Unbeareble alone

Hey!

This story has flown from a question I had. What happened to the other kids of Jean Valjean's sister? Where did they go? And what would a family do to survive together.

Enjoy,
TempeGeller

Disclaimer: It's Victor Hugo, who made up the lovely world of Les Misérables. It's me who gave a face to the 6 unnamed children of Jeanne Valjean (Jean Valjean's sister) And how they survive. Mister Victor Hugo said they existed, I gave them a face.

Chapter 1: Winter in Brie

As all winters in Brie, this one turned out to be a silent killer. Young Jeanne Boussard remembered how her mother and youngest brother just took off. If her mother had forgotten they existed? She didn't know. She remembered how her uncle Jean Valjean had been arrested for stealing a loaf of bread. A bread for his family. After the arrest, she had been able to find the bread. When jumping down, her uncle had dropped it. The police hadn't notice the bread between the dirt. You wouldn't eat it, if you hadn't been starving. It was drained with rain water.

Right now Jeanne pulled her legs closer to her body. Her shoes had been broken and didn't keep the cold out, so she had tossed them on the side of the road. Right now she wished that she hadn't thrown out her shoes, but dried them. Her hands and feet were freezing, and finding a job in the mids of Winter wasn't easy. Jeanne was 14 years old, the second oldest brother was only 13. Both of them were in charge of their household after their mother had just decided to head to Paris. Heading to Paris was no option for them, right now they were sure they wouldn't be able to survive the long road there. Everyone talked about the opportunities Paris offered. Other people talked about the poverty people struggled with. Either way, they would either find dead or life there. It wasn't that different from their life in Brie. Death and poverty were daily struggle. Sometimes they were surprised to wake up in the morning. Specially during cold hard winters, most people needed to find warm shelter. And most people wouldn't find that. In the bare streets, people easily froze to dead.
"Do you have a job?" Jeanne whispered to the man passing by.
She turned away from the man. A 'no' had been a disappointment. Right now it was tempting to slam her hand through the window of a shop and take what she wanted. Food for her brothers and sisters. Why hadn't her mother bothered to take them? Would it be easier to find a job accompanied by 1 kid instead of 7?
"Jeanne…" Gerald stepped towards. He had a smile on his face or something that looked like a smile. She closed her arms around her little brother. 13 years old and he was responsible for his brothers. It wasn't that uncommon to be responsible for a family at this age. Parents left their kids all the time in areas like this. Most of the times they died after a short time. Disease or the cold got to them.

"What's wrong Gerald?" Jeanne turned to him. "Did you leave the rest alone?"
"I left Claude in charge." Gerald replied "He's 11 after all. I went out to find a job. And I did, Mrs. Prudeux next door asked to get some firewood. She's giving us a full of two francs!"
Marie Prideux was one of the richest persons of Brie, she had grown very rich after her late husband had passed away. No one knew how the family had gotten that rich. Yet everyone loathed them for it. Their oldest son Henri was 15 years old and he was anything but nice. He was a prejudice man, who stumbled across the roads like he was so much better than anyone else. The Prideux moved here a bit before the 'Jean Valjean' situation. Yet, they didn't let that cloud their right to judge her family. Henri mostly called Jeanne a street rat. Why he would do that was a clear judgment. Yet it seemed that the hate was returned by Jeanne. No one liked Henri, why would she be any different?

"2 francs?" Jeanne smiled "At least it's something!"
"That's what I thought!" Gerald smiled "At least we'll be able to buy a loaf of bread"
"Isn't that ironic?" Jeanne gave a soft smile

"Any luck for you?" Gerald turned to her. "Found anything?"
"Nothing but a small piece of food." Jeanne smiled "Looks like you had more luck. They're not hiring in the factory and I haven't been able to find a job in any of the shops."
"Mrs. Pridieux said she would need more wood…" Gerald spoke "She also needs some help in the household. She offers to pay us 40 francs a month.
"Looking after such a big house is a lot of work…" Jeanne spoke "It will take all of us. And even then. Do you think 40 francs can take care of our whole family?"
"It will do…" Gerald smiled "At least we wouldn't be starving."
"But they're the Pridieux's! You know how they are…" Jeanne spoke "
"Money is money, Jeanne."
"40 Francs for cleaning the house." Jeanne turned to him. "Running the household and stuff, it's so much work. We'll have to spend all of our time at Pridieux family."
"Jeanne, we make some money every weeks." Gerald spoke "This is a steady income."
"I know."

"That's good, cause I already told her we'd do it."

Jeanne turned towards him. For years they had been eating things the people had gave them. When their mother took off, the 6 of them had been left alone. They could survive the first couple winters by working some jobs. People needed help and they could make a franc from time to time. She admitted to herself that her brother was right. This job would bring a certain peace to their life. They wouldn't be hungry all the time. 40 franc sure wasn't a lot of money. But they would be able to spend 10 francs a week on food. More than the two francs they had today.
Her mom would have taken the job. In their neighborhood nothing better was ever going to come along.

"It's that ore move to Paris." Gerald raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure it's fun to starve in Paris."
"Gerald!" Jeanne showed him a weak smile. "We both know you wouldn't like Paris."
"Maybe, but you know what they say…"
"Oh, I know…" Jeanne turned to him. "What do they say?"
"I have no idea!"

Little 10 year old Marie Boussard turned a bit in between the wet sheets that she considered her bed. It was a simple sack on straw and a couple of torn up sheets she had found in the Prideux garbage. They were soaked from the water that had flowed through a hole in the roof. Luckily it hadn't been freezing. Marie thought about moving her bed somewhere else, but the room was occupied with the beds of her younger sister Adelaide. They had taken in this room. Her brothers had taken the room next door. The oldest Boussard slept in the small living room. It was a small house that had been abandoned by the previous inhabitants. In a way they were squatters. If the police found out they were staying here, they would be thrown on the streets. Renting a house with their money was impossible. Yet, no one ever cared they were staying here. Everyone in their neighborhood stayed in the same illegal way. The police was too busy chasing after other demons to take on the Squatter problem in Brie.

Marie sat up. She pulled the dead cat closer to her body. The lack of a doll had driven her to taking a dead cat as an excuse for a doll. The smell was beyond compare, but it gave her a fake feeling of security. The decomposing process had started, so she had sown the animal back together. She made it so there wouldn't be anything worst. Hugging a dead animal was beyond sick. Even Marie thought that, but she was unable to let the feeling of a doll go. All dolls in this neighborhood stank, right? Maybe Marie should sow some sheets together. But the sheets were to keep her warm. Not to give her a feeling of comfort. Marie stared up. She could get a table, or any wood. So she wouldn't be right under the open sky. Only now she noticed how big the hole in the ceiling was. She pushed the 'doll' behind her and slowly reached her hand to the side of the room. There was an improvised ladder, her sister Adelaide had made it. Adelaide was a creative type for her family's standard. She liked to draw. And to do that, she needed to get creative. Paper or anything that normal artists used was not something that was cheap. So, young Adelaide used the white trashwood of the family Dupont. She burned some of the wood in an open fire to create something to draw with. She would use stones and any natural resource to show color. She pulled herself on the ceiling. Her sister was staring at the sinking of the sun.
"Adelaide…"
"You still have that dead cat, don't you?" Adelaide turned to her. "It's truly sick, Marie."

"Well, it helps me." Marie sat down next to her. "Where do you think mom is?"
"I don't know…" Adelaide grabbed the wood. "And I don't care. Don't you see Marie, she left us!"
"Well, she'll be back." Marie smiled "When she made enough money!"
"She didn't care for us!" Adelaide said "It's been five years, I don't even remember her."

"So, she hasn't had the time to…"
"Face it!" Adelaide stared at the son. "she's not coming back, Marie. It's just us, we'll have to take care of herself. It happens all the time, she couldn't offered taken care of us, so she left us to die. You should be happy that we made it here as long as we did…"
"Addy."

Marie slowly stood up. She stared at the sun. Maybe it was true, but Marie was the only child that was hopeful. She hoped her mother would return to Brie. That she would get them. There wasn't a day that Marie didn't visit the graveyard and hoped to see her mother on her father's graveside. Yet never had it happened. Never had her mother appeared. Marie pulled her dark black curling hair together and dropped it again to her shoulders. Her eyes were blue, just like her mothers. She looked like a 10 year old in every side of the word. Her clothes were simple drapes that she had sown together in a dress. She had made a belt from some lose rope. Her shoes were simple sacks to keep something. In every sense of the word she looked poor. In the winter it seemed cold. So she would throw some sheets over her shoulders.

Marie smiled for a moment. Would life change or would this hell be the life she had? Why was life so bad for her? When Thomas Pridieux, one of the meanest persons on the block, got everything he wanted? Why did the rich get everything? Why she had to go without food for days? Marie stared at the sun. She hoped life would get better. And with that she closed her eyes, she wished for a better life. She hoped tomorrow would be better.