Chapter 9: An Apparition in Binondo

I slept well. Back then, I still could afford to. It was a good thing I was able to wake up right when I wanted to, before six in the morning. Oddly enough though, Juli's cubicle was silent. Where had she been all evening?

The answer came when I got downstairs; Basilio and Juli were in the front room. To be more exact, Basilio was dozing on a bench, while Juli was stretched out on a chair. "Wake up!" I hissed, shaking Juli's chair a little.

She groaned and opened her eyes. "What time is it?"

"Six? Where have you been?"

"Sapang." She coughed as she sat up, which was enough to make Basilio open his eyes and get up as well. "I'd better get ready for work now."

"You ought to rest," Basilio said. He went over to her and put a hand on her forehead. "And you've got a fever."

"I'll be fine!"

"Um, no. I'm not even touching you, and you already feel hot," I said. Besides, Juli was so pale and she looked as if she would fall over. "You get her upstairs, I'll tell Mister Fauchelevent that Juli's not coming in today."

Basilio nodded and Juli mumbled something like a 'thank you' before I hurried out. The street was beginning to wake up but there were hardly any jeepneys coming down that way. When I arrived at the Musain, Mister Fauchelevent and Cosette were there, setting the places.

"You're early, Miss Thenardier," Mister Fauchelevent greeted me. Cosette waved. I hoped I remembered to smile.

"Juli isn't coming in today. She's sick," I said.

Cosette put down the napkin she'd been folding. "She's at your boarding house, right? Does she need anything?" she asked.

"Sleep. Anyway, Basilio is with her," I said. Even so, Cosette disappeared into the back, asking Miss Fantine if they had any extra medicine lying around.

Mister Fauchelevent nodded to me. "How is her family?" he asked.

"I don't know, she didn't tell me," I said.

"I must speak to her later," Mister Fauchelevent said. "If you don't mind waiting a little bit, I will have some rice, eggs, and sausages out. And there's hot chocolate, or are you more into coffee?"

"I don't mind at all," I said, remembering that yes, Marius was supposed to meet me. "But I'm not really hungry, so maybe just some coffee please?"

"You need to eat more," Mister Fauchelevent said before he left me alone. It was at that moment that Cosette returned, carrying her schoolbag and a small plastic bag with some pills. She conferred with Mister Fauchelevent for a few moments, and I saw him furrow his brow.

"It's just to Juli's, and I'll go straight to school after, Papa," Cosette said. "I'll be fine."

"It's still early."

"I'll be careful."

Mister Fauchelevent sighed. "Give me a few minutes," he said before going into the kitchen. I thought he was going to brew coffee, but he came back moments later with an umbrella. "We'll go now. Your mom will take care of Eponine." He nodded to me. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

Cosette looked as if she wanted to say something but she just smiled. "See you later, Eponine!" she said.

I waited to get my coffee before I found a corner near the window and just in sight of the clock. I got a message from Simoun: I was to work in the Binondo office that day, encoding all his files. That would be my problem later. For now, my biggest question was if Marius was the sort to get up at the crack of dawn I hoped that he remembered that I did have early classes, and that breakfast for me was not 8, 9, or 10am. I didn't have to worry too long, since I eventually saw him walking up the street.

He practically threw the cafe door open. "Eponine! There you are!" he greeted.

"Good morning, Marius," I said, hoping I sounded good and proper. "You look well."

He laughed as he pulled up a seat across mine. "Thank you for giving the letter. I saw her today, just a few moments ago. She was with her father. And you know what, she smiled at me!"

Did he have to tell me this? "She's always polite," I said. "She'd do that to anyone."

"Eponine, what did she say when you gave the letter?" he asked, reaching for my arm.

What to do? I bit my lip as I tried to imagine what Cosette would have actually done. "She was surprised. She couldn't believe anyone still wrote love letters," I said slowly.

"Exactly why it has to be special-I knew she'd notice," Marius gushed. He sounded like a giggly teenager, like someone even younger than me. "Do you think she'll write back?"

"I don't know." I still hadn't had any of my coffee, but when I sipped it, I burned my tongue. "You've never even really talked to her, Marius. How do you know she's anything special?"

"I just know!"

"She could be silly, she could be a bitch for all you know..." I stopped when I realized that Marius was giving me a weird look. "I mean, there are other girls out there, some girls you could actually have a conversation with?"

Marius put his hands on my arm. "I'll talk to her one day. I just have to figure out how to do it. Maybe when she writes back?"

"Maybe." The problem was that Marius' letter was not with Cosette, but it was up in my notebook, all the way back in the boarding house. I finally managed to take a sip of my coffee even as Marius went to order his. Thankfully it didn't burn my tongue this time around, so I was actually able to talk with him, though we never really got past the topics of school and work.

He laughed and shrugged when I asked exactly how he began working for Ben Ybanez. "I had to go door to door to find him. I had to get noticed right away, and I couldn't wait for him to reply to email," he said as he finished his coffee.

"Why couldn't you wait?"

"Necessity. I had to pay for my place-well, that room I have near here."

"Don't you have family helping you?" I asked.

Marius shook his head. "I grew up with my grandfather and my aunt. Lately we haven't seen eye to eye on some things."

"Don't all parents and children some times?" I asked. I definitely didn't get along with my own family on some days, and I had the bruises to prove it.

"It's more complicated than that, Eponine." He put down his cup. "It's actually political. I took after my father's views."

Well that was an interesting story. "What was your father doing, fighting in the opposition before 86?" Everyone, even our friends, talked of 1986 and that revolution that had booted out a dictator. Prouvaire had even gone so far as to dub it as our equivalent of the French Revolution of 1789.

"He did that for a time," Marius said. "My father was in the military, and he got involved in one of the coup attempts after 1986. That was some time after I was born. Since my mother died in an accident, and my father was on the run, I was sent to live with my grandfather."

"I'm sorry to hear that," I said. I felt horrible for him and I would have hugged him if he let me. As it was though I just had to stay in my chair.

"It's not entirely a bad thing. I had to learn about what my father stood for." He was smiling but in a sad way. "I wish I'd known it a little earlier."

"Why?" But before Marius could say anything, he got a message on his phone. "Are you late already for class?" I asked.

"Not yet, but I might be if I'm not careful!" he said, shaking his head. "What about you?"

I looked at the clock and jumped up; I had only forty five minutes before my first class. "I will definitely be late!" I said as I gathered up my things.

"You don't know that yet. Let's take the train together again," he said as he brought out his wallet to pay for our coffee.

Of course I didn't say no. It was the best thing that had happened to me all day, as far as I was concerned. I was smiling all the time, everyone asked me why, but the problem was that I couldn't really say who made me happy. If only I could have!

It was just as well that the morning had been exceptional, as the early afternoon was utterly dull: lectures, and then typing up pages and pages of records in the Binondo Office. I wasn't sure whether to be thankful that I was dealing with numbers this time, and not profiles. It would have been much easier if Simoun had kept at least one game on the laptop he let me work on, but it was utterly bare except for the spreadsheet template. It didn't even have a wireless internet adapter. I suspected that he didn't want me lazing on the job, or getting into other things.

It was sunset when I was saving my work for the last time when suddenly my phone began to ring. I worried for a moment that it might be Juli needing more help or Azelma with bad news from home. However the number on the screen was unknown to me. "Who are you?" I asked when I picked up.

"Hey Eponine! It's Bahorel," a gruff but cheery voice replied.

I nearly dropped the phone. "How the hell did you get my number?" I asked.

"From Prouvaire, who got it from Courfeyrac, who got it from Makaraig," he said. "You doing anything?"

"In a while, I won't be. Why did you call?"

"Anyway there's an eat-all-you-can buffet down at this new place in Chinatown, and we get a discount if there's twelve of us at the table. You want in?"

As if eating all the food at the Musain wasn't bad enough. "Who's 'us'?" I asked.

"Me of course, Prouvaire, Grantaire, Courfeyrac, Bossuet, Joly, Musichetta, Feuilly, Tadeo, Sandoval, and your brother. Sandoval is paying," Bahorel replied gleefully.

I cringed; why them and not Marius? Still, free food was free food, and besides I missed my brother. At least Musichetta would be coming along so it wouldn't just be me and the boys. "I'm in. Actually I'm not far from Chinatown right now, so where will I meet you?" I said. I didn't want to be too specific about where I was.

"You've been to Binondo Church, right?

"Of course." Well, I didn't really go inside, but I knew the place; it was two blocks away. "What time?"

"Now."

I swore and Bahorel just laughed. "See you in a bit. Text if you get lost." He hung up before I could curse him out for his rotten timing, but I wasn't about to complain. It didn't take me long to shut down the computer and put the office in order before hurrying downstairs. In maybe five minutes I was already headed towards Plaza Lorenz Ruiz. The entire bunch was waiting outside the church there. For some reason that I probably was better off not asking about, Bossuet had blue candle wax on his head.

Musichetta hugged me when she saw me. "Thank you! I thought I was going to have to babysit all of them alone!" she said.

"I'm here for the food," I said. "And to keep him out of trouble," I added, pointing to my brother.

Gavroche stuck his tongue out at me. "I should be doing that for you, Ponine."

Everyone laughed till Sandoval's phone went off. "Pelaez wants in," he announced.

"The buffet is only for twelve," Feuilly said.

"He's paying for himself," Sandoval growled. "Anyway let's get him in his dad's shop. It's just on the way to the restaurant anyway."

I moved to grab my brother but he climbed up on Courfeyrac's shoulders. "You're much too big to be carried that way," I said.

"I never had a little brother, so indulge me, Eponine," he said.

I pinched Courfeyrac. "You shouldn't have given out my number! What gives you the right to?" It was one thing to give my number to Makaraig since he was looking out for me, but to have it passed to so many people was another.

"Hey we're all friends here," he said as we began walking down the street after Sandoval and Tadeo, who were singing some old songs at the top their lungs. Joly was looking for hand sanitizer in Musichetta's purse. Bossuet and Feuilly were all ribbing Prouvaire about a spoken word piece he'd written about Shelley and his presence in downtown Manila. Grantaire had an arm around Bahorel's shoulders and was telling him something about Ancient Rome. Courfeyrac and Gavroche caught up quickly to Sandoval and Tadeo. They were all having a blast. I wished I could too.

Pelaez met us on Ongpin Street. He was hunched over as usual, and had a cigarette dangling between his lips. He hadn't bothered to light it though. "Mes amis!" he greeted us in an overly loud voice.

"Oh, parlez vous Francais, Pelaez?" Tadeo shouted back. They both sounded so bad, and we all couldn't help laughing—in varying degrees of being impolite.

Pelaez frowned and straightened up. "It means 'my friends'. What's so wrong with that?"

"Pronunciation," Musichetta said dryly.

Pelaez looked at our entire group. "Is Paulita with you?"

"I think she's still at school," Sandoval said. "So come on, let's go-"

"Juanito, where are you going?" someone called from inside the store. "You promised you'd help fix the ledgers before tonight!"

"I won't be long, jus for a cigarette!" Pelaez said before grabbing Sandoval to drag him down the street. "Come on, let's go!"

"Hey Pelaez, since when was a cigarette a unit of time?" Bossuet asked.

"Since ever."

"Well it's pretty flexible: you can smoke the thing straight or extinguish it and carry it with you for two hours," Bahorel pointed out.

"That's cheating," I told him.

"People do it," Sandoval called over his shoulder. He pointed to a sign that was just beginning to be lit up by garish neon lights. I could smell the oil and dimsum from the street, and it made my stomach turn a little bit but we went in anyway.

It really didn't take us long to get through the entire buffet. Even Gavroche had quite the appetite; at the rate he was going, he was going to get even taller than our father. Pelaez decided it would be a brilliant idea to get beer for everyone, and the bucket was just going around when suddenly Prouvaire got a call.

"Hello Combeferre? Out of class already-you're what? Okay. See you in a bit!" Prouvaire said cheerily. "Combeferre found a bargain at Ongpin!"

"We are on Ongpin already," Feuilly pointed out.

"You know what I mean, Feuilly. And he's there now, buying up the stuff," Prouvaire hissed.

What did they mean? There were a lot of things one could get on Ongpin, such as toys, food, and school supplies. I could rule out one, and I knew that it was far too early in the year to be buying tikoy rice cakes or mooncake. "Are you guys hoarding pad paper for exams or something?" I asked.

"Not pad paper, Eponine, but paper for posters," Prouvaire said.

"Toilet paper for the Palace," Grantaire snickered before Bahorel cuffed him. "Anyway what does Combeferre want?"

"He needs help moving the entire stash," Prouvaire said.

"What did he do, buy the entire store?" Sandoval asked.

"Wouldn't put it past him after that. You know, he's in med on scholarship and he doesn't use much of his stipend," Courfeyrac said.

Sandoval looked at Pelaez. "We need your car."

Pelaez shrugged. "It's coded.

"That's what you said yesterday! Cars aren't coded for two days in a row," Bahorel said.

"Well it's up for repairs," Pelaez mumbled.

"Never mind, it's not as if Ongpin Street is that long. We can walk there and find some cab to help us out," Courfeyrac said. Well he always knew what to say. "You might want to double knot your shoelaces this time, Tadeo."

Tadeo shook his head. "I have reliable old rubber slippers. Joly can pull the splinters out of my toes later." Of course Joly turned a little green at this and said he had to go to the bathroom. Musichetta gave Tadeo a dirty look as Sandoval called for the bill. Pelaez threw some bills on the table and ran out. As soon as Bossuet was able to get Joly to face the world again, we were off to find Combeferre.

We found him on the curb, right outside the shop. It did look like Combeferre had bought the entire store, or at least a good portion of it. The stack of reams he had with him was nearly as tall as he was. He also had a large bag of what turned out to be scissors, blades, pens of all kinds of colors, and huge bottles of glue. He even still had another bag with him, but this one was full of medical books.

"What are you going to do, cover the city in fliers?" Musichetta asked him as she rapped the reams.

"No, but just something to do with the trains," Combeferre replied.

"What? Whose idea was that?"

Combeferre, Prouvaire, Sandoval, and Feuilly all pointed at each other. "That doesn't change the fact that no one planned a way out of here," Bahorel said. "Well we could carry them to the corner and hail a cab like what Courfeyrac was saying, right?"

Courfeyrac wasn't listening though, he was looking up the street. "Hey Makaraig! Enjolras!" he shouted.

"I don't think they can hear you," Grantaire said .Well they couldn't hear us but we sure could see them. They were with a whole group of people outside a tea house. Makaraig had his car parked there. The people they were with appeared to be students too, if their uniforms meant anything. Well there were some working people too; at least one guy was in a union t-shirt. It was really odd to see them in the middle of everything, but that wasn't surprising since Makaraig was doing a lot of the talking. He was fast, zipping from one person to another. Enjolras was quieter, talking to a few people at a time but he held their attention so completely. No one could miss him on that street.

It was at that moment that I caught the faintest scent of water in the air. When I looked up, the sky was all clouded, not a single star was out. "Might start drizzling in a while," I said.

"And this will all be papier mache," Gavroche said, pointing to the reams. Fortunately at that moment Courfeyrac had already run up to Makaraig to explain the situation. Somehow it was decided that Makaraig would bring the paper home in his car, and that the rest of us would split up the various stuff so we wouldn't have people wondering why we were bringing home big bags. Well except maybe Combeferre; no one could split that book he had with him anyway.

We had finished loading up the car when suddenly Makaraig looked at me and Gavroche. "Do you two need a ride back?" he asked. I

Gavroche grinned and pointed at Feuilly. I looked down; I didn't really want to receive any more favors. "I don't want to go home just yet," I said. It was what, not even seven in the evening. Maybe Juli needed help, but I thought she needed sleep more.

"Where will you go?" Enjolras asked.

"Around. With you guys maybe?" I said.

"Well your place isn't safe at night, so let's get you back anyway .Come on," Makaraig told me as he opened the car door. I could see everyone starting to snicker at us. Couldn't a girl ever get into a car with a guy without anyone talking? What if this got back to Marius?

Marius. Yes, why didn't anyone think of inviting him? Maybe if Sandoval was doing the inviting, Marius wouldn't be high on the list. I was pretty sure I was only invited because of Bahorel, or Musichetta. And then it occurred to me: Enjolras had stayed behind, but I was with Makaraig. Enjolras would probably tell the others what he and Makaraig had been talking about at their meeting-and I wouldn't be there. Sneaky bastards.

I did tell Makaraig so, when the rain was really pouring and he couldn't send me out of the car. "It's not that way, Eponine," he said as he kept his hands on the steering wheel.

"Then what is it?" I asked. "You don't be nice to a girl unless she can give you something."

"Now what gave you that idea?"

"Well because you keep pulling me aside." It was only a few times, no more than five, but that was still too many.

He adjusted the airconditioning so it wasn't so cold. "You're among the youngest of us-I mean, that bunch that goes to the Musain."

"So what, I'm your pet?" I asked. Lightning flashed outside and the resulting thunder was nearly deafening. "Oh gosh, that was quite close!"

"We're not moving in traffic either," Makaraig muttered. He squinted as he tried to get a look through the windshield. "Maybe we're flooded?"

I began looking out my window too, just to see what was going on. We were outside a sort of abandoned building that was fenced in by some rusty sheets. Something was moving on the roof. "Makaraig, what is that?" I asked, pointing to the building.

Makaraig leaned over. "I don't see anything."

"A dark shape-" I said. Suddenly lightning struck again, and it seemed for a second as if the entire sky went white. In that moment I saw who it was. "A nun?!"

"A ghost," Makaraig said. He pinched himself. "Ghosts don't exist!"

"Then, what, or who was that?!" I asked.

Makaraig shook his head. "We'd better check the tabloids tomorrow," he said with a laugh. Yet even someone who hadn't been taking Psychology could see his white knuckles and wide eyes. Somehow he just wasn't all that good at hiding fear.