Emma slept so well that night that she even woke up late the next day. It felt like a heavy burden on her chest had been lifted in part after she had a clearer direction in searching for her family.She would be patient and try to carry out her plans with Haoran. She would wait until she could contact AWA and go to the moon.
***
Their activities for the next two days felt more relaxed with various visits to the palace of Fountaineblue, Jardin du Tuileries, Montmarte market, and the Rodin Museum. In the free time on their last day in Paris, Alex invited his friends to visit the most famous cemetery in France, the Père Lachaise Cemetery.
There were many famous people buried in there, such as Jim Morrison, the lead singer of The Door; Edith Piaf, legendary French singer famous for her song La Vien Rose; John Keats, the famous poet; the legendary composer Frederic Chopin; a renown writer Oscar Wilde, etc.
"This is the most visited cemetery in the world," voiced Alex, who most enthusiastically took them to Père Lachaise. He even prepared a grave map of who they should visit there.
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"You are weird, huh ..." Haoran commented. "Tombtourist."
"You may not know this, but graveyard is an interesting place to visit. It just so happens that we are in Paris, of course, I will not miss visiting the very famous Père Lachaise. By the way, do you know what the most famous grave in the world is? Every year millions of people go there to visit ..." asked Alex while observing his friends with a mysterious expression. "People say this is also the most beautiful grave in the world."
His friends exchanged glances and then shook their heads. Emma furrowed her brows and then opened her mouth to say something, but Alex immediately gave a sign for her to keep quiet.
"If you can answer my question, what is the name of the grave, I will treat you to ice cream after we leave this cemetery," said Alex. "Emma can"t answer, I already told her this before. And you can"t open the internet."
"Ish ... the prize isn"t worth racking my brain," grumbled Haoran. "I"m out."
"What did you say?" asked Alex, glaring. "You don"t like ice cream, eh? Don"t take my ice cream when I buy one later."
Haoran only put his hands in his pockets and casually walked while observing the graves in front of them. Dinh seemed most eager to get free ice cream from Alex, and he tried to think hard to find out the answer. David and Eric just shrugged.
"Elvis Presley"s grave?" David asked. Alex shook his head.
"Princess Diana"s grave?" Eric tried to answer too, but his answer was still incorrect. Alex shook his head again.
Seeing his friends ready to just recite the names of any celebrities came to their minds, Alex hurriedly raised his hand and stopped them.
"You certainly won"t be able to guess it. What I mean is the Taj Mahal," said Alex.
"Eh, the Taj Mahal is a palace, right? How can you call it a grave?" Dinh was about to protest, but Alex immediately explained further.
"The Taj Mahal indeed looks like palace, but it was actually built as the tomb for a queen in Agra, India, by her husband. So the king of the Mughal, a kingdom in India hundreds of years ago, whose name was Syah Jahan was so in love with his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. His wife died while giving birth to their 14th child. He was devastated and inconsolable. To remember his wife, Syah Jahan ordered his people to build the most magnificent building to be his wife"s grave. The construction of this grave lasted for 22 years. After he died, he was also buried in the Taj Mahal, beside his wife."
Alex seemed very proud of his knowledge. "Taj Mahal became one of the world"s cultural heritage, and until now, it has become a symbol for undying love. Imagine ... Shah Jehan and Mumtaz Mahal were engaged since they were 14 years old and still very in love with each other until Mumtaz died at the age of 38. Imagine ... loving one person for almost your whole life ... "
His friends were impressed at Alex"s explanation.
"Wow ... I didn"t expect that at all. I thought that the Taj Mahal was just a beautiful palace ... that"s all," Dinh said admiringly. However, his expression turned sad. "So, we don"t get ice cream?"
"Buy it yourself," Alex said. They then proceeded to explore the cemetery and look at the tombs of famous people on Alex"s list. The young man repeatedly asked to be photographed in front of a grave to be posted on his social media.
"Why do you like graves anyway, Alex?" Haoran asked his friend once more after they finally left Père Lachaise and took a break at a cafe that sold ice cream. They finally enjoyed ice cream on Haoran"s treat.
"Uhm .. why do I like graves? I don"t know. I just find death fascinating," said Alex, shrugging. "We wouldn"t know whether our life meant something to others or not until we die. If we leave this world quietly, n.o.body feels at a loss, n.o.body is missing us... it means that our life was in vain."
"You sound poetic," Dinh commented as he devoured his ice cream.
"But this is true. You know what, when I die, and we are still friends, I will be very happy if you could visit my grave and perform some rituals such as the Poe Toaster ritual, for example ..." said Alex again.
"Toaster? With bread?" Eric asked in confusion.
"Not a toaster, you uncultured boy! Toaster as in people who drink alcohol and make a "toast"," Alex glared at him.
"Hahaha ... I"m sorry for my ignorance. Not all people share your enthusiasm about graves and deaths," David said in his defense. "So this toaster means, people bringing alcohol and drink it?"
Alex nodded. "This Poe Toaster is very famous in the past. The renowned writer, Edgar Allan Poe, died hundreds of years ago. Since 1924, a mysterious person always came to his grave on his birthday, every January 19 before dawn, bringing three red roses and a bottle of cognac.
S/he would drink and toast to honor Poe"s legacy, then leave his/her cognac bottle and the roses on Poe"s tomb. S/he did it for 75 years without missing a year. S/he only quit after 2009. Many people tried to photograph this mysterious person. Still, no one has ever managed to find out who s/he really is ..."
"Wow ... you know a lot, this kind of thing," David commented. "If only your interest in school is as high as your interest in graves, I"m sure your test scores would have been in Cla.s.s A by now."
Alex just shrugged. "Yeah ... but what do you think? Exciting, right, if we make a pact like that. When I die, all of you should come to my grave every May 16 and toast for me."
His friends nodded.
"Of course. But don"t die too quickly ..." Dinh said, hitting Alex on the shoulder. "You make me shudder by talking about death on such a nice sunny day."
Emma heard from Haoran that the five young men had been friends for more than twelve years. Seeing their closeness until now, she had no doubt that they would continue being friends until they were all grown up as adults and even grow old and gray together.
She could imagine that they would later come together in old age at the grave of one of them who died first, and drink together, as Alex wanted.
"When I die, I don"t want to be buried in a grave," Haoran said suddenly. "I want to be a tree. Just bury me in the garden and plant a nice tree on it. That way, I can be useful."
Dinh seemed to shudder at Haoran"s words.
"Ouch ... why the heck do you keep talking about death? Let"s talk about other things," he said. "Let"s talk about shopping for souvenirs. Tomorrow night we will go back to Singapore. I want to make time to buy souvenirs in the morning."
Emma just smiled at the interaction of the five young men. She was happy they decided to go to Paris and not go on the study trip to China. They made her enjoy this visit to Paris in addition to finding clues about her parents.