Morning Pages

Nina pressed her notebook against her chest as she walked through the cobblestone streets of Paris. The morning air was crisp, and the Eiffel Tower gleamed in the distance like a golden giant.

"Bonjour, Nina!" called Madame Dubois from her flower shop. "Off to school?"

Nina nodded and waved, but her grip on the notebook tightened. Inside its purple cover were her most precious thoughts—stories about talking pigeons, secret recipes for cloud cookies, and drawings of flying bicycles. She had been writing in it every morning for three months.

As she turned down Rue Saint-Antoine, Nina noticed a man in a gray coat reading a newspaper at the café corner. He glanced up when she passed. Strange. She had seen him yesterday too, hadn't she?

Nina quickened her pace. The man folded his newspaper and stood up.

Her heart began to race. Was he following her?

The Laundromat Trap

Nina darted around the corner, her sneakers slipping on the wet cobblestones. The man in the gray coat was definitely following her. She needed somewhere to hide.

A bright yellow sign caught her eye: "Laverie Automatique" - a laundromat. Nina pushed through the glass door, bells jingling above her head. The warm air smelled like soap and fabric softener.

"Excusez-moi, petite!" called a woman with short black hair from behind the counter. She wore paint-splattered overalls and had kind brown eyes. "You look frightened. Are you okay?"

Before Nina could answer, the door chimed again. The gray coat man stepped inside, scanning the room. Nina ducked behind a row of washing machines, clutching her notebook tighter.

"I'm looking for a girl," the man said in accented English. "About eleven years old. She has something that belongs to my employer."

The woman crossed her arms. "I see many children here. What makes this one special?"

"She carries a purple notebook. Very important business documents inside."

Nina's heart pounded. Business documents? Her stories about cloud cookies weren't business anything! But the man seemed very serious about getting her notebook.