Live, Laugh, Luke

Chapter 12

The tourist travels in his own atmosphere like a snail in his shell and stands, as it were, on his own perambulating doorstep to look at the continents of the world. But if you discard all this, and sally forth with a leisurely and blank mind, there is no knowing what may not happen to you.

Freya Stark

Luke's POV

One of my favorite parts about touring was getting to see all the new countries and places we got to visit. Yet, in talking to her, I got the feeling I was barely scratching the surface. After we had gotten into the car and she'd given the directions to the driver, we got to talking about all the places we'd seen. While we both had seen and what we'd done there. For example, we'd both been to the Grand Canyon, but only one of us had gone on a helicopter flight over it followed by ziplining down through it. And I'd lived in Australia my whole life but had I ever actually gone scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef. And while it definitely sounded like she was an adrenaline junkie, she also seemed to take the time to learn the history of the place or a bit about the culture. Apparently she got that part from her parents. Each place they visited, her and her sister would have to write a report or do some sort of presentation on the people.

"My sister always preferred the technology and inventions of the place while I always cared more for the languages and music," she explains.

"Can you speak any?" I ask.

"Well, I know English, obviously-"

"Really?" I interrupt with a grin. She returns my smile, narrowing her eyes before continuing.

"I'm almost fluent in Spanish and then my French is passable. I had to learn a bit of Japanese to survive there. I'd like to learn Chinese next, but that'd take forever. But if I did, I could laugh at everyone who thought their chinese tattoo meant one thing when it really meant like pig or noodle or something. I did make it a point to learn how to say 'I love you' everywhere we went though."

"Oh yea? How many can you do? Go." I challenge.

"I love you, Te amo, Ti amo, T'estimo, Wo ai ni" she begins, ticking them off as she goes. "Je t'aime, Ich hab dich lieb, Táim i ngrá leat, just learned that one in Ireland, ummm Aishiteru, Eu te amo," She reaches ten and with a laugh I hold out my own hands to continue the tally "Te dua, Ek het jou lief, S'agapo, Kei te aroha au ki a koe, Kungkungullun Ngune, ummmm I can't remember any more... she says trailing off. "Oh wait," she says holding up her hand in the rock out sign except her thumb is out. "American Sign Language," she says with a grin. "16, really? I could've sworn it was more... I've got them all written down somewhere," she says with a shrug, finally looking up. "Sorry, sometimes I just can't shut up." I can't help but grin. The fact she was so passionate about something was one of the most interesting things about her. Definitely not something she should be apologizing for. She wore her emotions on her sleeve. I could practically see what she was thinking by watching the expressions flit across her face. She was an open book.

"So, where are we going anyways?" I ask after I realize I'm just grinning at her like a fool.

"It's a surprise," she says with a wink. "I just hope you're not afraid of heights."

"Are we going to the Shard?" I ask, hazarding a guess.

"Nope," she smirks. "That's too obvious. Typical tourist things are fine, but I prefer to take the unbeaten path."

"Are we going on one of the Red Bus Tours?" I ask, looking out the window trying to figure out what thing would involve heights.

"Will you stop trying to guess?" she laughs. "You're not going to get it."