On January 20th, a Wednesday, I got the call. It was 3 p.m. California time,  12 p.m. Paris. My youngest son picked up. He was happy as usual, to hear his brother's voice, he started telling him about  his day... but he was insistent, asking for me.... 

"Hello..? How's it going! " I chimed....

"Mama...? Don't worry...." 

"Why...? What happened.....?

"I just don't want you to worry, O.K.?"

"What happened ....!" I could hear the hysteria mounting in my own voice....

"I was attacked....." he sobbed..."I was attacked, I was beaten... but I am fine..."

 -- I could hear the slur in his voice, he was definitely not fine. 

"You need to tell me. What happened....how badly hurt are you....?"

"They broke my teeth." 

--  I think I screamed at this point. My two youngest didn't know what was going on, but they were huddling around me, crying. I was also crying.... his teeth! He has always had the whitest teeth, it was of the most prominent smiles in his prom pictures... I brushed those teeth when he was a little boy....! And he definitely  hadn't said tooth it was more than one...

"How many...? How many teeth?"

"Three", he said, " I think three".

"What else?"

"My eye. I can't see. It's closed"

-- I realized then that this was serious....

"Where are you?"

"I am at Madame's (Renaud) house, she's here with me. She picked me up from the hospital..." -- The hospital....! Oh my god, he has been in the hospital...! The more I tried to wrap my mind around it the more impossible it seemed. What could I do? 7,000 miles away. How can I help my son? Who is going to take care of him... watch over him.... the hospital....!     and then she spoke:

"He is OK, our son, he is fine, I will take care of him. He is like my son. I love him like my son. He is such a good boy, this is a terrible thing to have happen but don't you worry, I will take care of our son, the police have been called. My son in law went after them...."

 She spoke in a combination of French and Spanish. She sounded very sweet, very reassuring. then she switched the phone back over to him. I didn't now what to say to him. I didn't know what I could do. he was so. far. way.  He sounded so sad. His dream shattered. His sense of security gone. He said he wanted to come home. I told him to go to sleep. Try to rest. I needed to figure out our next step...

I hung up. I cried. I told the children what had happened. I remember hearing Remy, wailing...no...! My brother...! His teeth.....! They both cried, we all cried....then I called our friend. Monsieur K. 

"I need a ticket to Paris." I said...

"When do you want to leave....?" 

Just like that. No questions asked. He knew I wouldn't ask if it weren't indispensable. I told him what had happened. He offered unwavering support. Without me even having a passport, it was decided I would go. At first I was going to bring the children with me. But it was decided that I needed to be 100 percent available to my oldest son. He needed me like he had never needed me before.

I am amazed at all I accomplished in the next 2 days. I called the University here in the States and was given the telephone number of the head of the study abroad program, I called him at home. He was very concerned and promised to call the offices in Paris and make sure he was well taken care of. By the following morning, he had done just that. The people at the Micefa were on their way to Madame Renaud's to check on him and on his status. He also told me that after speaking to the Micefa people he had learned that my son was one of the best students they had ever had. He said that everyone in the office spoke very highly of him and that even one of the professors at the Sorbonne had contacted the Micefa to let them now how impressed he was with my son. The University liaison said that he was deeply saddened  that this had happened to mar his french experience but that he hoped he would overcome it. As for the hospital and any other expenses, the university would take care of it. All of it. We were not to worry about money at all. And this was good. Because in addition to the natural worry for his health, at the back of my brain there had been this little wrinkle that I had not been wanting to acknowledge...My sister was frantic...I am sure that if I hadn't found the means, it would have been her on the first flight out to Paris....as it as, I was able to obtain my passport on Thursday and left for Paris on Friday morning at 5 a.m.