In The Phantom Lady of Paris, an American teacher travels to Paris in 1968 to live for a year. There he meets a mysterious woman who often disappears for days or weeks at a time. Her name is Bonnie Silver. In this scene they are walking to a place to eat, and Bonnie shares a dream she has… “So why are we standing here talking?”
“Because from time to time, I need to remind myself how unforgiving life can be. And looking at, what I call, ‘the bridge people,’ jolts me with a lightning bolt of reality and brings me back to earth.”
“Back to earth? Do you ever leave earth?” I smiled down at my free-spirited friend, for that was how I was regarding her, as both a free-spirit and as a new friend.
“Of course. In my thoughts, I often become extraterrestrial. You see, I have this uncontrollable urge to invalidate the laws of gravity, to slice through space like an eagle, and like an eagle, to taste freedom. You ever get the feeling you’d like to fly like an eagle? Mountain high. Beyond earth’s gravity. Unfettered. And…free.”
“Not really. Although, being an American, if I was going to fly like a bird, I’d pick an eagle. By the way, when you fly, where do you go?”
“To faraway, uncharted lands. But the destination isn’t the important thing.”
“Oh? What is?”
“The ecstasy of flight and the feeling of liberation it brings.”
“What brings it on?”
“Brings what on?” She aimed those incredibly blue eyes on me as if I were dense for asking.
“This need you have to feel free.”
“I’m not sure. It might be some abnormality in my genes,” she shrugged.
“Or…or perhaps those who don’t share your urge to fly, to be free, those who are fettered to the earth, mentally and physically, maybe those are the ones who have a genetic abnormality. Not you.”
With a flicker of her hand and a glittering smile, she brushed aside a wayward strand of dark hair that draped her cheek, and then said, “That may be. That just may be. Anyway, let’s get started? We still have six blocks to go.”
