.

Little Bro and I have a history of breaking places we travel to.

This mostly applies to me, but he does actively participate. It started when we spent a weekend in New York City the week before the events of 9-11. In all honesty, I didn’t feel guilty at all back then, because I didn’t know I might have anything to do with the terrorist attacks.

But then, in 2012, I booked a surprise trip for Chéri and I. We were just supposed to have a good time, visit Atlantic City and Philadelphia and enjoy a Montréal Canadians’ game South of the border. Not much later after getting back to Canada, Hurricane Sandy hit the coast, and Atlantic City really suffered from my visit. Bye bye boardwalk!

In 2015, Little Bro got back at me (obviously jealous), and was in Paris when the multiple terrorists’ attacks happened just a couple of blocks away from his hotel. At this point, we started to suspect something.

I thought it wasn’t that bad, as long as we didn’t bring the curse back home. But in July of 2019, after waiting months and months, our Imagine Dragons’ concert was cancelled when an unexpected massive thunderstorm forced the evacuation of the site. By the way, we missed their visit to Québec in July of 2021 (thank you, Covid!). And last week’s show was also postponed (really, Covid, thanks for the long run efforts), until May. I’ll be honest, I’m not holding my breath.

But the worst damage I believe I provoked, was when Chéri and I booked our flight to Australia, at the end of 2019. When we left Montréal’s airport, Aussiland was already struggling with major bush fires. We even had to re-think our journey at the last minute, because some of the places we were planning to visit were almost entirely burnt down. People were talking about an epidemic in Asia, but we still had no idea what was coming our way. Major bush fires and a world pandemic, I really outdid myself, wouldn’t you say?

Tonight, Little Bro sent me a note through Messenger.

Are you sure you didn’t go on a little trip to Ukraine without telling me?

I paused for a moment… And I got worried.

Could I be sleepwaking??

Sorry, Ukraine. I love you. I really hope this is not my fault.