Author's Note: Happy Festival of Fools day Hunchback fans! To celebrate as I write this, instead of watching the Disney movie since I'm too lazy to go downstairs and get the vhs out and fastforward through the trailers and whatnot, I am actually watching the 1930s version instead since it's already on the dvr.
It started off as a normal, boring morning. We had the house to ourselves, just me and the dog. It wasn't until around noon that things started to change.
I removed my lunch from the microwave, sat down in front of the tv and began to eat when all of a sudden I heard something rather unexpected: bells. And not just any bells, church bells. I thought that maybe I was just hearing things, but apparently my dog heard them too because he was barking like crazy. I looked outside through the windows of all four sides of the house, yet I didn't see anything. After I finished eating, I turned off the tv and went upstairs to find an even more unbelievable surprise waiting for me.
As I turned the corner of the upstairs hallway into my room, I nearly screamed. Standing there in my room browsing through my clothes was a man! A tall, skinny, dark-skinned man with shoulder-length dark hair, facial hair, and a jester-like outfit of pink, purple, blue, and yellow. "No, no, none of this will ever do!" he exclaimed as he stared at my closet.
"What the hell is going on?" I shouted. The man turned towards me. "Who are you and how did you get in here?"
"Allow me to introduce myself," the man said approaching me. "I am Clopin Trouillefou, at your service madmoiselle." He took off his hat and bowed before taking my hand and kissing it. "And I am here to help get you ready."
"Get me ready for what?"
"Don't you know what day it is?"
"It's Friday." He gestured with hands to keep going. "January sixth. Wait a minute." It took me a minute but the lyrics then played in my head: "Scurvy knaves are extra scurvy on the sixth of January…"
"Oh my God, today is the Festival of Fools!"
"Exactly!"
"But what's going on? Why are you here?"
"I'm here to get you ready for the festival! But you have nothing suitable to wear. Thankfully I am always prepared!" He pulled out from nowhere a bag from the side of my bed, and from the bag a gypsy-style dress with the same colors as his outfit. After attempting to drop subtle hints for him to leave while I changed. "Fine, fine, I'm leaving," he said as he closed my doors.
I looked in the mirror once I changed. I looked just like a female version of Clopin! I opened the doors to find him sitting in a chair outside my room. He told me to come with him and I followed him downstairs to the front door. I looked out the windows and still nothing was different. "Brace yourself," he said quietly with a sly smile. As he opened the door, I nearly passed out from shock.
Right outside was no longer my driveway and neighborhood, but 15th century Paris! I ran back inside to look through the windows once again, still nothing, but through the main entrance were hundreds of people and old buildings with decorations all over the place. "Welcome to Topsy Turvy Day!" Clopin shouted with delight.
I slowly walked out, practically unable to breathe from all the bewilderment and wonder. As I ventured further, I looked up and looming over me was Notre Dame! I looked up and gasped when I saw someone up above looking down at me. I ran into Clopin's arms and pointed up, only this time no one was there.
Finally the festivities began. All around me was singing and dancing. I was so caught up in everything that I barely noticed a dark cloud that nearly infected the fun we were having; the dark cloud's name was Frollo. All I could do was breathe heavily and stare at him and he stared at me in return.
Once our gazes broke, everyone gathered around the small stage in the center of the crowd. Clopin made a grand introduction and with a puff of smoke he disappeared and dancing in his place was the beautiful gypsy La Esmeralda. After she finished dancing, it was time to crown the King of Fools. After removing an assortment of masks, the one man left unfortunately was not wearing a mask. It was Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame. Everybody gasped in horror upon seeing him, but I couldn't. All I could feel was pity for the poor man. "Ladies and gentlemen, don't panic!" Clopin exclaimed. "We asked for the ugliest face in all of Paris and here he is!" The expressions of horror soon become that of joy as they placed a crown on his head and started parading him through the streets. When Clopin handed him the staff, I could see tears of joy forming in his eyes.
Soon things turned ugly though as out of nowhere the people began to throw things at him, tying him down and calling him names. I couldn't bear to watch such cruelty any longer, so I shoved my way through the crowd and tried to return in the direction of my house.
As soon as I found the front door, I ran inside and slammed it, turning the lock. I released a sigh of relief; grateful to be back home, when sitting there in front of the door tilting his head in utter confusion was my dog. "Don't ask," I said to him as I made my way upstairs to my bed. I plopped down and stared at the ceiling. "How am I supposed to follow up on all of that?" I asked myself. All of a sudden I shot up as I could feel the light bulb click above my head. Immediately I grabbed my laptop, opened Microsoft Word and began typing away. "No one is going to believe this! They'll think it's just a story!" And with that I finished typing and uploaded the final product to , anticipating the reviews awaiting me.