Sixteen-year-old Antoinette Leroux lived alone with her father since her mother died when Antoinette was only three. Ever since her mother died, her father drank heavily and abused the girl. The only happiness she knew came form an old violin she had inherited from her mother.
She had been taught to play by an old lady who used to live nearby, but the old lady had been dead now for almost five years. Antoinette, in memory of the lady and of her mother, played her violin everyday even though it never failed to spark her father's anger.
One summer afternoon she was walking on a hill near her house and saw a carnival being set up. Maybe they needed help with something! Antoinette didn't have anything else to do and the call of possibly being paid money was strong, so she ran down the hill to the carnival where she found a tall, muscled man leading animals into a tent.
"Is there anything you need help with?" Antoinette asked him, slightly nervous by his huge frame.
The man stopped and looked down at her. "The boss doesn't like outsiders to help," he responded. "And there's no work for a girl to do here." He started to go back to work, but she stopped him.
"I can do anything you can do!" she said, but knew it was a lie. "You don't have to pay me and your boss doesn't need to know, does he?"
The man sighed. "Fine, but if the boss finds out, I've never seen you before. Understood?"
Four hours later the man pulled Antoinette aside and took out a slip of paper form his pocket. "Here," he said, handing it to her. It was a ticket to the carnival. "This is for your help."
"Thank you!" Antoinette said taking the ticket. She smiled up at him. "May I explore a little before going home…..Monsieur….?" she trailed, not knowing his name.
The man gave her a warm look. "Just call me Gustav," he answered. "And yes, you may. But if you're caught by the boss-"
"You've never seen me," she finished and ran off.
She came to a tent and went inside, finding cages of animals lining the tent walls.
As she walked through, she heard sobbing. She wondered what animal could possibly make that sound. She realized it was human. Immediately she went in search of the pitiful soul that was sobbing as if their entire world had crashed down on them.
Antoinette came to a large cage with a harp sitting in the middle of it. 'What's a harp doing here?' she thought. She looked closer and saw the thin form of a man curled into a ball against the farthest set of bars in the cage. This person's body was nearly convulsing from the force of his sobs.
Why was this man in a cage?! Antoinette's heart ached for this person. It was clear his pain was emotional and not physical despite his being as thin as a skeleton.
The man didn't seem to notice her, so she took a step forward and opened her mouth to speak.
Before she could make a sound, a hand clamped over her mouth and drug her struggling out of the tent.
