The Winged Curse - Leah Crowe (best book club books for discussion .TXT) 📗

turned and I knew he could see me. Sadly, I blushed like a maniac and I knew he'd see that, too! Thankfully, he turned and walked over to a laptop on a desk in his room.

I walked into my room and saw I had one too! My room was huge and I'm pretty sure the bed took up a forth of it! I grabbed the laptop and leaped onto the bed. Turning it on, I waited for the laptop to load and then got on the Internet. Everything was in french so I had to change the settings. I thought about how Thomas wouldn't need to change the language settings and I blushed. I then smacked myself in the head for melting over some french! I mean, it was the language of love and all but that was no excuse at all! I got on Google and looked up large malls in Paris. Many results came up but one stood out from allt he others. It seemed pretty big, too. It was called, Carrousel du Louvre and it was located next to the Louvre Pyramid. (The world famous art museum!) What caught my eye the most was their food court. There were about 14 different food stalls from around the world. They had mexican, japanese, chinese, moroccan, etc. I was sure that was where we were supposed to go. I walked into Thomas's room with the laptop. "Hey, I think I found it!" I said and I handed him the laptop. Thomas looked at the name and nodded. "Yes, that is a big one indeed!" He exclaimed. "It's going to be hard finding him in there. C'est l'assistant darn ..." "I don't know if I want to know what you just said. Anyways, let's go check it out tomorrow." I said and I walked back over to my room. I walked into the bathroom that was the size of my old bedroom back home! I decided to soak in the tub and so I took a nice, long, relaxing bath and said Nuit Nuit to Thomas and went to bed.

The next day, we drove to the Carrousel du Louvre and as I walked in I would've sworn I was in a museum if I didn't know better! This was by far the oddest muse-I mean mall I'd ever been to! Thomas weaved through the crowds with me like a ghost behind him. He read the french signs till he came upon some restuarants. "What now?" I whispered in his ear. "I don't know. He didn't give me any other instructions." Thomas replied softly. And so we waited...
And waited...
AND WAITED!
Until I was ready to go home! "Ugh! This is obviously not the right place." I said, "Let's go-" "Wait!" Thomas cut me off and wormed through the crowd. I had no choice but to follow him. He stopped at a wall with nothing on it but a piece of paper with our names on it. It read:
Great job finden this! Time, ein Flugzeug nach Berlin, Deutschland zu nehmen! Sie wissen, ist Hitler mein Idol! Warum versuchst du nicht an einen Ort, wo WWII erwähnt zu finden?

CHAPTER 9
Off to Germany!



Thomas had grabbed the sheet of paper and we fled the mall. Once in the car, I began examining the paper. "I cannot read this thing." I moaned. When we arrived at the hotel, Thomas took it from me and looked at it. "It's German," He said, "It says, Great job finding this! Time to take a plane to Berlin, Germany! You know, Hitler is my idol! Why don't you try to find a WWII site?" I looked at him incredulously. "So you know french AND german?!" I near shouted. He smiled at me sheepishly. "Actually I know about twenty different languages." I stared at him, openmouthed. Of course, he couldn't see that... "Wow." Was all I could say. We walked into the hotel and I sighed, "I'm going to miss Paris." He replied, "Ma chérie, Paris détient la clé de votre c½ur!" "Repeat that?" I asked. "It means, My darling, Paris holds the key to your heart." Thomas said poetically. I felt my cheeks turn hot. I really needed to get out of this romancing city... "You, Thomas, are officially my living Google Translator!" I said laughing nervously. I was not

going to fall for the guy I was being forced to marry! "Well, I guess we should pack up," Thomas said, "Off to Germany!"

As I got off the plane in Germany, I thought of my house in Vermont. I thought of my sad life before I started world hopping. I was getting used to the constant travel and new sites. It actually was pretty exciting! Minus the fact that no one could see me, I was pretty much getting a free tour of the world with Thomas. I wanted to get rid of these curses but I liked the view along the way. Thomas rented a car and we drove out to a cottage at the edge of Berlin, Germany. I walked in and found it was a sight different from our fancy hotel/house in Paris. It was homeier and I liked it just as much as our other sleeping destinations. I found an old computer sitting on a worn desk in the corner of my room so I booted it up and began to search for WWII sites. There were many WWII sites in Berlin and I really didn't know which one to choose. I had been gone from my home in Vermont for a week and a half now and I hadn't checked my email once so I decided to go ahead and check it out since I had nothing better to do. I was stumped... I opened my account and found an email from an unknown address. I clicked on it and it read:
Oops! Ich wollte nicht angeben, welche Platz in Berlin! Vielleicht wird dies Ihnen helfen! Meine Lieblings-Konzentrationslager = Raben + brook. Hoffe, das hilft!

Ta ta for now!
Simon

I recognized the name Simon and quickly called Thomas. "What does it say?" I asked him when he finally found an "empty" chair and knew it was me. He read the email and began writing it's translation down on paper. He wrote:
Oops! I did not specify what place in Berlin! Maybe this will help you! My Favorite concentration camp = raven + brook. Hope this helps!

Ta ta for now!
Simon

I stared at the paper and something from 7th grade history came to mind. I quickly typed in 'concentration camps in Berlin' on Google and found that there was a memorial museum for a concentration camp named Ravensbrück! It all fit! "That's where we need to go!" I pointed to the screen, then rolled my eyes and said, "Look at the screen!" Thomas peered down at it and smiled. "Yup, that fits the "riddle". Good job Beth! Your finding every place we need to go to!" He said. I gushed, "Oh, it wasn't hard. You would've gotten it too!" "Well, I just hope this is our last stop in this little game the wizard is playing or else Ich werde Squash seinen Kopf wie eine Tomate!" Thomas said, finishing in German and pumping his fist. Whatever he had said, it probably wasn't nice... "It's been fun, but your right. I'd like to be seen. Well, it's too late to go now but in the morning, we shall make our last crazy stop around the world! Danke for paying for all this." I said using the only German I knew. (Danke means thanks) "Ihr herzlich willkommen! That means 'Your welcome!' It's been fun." Thomas said and he extended his hand for me to shake but it was a little too far to the left. I saw him gasp silently as part of his hand disapeared when I grabbed it. I laughed! "Goodnight! We are almost back to normal. Now get out of my room so can go to bed!" I yelled and pushed him out. I stuck out my tongue and slammed shut the door. I smiled to myself. I was always a very depressed girl but when I was with Thomas gallavanting across the world, I found myself happier than I'd ever been before...

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Text: This book cannot be copied without author's consent
Publication Date: 06-08-2011

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Dedication:
This book is for all those who really wish they could fly...