Merry Christmas to the FFN community! Have a happy and safe holiday :)
"And I pray that the people traveling would be safe, and I pray that horses outside wouldn't freeze in the snow, and I pray that there would be enough food for everyone in the whole wide world…"
Little Cosette paused from her whispered prayer, wiped a prickly spider from where it had found itself on her bare and shivering elbow, and began once more into the long list of wishes; the way so many children like herself pray.
"And I pray that the mice in the cellar would leave by themselves so they wouldn't get caught in the traps anymore, and I pray that 'Zelma would find the shoe she's been missing…"
There was a creak on the steps above Cosette's head, and she flinched, looking slightly upward at the uneven boards. She fingered the dust that had fallen down into her pale locks of hair. Her eyes lit up subtly with a joyful childish thought.
"And I pray that Madame's baby will hurry up and come soon (Madame looks awful, God!)." Cosette spoke more softly and more quickly as she rose from her meager pallet and steadied herself against the papered wall. "Oh, and please don't let her trip on the stairs again. It scared us so much!"
The little nook where Cosette slept was just a couple of foot-lengths away from the corner that looked out into the parlor, and she covered that space in no time at all, her feet bare and dirty on the wooden floor. She held her breath as she moved, anxious at what she would see upon peering into the room. She sneaked a look backwards at the single wooden shoe that still rested beside her bed.
It was a ridiculous act to put her shoe out in the first place, Cosette knew, picturing her own clog resting beside the dainty slippers of the Thenardier girls.
What she had wished so actively would not fit in a shoe.
"And I pray that Madame and Monsieur Thenardier would not make me kill anymore spiders, since I hate it so much," Cosette continued in her head. "And I pray that when the sea and the lakes unfreeze at the end of the winter, the water wouldn't flood the world like 'Ponine said it would."
Cosette stood frozen for an eternity, it seemed, listening with anxiety to the sound of careful movement coming from the next room. It was a smart thing of Pere Noel to move so gingerly, she thought, so as not to wake up 'Ponine and 'Zelma, whose rooms came off of the parlor. They would be grumpy and blame it on Cosette, or at least before they realized that Pere Noel was there. Then they would be happy, because they would see he had left coins in their shoes.
But I get to see him first, Cosette thought happily. She eased herself further towards the corner, and in one swift movement, she looked around it and into the parlor. One final happy thought filled her mind: I wonder what my mother will look like…
It was not Pere Noel in the parlor. It was Monsieur Thenardier, rummaging through a guest's rucksack, left carelessly on the table while the owner was in a drunken state, no doubt.
Cosette returned to her bed as silently as she had left it, and she listened as the small man finished with his business and hurried back up the stairs, his pockets overflowing with stolen coins. Tears in her grey eyes, Cosette started back into her prayer, her whispering voice breaking slightly with withheld emotion.
"And God, please tell Pere Noel where to find my mother, if he doesn't already know. I would very much like to see her, as soon as he can bring her. And he is just worried that she won't fit in my shoe, please tell Pere Noel he can just bring her to the hallway by the stairs, so I can see her as soon as I wake up."
Cosette yawned and rolled over so that she was facing the wall. She pulled the derisory blanket up to her shoulders, so that her feet were now exposed, and she closed her eyes in an attempt to fall asleep.
In her head, she made one final addition to her Christmas wishes.
"And God, wherever she is, please make my mother be alright."