspondents he was going to introduce me to? Well one of them is back in Paris and Kirby brought him to Chez Lisette the other night. Niko is the bureau chief for Current covering the breakup of Yugoslavia – he’s here for a week and I asked him if I could pick his brain and…! !!
!!!We’ve been out three nights in a row!!! I swear he knows every restaurateur in this city. No matter where we go as soon as he walks in the door they shout, “Ah, Niko, ca va?” We had oysters on the half shell at Goumard-Prunier – the first restaurant in Paris to serve raw oysters like that all the way back in the 1800s – brilliant! – and scallops in apple cider sauce at Pharamond. Mom can do some amazing things with scallops, but that cider stirred with cream – my taste buds are still trembling! I’m not materialistic but Fair Kate it’s a plain fact that it’s nicer to eat out with a man who has an expense account.
After food and wine and more wine we bundled up in coats and scarves and walked along the Seine. He told me about the wars and revolutions he’s covered. Romania, El Salvador, Lebanon. Last night he wrapped me in his arms and I could see Notre-Dame lit up behind him and he whispered into my ear about how he’ll never run out of work because the world will never run out of wars. When I told him about reading Martha and Marguerite he kissed my eyelids and when I quoted from Moon Tiger about this being a century of wars he said we were destined to meet.
Thank you my fair bookselling pen pal for bringing these marvelous women into my life so I could impress tall dark handsome Niko Andrianakis on the banks of the Seine. He’s not worldly just because he’s thirty-four. His parents are diplomats and he grew up in Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, and Madrid. He speaks six – count ’em SIX – languages. He dated an actress from Falcon Crest ! I can’t believe he’s leaving for Sarajevo tomorrow. Bosnia declared its independence and he says it could get bad there like in Croatia because the Bosnian Serbs are going to fight it. They want to stay part of Yugoslavia. He promised he’ll write and the next time he’s in Paris we’ll see each other again. I can imagine us working together. This could turn out to be the beginning of my career and maybe even my whole life.
Now let’s talk about your career. You’re worrying too much right now about what’s important and what’s not. Finish interviewing Bumpa – figure out your plot – then see what fits and what doesn’t. I have a gut feeling you’ll find a perfect spot for Bumpa and your mom playing cards in the middle of the night and you’ll make it interesting. And for the record it’s definitely not weird that Bumpa didn’t think about being a single dad. Guys from his generation didn’t have sensitive Phil Donahue types to teach them how to think about stuff like that but that doesn’t mean you can’t use your very own clever imagination to describe what it was like. That’s what writers do and you’re a writer Fair Kate!
Have a Nice Day!
Frida
P.S. Niko thinks my typewriter is adorable but he says journalism is about technology now. The Soviet Union wouldn’t have collapsed without the fax and since the Gulf War all the TV news outlets want are live satellite broadcasts. Except when you’re in the field he says the Reporter’s Note Book is still your best friend. He gets his from a place called Stationers in Virginia – he’s like having my very own graduate program! – and those soft kisses! – I miss him already!!
P.S. Deux. I got my hair cut right before I moved here. I copied the style from Jean Seberg in à bout de souffle . It’s my favorite French New Wave movie.
P.S. Trois. What’s a canned tamale?