What Happened in Strasbourg

Chapter one: The White Cliffs of Dover

I stood on the edge of England, the breeze on my face. It was already late afternoon but the sky hadn't hazed over yet like it did back in Grays. "Look," I said to my friend, Ava, who stood next to me. "You can see France from here, can't you?"

"Yeah, barely," Ava said.

I pulled my phone from my pocket and tried to capture it all. The waves leaning against the white cliffs, the marbled green sea, the small strip of land on the other side. If I stared down too long my stomach felt light.

"Have you ever been to France?" I asked Ava.

"I have," Ava said. "But not for a while, I usually just go to see my relatives in India in the summer... What about you?"

"No," I said, plopping down on the warm grass. "France is so close, you'd think I would've been but my parents always have so much work to do."

It had taken weeks for me to even convince my mom to bring Ava and I to Dover to celebrate the end of school and the start of the summer holiday. My mom tended to do anything I wanted if it had to do with buying trinkets or clothes. Both Ava and I were wearing "brand new" vintage outfits -- blouses, slacks and spectator shoes. But my mom was much harder to be swayed when it came to trips. It seemed like if she had her way she would never leave the house.

"My mom always says to me "Paul Landry can't run Acheron all by himself,"" I continued. "She says he needs graphic designers like her-- and he needs my dad making sure the distribution center stays up and running -- companies aren't just their CEOs, I guess."
"I've heard that one before," Ava sighed, pretending to look annoyed. She was another "corporate kid" like me -- with parents that worked for Acheron's internet moderation agency "AIMA." Its offices were located just a few blocks away from the distribution center that my dad managed.

"I bet that's the only reason Imogen's happy about her parents not working for Acheron," Ava continued. "She never has to hear them going on about doing "their part" for the company... Have you even heard from Imogen today?"
"No, I haven't," I said. "She hasn't said anything to me since yesterday afternoon at school."

We'd been standing in the hallway, after cleaning out our lockers. Imogen had been talking a mile a minute about how she'd miss school, but she wouldn't miss the uniforms, or not being able to dye her hair which was "seriously ruining her style."

Without her with us to stir up our conversation with nihilistic jokes, Ava and I were running out of things to talk about. We had spent most of the hour-long drive from Grays listening to music. It wasn't like Imogen at all to ghost us, she was usually the most active on our group chat. You could text her at 3:00 in the morning and she would respond immediately. But when I texted to ask if she wanted to come to Dover with us, she hadn't even read the message. Even though I was having fun, in the back of my mind I was worried about her. I checked my phone again for a text and saw nothing.

As Ava and I made our way down the narrow trail towards the beach where we'd decided to eat our picnic lunch, I realized my dog wasn't by my side. "Ginger!" I called, clapping my hands. "Ginger, come here sweetie!"

I heard the thud of paws on gravel and in a second Ginger, my off-duty service dog appeared out from behind a stand of tall grass. Her golden fur was covered in dust and burrs, and she had a grin on her face. Ginger licked my hands and walked next to me, where I took her vest out of my backpack and slipped it on over her head.

. . .

I took my phone from my pocket again, and started cleaning the lenses. I'd asked my parents over and over if I could bring my "real camera" to the beach. I wore it on a strap around my neck and it even had lenses that you could change out. But they both told me the same thing -- to leave it home since it was "too unwieldy" and I "might drop it or get water on it by mistake." But what was the point of even having a camera, if I could never use it? There were not many interesting things back in my town to take photos of. Except the river, and the sky if it wasn't cluttered by contrails or whining Acheron delivery drones.