One awkward night in the Paris Metro
I think it was in December 1990 that Victor and I were again in Paris to attend a meeting called the RSM where all regional offices from different continents were meeting for a week or so. We were representing IYCS Asia.
One evening our older colleague and big sister, Laurencia invited Victor and I to her place for dinner. As I recall, on that day Victor wore a grey-light-blue trouser and a light green shirt with big checkers.
We had a great home-cooked dinner and a lot of stories from Laurencia, including how she had to keep turning sleeping heads from one side to the other to stop their family members from snoring when they were visiting her in Paris. As Victor has explained earlier, we had red wine as a substitute for water when we were in Paris. And Laurencia was very generous with great French wine that night. We ate and drank and talked and drank more. By now I was used to Victor occasionally stumbling his hands upon various things on a table while dining, whether it is a glass or a bowl of soup. On that night it was something really French–a glass of wine. The glass full of red wine fell flat on the table and the river of red wine rapidly flowed straight onto the light blue trouser of Victor. There was a large red map more or less in the shape of France on his trouser. It was about 10pm and something had to be done.
Laurencia was very practical and suggested that he should immediately put his trouser into the washing machine. She offered him something like a bed sheet or a throw and without trouble, he transformed it into a Bengali style sarong. While the trouser was being washed we talked more and drank more wine. After about an hour, the trouser was washed but it was wet. There was no dryer and it was an icy cold winter day. Laurencia started looking for her own trousers but they were not even closely fitting Victor. After a few failed attempts wear Laurencia’s trousers, Laurencia jokingly said, “perhaps you can wear one of my skirts!” Frankly, we have never seen Laurencia wearing a skirt and so we did not know she had a skirt in the first place. Immediately, Victor responded, “give me one of your skirts, I will try that on.” No one was taking anyone seriously now and finally when Laurencia found her scarce skirt, Victor tried it on and it fitted. After this episode of trying this line of clothing, I told Victor it’s time for us to leave so you better either stay here overnight or wear your wet trousers. He was willing to do neither. Instead, he was looking at himself in the mirror sporting Laurencia’s skirt. Surprising us he told me, “this fits fine. I will wear it and go back.” Laurencia and I had a good laugh as we knew he was joking. He looked at us seriously. We stopped laughing. He was not joking. I told him, “Victor, you may go wearing a skirt, but I am the one who had to go with you and I not sure whether I am willing to do that.” “What?” Victor was louder than normal now, “how come you have a problem? I should be the one who should have a problem as I will be wearing the skirt. And I have no problem with that.” Finally, Laurencia and I knew Victor had come to a stubborn resolution that he will go wearing Laurencia’s skirt. But there were a few challenges. One, how to make him look more like a woman? He had a light mustache and a beard. He was not going to shave that. So we decided to take care of the head first and the solution came from Laurencia again: a scarf. He wrapped his head with a nice lady’s scarf. He wore his jacket. Although it was not a mini skirt, it was not long enough to sort of cover all his legs. From below knee level to the ankles there was obvious exposure of a section of his hairy legs. And his shoes did not resemble anything a woman would wear.
It was getting late and we had to leave. We had to ride on the Paris metro a couple of times. And still at that late hour, there were plenty of people commuting through the metro. When we left, Laurencia could not suppress her laughter and wished us good luck.
To reduce attention from others, Victor had a great idea. He said we could pretend to be a couple and he quickly put his hand through my arm. I did not like this. This was no moment like any I have faced in my life. I wanted to laugh out loud at what was happening but at the same time beating the cold winter air of Paris, there was sweat over my forehead due to a feeling of awkwardness and embarrassment. For Victor, he did not feel anything, or at least he did not show that. For him it was like an act and he seemed to enjoy this adventure.
We descended into the platform level and Victor hanged onto my arm. I did not know what to do. I just wanted to get through this ordeal. I was trying to find a way to hide my face. Soon, people started looking at both of us. Some looked at Victor, top to bottom and from bottom to top again. Then they looked at me. Then they looked at Victor again. We tried to focus our eyes on the long dark metro tunnel praying that the lights of a metro would appear soon. Seconds felt like minutes. I could not stop laughing. Victor told me seriously and affirmatively, “don’t laugh, shallah!” Soon the metro arrived and we hurriedly entered it and sat on vacant seats facing each other. I really wanted to capture this moment and took my small Minolta camera, which I purchased from Bobby’s shop at Peking Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. I took a few snaps against VIctor’s will. Soon we had to change the metro to another line. We walked through narrow tunnels connecting various platforms hurriedly to avoid gazes from the public. But almost every person whom we came across looked at us quite curiously. After about 30min in the metro, we arrived at our destination, a sort of dorm.
That was a night I will never forget. I now feel that I should not have felt embarrassed. But it was almost 30 years ago and I was not ready for such an experience. VIctor on the other hand showed his true character–his ability to and get through embarrassing situations as if nothing happened. I am sure, given a chance, he would repeat the same act. And if that happens, I know I will enjoy every moment without sweating with embarrassment.