The cuts that never made it and the crumbs from the editor’s table

I received an overwhelming response to the Maine travel blogs and people wrote back asking Paul's whereabouts that night. I know it sounds like some mini-version of Television Soap, but I still I felt there was an opportunity to let you behind the curtains and share details on cuts that never made it or the crumbs from the editors table. Hope you will enjoy…

That evening when Paul walked out…

I looked at Stephanie as Paul walked out, but didn’t want to make it too obvious by turning that into a discussion, though we knew where Paul was headed. It was a delicate situation for us, if we let the cat out of the bag then we were giving them an opportunity to trash Paul and by keeping silent we were fuelling too many conspiracy theories about Florida girls and Team India, but nevertheless we remained silent and go down together as “Team India”.

20 mins after Paul left, Stephanie and I finished the desert and said our good-byes to the table and walked out. We were clueless as we walked down the street, but our guess came true when we spotted Paul by himself in the bar by the street corner. Paul was seated in the exact same seat where we were before we headed out for the dinner. I looked at Stephanie and remarked, “this must be Paul’s eight beer for the night, is he on a beer binge or beer diet or Oktober fest at Maine in August?”

Stephanie and I split up and entered the bar from different doors, came from behind and put our hands on Paul. Paul wasn’t surprise at all, infact he asked us to take the chairs on either side. We confronted Paul asking if he was on a binge or diet and Paul responded that he was simply enjoying his vacation. We informed Paul about the possible conspiracies that we would have to face at the breakfast table next morning.

We laughed and Paul came up an idea…

The three-way…. what?… just a talk!

Stephanie lived in Germany for many years and spoke fluent German and Paul lived many years in Russia and spoke fluent Russian and I lived many years in Tamil Nadu and spoke fluent Tamil and also the three of us lived in Chennai at the same time just a mile away from each other.

So do you see something brewing here?

Paul came up with an ingenious plan and said we must shock the gang at the breakfast table next morning. Stephanie and I looked at each other while Paul narrated the plan.

So here is the plan….Paul would delivered a line in Russian and Stephanie was to received Paul’s line and respond in German, while I was supposed to respond back to Paul and Stephanie in Tamil. All three of us were to shake our heads in our own way and keep the conversation going till breakfast finished. How does that sound?

I almost jumped out of my chair in awe and giggles, while Paul calmed me down and said we must alter the pace of the conversation to keep it real and hooking. In the meantime, Stephanie suggested we do a dry-run now and get ready for the following morning. While we were meticulously practicing our dry-run, Paul got distracted by the well-dressed women sitting on the opposite side and speaking with the Mississippi accent. And that night our lines turned out to me more interesting than the woman at the bar. None of us had a clue what the other person was saying and we were in our own world, but having fun together.

On the way back to Mira Monte Inn, Paul, Stephanie and I got busy rehearsing our lines for the following morning and it almost looked like we were under a spell, a humorous one! But for others we appeared to be some drunken and stoned tourists.

Hope you enjoyed munching the crumbs from the editor’s table.

Vacations can be planned but the experiences, happenings, takeaways , humor can never be scripted. Come back next week for some bi-cycle philosphies!