HE'S THERE
Chapter 11 Madame Giry
I woke up the next morning, feeling a little bedraggled, perhaps as if I'd woken during the wrong part of my sleep cycle. I absolutely hated it when the sheets went too far up my face and I had to scramble for wherever the comforter went. Mariam said I was kind of a violent sleeper. Tonight was especially difficult for some reason.
My first thought was "is it really morning?" I sat up and saw the faint blue sun through the blinds. It took me until then to recall random fragments of the night before and I jumped up on my knees to snatch the curtain string and stare out in the backyard again. It was the same innocent, vacant lot, with the bushes I used as a fort in summer. The only difference was it was now November 1st, and everything was drenched in rain.
I really must've been going nuts.
I was walking around outside last night, wasn't I?
Ayayay.
Maybe it was nothing. Maybe I was just tired and filled with Twix.
Ok, but maybe it WAS him... but WHY...WHYYY would he be there? He told me he knows where I live but he doesn't watch me at my house. Either he's lying, or he really was just there to get my attention and lure me outside. But even if his goal was to lure me outside, how would he ever know that this would be one night when I would look out my window? Maybe he didn't know, but he was um...analyzing it for some kind of entrance plan. My only guess was climbing one of the trees and sliding on to a branch that would limp by his weight into the side of the house. A black cape causing a rustle in the leaves... Ok now I was laughing to myself, because my eyes were wandering the length of a tree that seemed to make it possible for him to do that. But this is ridiculous thinking.
It all comes down to him not making any sense. But then again, he was a guy. Guys were crazy. And girls were even crazier, so whether I imagined it, or he was there, just to make me go outside and discover nothing, it was supported by the science of our sexes.
Since I had seen him yesterday, today was a no-phantom day. I checked out the forum again, just to find everyone doing their usual shit, and for some reason felt inspired to work on Eva's character a little bit more. Maybe in school today since there was no time for any of this when I had forty minutes to get ready.
Having no time to shower, and no motivation to try fixing
it, I headed out to school with very odd, deformed curls in my hair.
By the time I was walking the hallway I heard a "Lilyyyyy"
from a very familiar voice. Mariam trotted up and followed me as I
entered the chemistry classroom. "Wazzup." She exclaimed. I
put my stuff down and gave her a tired smile.
"Nothing."
"How'd you like the party?"
"Good stuff."
"Kira says she was sick last night. Too much candy."
"Hmph, good."
"What?"
"Nothing, nothing."
"Did you just say it's good that she was sick?"
"No!" ... "Okay, maybe. I thought she was
annoying."
"Whyyy?!"
"Because she seemed like kind of an idiot."
"When?"
"The whole time."
"Well give me one example, at least!"
"Like when she said she didn't even know Phantom of the Opera was a play." She stared at me and then started laughing. "What?"
"You can't expect everyone to be into that, you know."
"It's not a matter of being into it...I just thought it was pretty common knowledge."
"Maybe. But there's plenty of things I deem common that you don't know about, either."
"Yeah but it's different."
"No, you're just being hard on her." Blah. Why was Mariam being so frustrating lately.
"Ok."
"Guess what."
"What." I took my notebook out and started flipping for a fresh page. I was much more in the mood to start working on Eva a little bit more than carry on this pointless chatter.
"I think I have a crush on someone."
"Well put a rose on your nose." At this point, she could sense I was being apathetic. She put her hands on her waist and stared at me.
"You don't even want to know who it is?"
"...Who is it."
"Hah! I'm not telling you." She slid into the straps of her backpack and walked out the door. Ah, I see she finally got the hint.
If you can make a wild guess, school wasn't so rockin' today. (Because it usually totally is.)
I was really considering asking the Phantom if he had in fact been wandering around my backyard last night. But I have a feeling he would act like he wasn't, even if he was. I still had that whole "guy in the bathroom" stuff to figure out. I really needed to play a detective of sorts. But there was nobody I could sort it through with. Then I had a little streak of brilliance.
I came to Paulina's deviant art page. I could maybe leave a note for her and see if she might talk about it with me. I mean she was a PHAN. It would be so much easier for her to understand this behavior and help me out. While scrolling over her page, I noticed she had an aim screenname posted, and without a moment's hesitance I copy-pasted it into my buddy list, and the little "door opens" sound blasted in my speakers and shook me, so I turned the fuckers down.
It just...sat there. Being innocent and unsuspecting... and I clicked on it. And wrote "hey" and submitted. I expected her to respond immediately, but it took about a minute for a "...hi?" to show up. "Who is this?" "Lily, Mariam's friend." After that, she very graciously recollected how I had access to her screenname. It surprisingly wasn't that awkward of an initiation and we started asking each other what we were doing and how school was. She was working on her homework, (which reminded me that I wasn't working on mine), and seemed to be frustrated over it, even through composure.
She was a very calm, levelheaded person, just as I'd remembered her that night.. Not in the boring way, but where I could tell she was interesting but speaking to only an acquaintance and a bit preoccupied.
I chose the subject we were connected by, and found out she had never seen any of the movie versions besides the new one, and really suggested she rent the 1998 one for its weird factor. Oh, one more random fact: we both thought Raoul was a douchebag.
We seemed to get along really well and both had so much to say about the story, just as two people that had grown up with it. She wasn't obsessed with it, though. I just mean that...I was looking for anyone that would just understand my own obsession and wouldn't feel annoyed if I wanted to go off about it. (Mariam sometimes just wasn't in the mood.) So...I asked her, a little later... (And please just go along with me here.) If...she might become some sort of Giry figure in the roleplay. I didn't know where I was going with this. I basically wanted somebody that the Phantom wouldn't know about or pay attention to that could look out for him. Help me find him during school. Just...team up with me and make me feel like I'm not alone. It was an absurd thing to ask someone I had just met, but she said herself she would've wanted to be part of the roleplay, and I knew this was the only way it could happen.
I sighed in relief and fell back into the computer chair when she said she'd be happy to help me out. And that we should hang out soon and work out exactly how her role would work. I know it was going against what the Phantom had asked of me. But he would never need to know that she had become Madame Giry, and it was only a weak contribution. Just enough to help me find out more about him so that my trips to the theater wouldn't feel so blind.
The following day, we met up in the library once school was over and she drove us over to Bellagio's. We picked a booth and she paid for a small cheese pizza to share. As I've already said... it was very odd suddenly becoming so buddy-buddy with her when I'd met her a couple days ago, but I kind of liked it. This was the first time I was really seeing her in any kind of light, too. She was a bit taller than me, a tad chubby but what I would consider 'pleasantly plump', with dark brown wavy hair that fell, a bit stringy, to the small of her back. She had leather heels and bunch of little chain necklaces. I wanted to study each one while we were talking but I knew it would look like I was distracted.
When she puts her hands over the table, I noticed their pale color, with crimson nail polish and a collection of silver rings. She laced her fingers together and stared at me.
"First off, do you know what his motives are for the roleplay?"
"Nothing besides speculation. Mariam and I think he's liked me for a while and this is the only way he can get to know me. But he also keeps saying how... he's really Erik, and I'm really Christine."
"Makes sense. He's Erik and you're his Christine, and Erik loves Christine."
"Yeah, so there's no way he would want me to be Christine if he didn't want us to be paired off."
"Are there any Raouls?" I was about to take a sip of my drink but I snorted in laughter.
"Hell no. No suitors for me."
"Hmph, well you never know.
"Nah, I think he knows there's no competition."
"But he's already roleplaying with you. So what does he want now?"
"I'm not really sure. I think he just sincerely wants to get to know me. He's not overly aggressive. Even if he likes me, he hasn't been making moves on me or anything. I actually have never even walked up to him in person or talked to him with us both in the same place. I don't even know exactly what he looks like."
"That is so freaking weird." She laughed at me for a little while, and I guess I smiled out of mild amusement. But it really did suck not being able to be closer to him.
"I wish he would let me see him."
"Oh, I believe you."
"Well anyway... "
"Have you ever met anywhere besides the there?"
"No."
"Do you know how he gets there?"
"No. But I figure he either lives near the school like I do, or he drives to school and stays after and comes over there to meet up with me."
"Yeah... but that doesn't narrow it down."
"Meh."
"...I dunno what to do. It sounds like he's got himself pretty in check with everything."
"I know, right? It's like...there's nothing I know that can lead me to a real person. He's just a guy that has no connection with school or Acting, or..anything." We paused and stared at each other. She had this sort of magic in her eyes that was just all too exciting for me. I thought what we had been doing together was...I don't know... dorky. Weird. I told you what Mariam's been saying. That stuff got to me. Paulina didn't have any skepticism.
"Well...my plan is... you tell me anything that you've learned about him and I ask around."
"And you think you could pin-point him based on what people said."
"Nope." She smiled. "But I might come up with a good idea. I would ask people that had to do with whatever you told me about him."
"Ok. Well..." I flickered my eyes in her direction. "What I know about him is... He seems to hate most of the people that go to school. He breaks them up into groups and explains in intimate detail why they bother the fuck out of him. So...I take it he doesn't have many friends."
"Heheh...maybe not. So an outcast is crushing on you." I smiled.
"Yeah, but I wouldn't act like that makes him a loser, because he's very smart."
"So he's in some kind of overlooked group which means he's probably quiet and does nothing at school...and he's smart."
"And he writes."
"So maybe he'd be part of like... Writer's Workshop, or-"
"No, no. He says he doesn't share his writing."
"Ok..."
"Yeah."
"So what DO you know about what he looks like?"
"He's thin. Well I mean...from what I thought I saw."
"Okay."
"It looks like he might be tall. Aaaanddd. He has long black hair. But I don't know if that's part of his costume or not. I haven't seen it up close, so for all I know, it's fake."
"Yeah I don't think I know of any guys with long black hair."
"Neither do I, that's why I wondered about that."
"This is so strange."
"Heh and I don't even know what to do about it...except...keep going to see him."
"Do you like him?" I darted my eyes around.
"I don't know. I mean, probably no. I don't know him."
"Well...maybe you just like him a little?" I laughed.
"...I like the way he thinks. I like listening to him and I get this weird feeling when he starts acting so nice to me. I just don't know yet. But I'd like to do whatever makes him happy."
"I think you like him a little bit." For some reason, her conclusion wasn't annoying to me. I smirked and scrunched my shoulders together.
It was the end of the week in little time, and I was heading to see Erik after telling my parents I'd be at Mariam's. I hadn't even given her a call to her let know I said that because I forgot my cellphone and somehow didn't care.
Since our meeting on Thursday, Paulina- I mean... Madame Giry had just started her research on the Phantom. She found out me and Mariam's lunch spot and stopped by that day, then took out a notebook and let me know that she'd been writing names of people she thought might know about him. It made me squeal with glee. Ok, that makes me sound like an elf, but I was seriously happy. It really felt like this roleplay might become something. I was even amused with the fact that in a strange way, Paulina looked like Madame Giry, and I found out from Mar- Meg... that she was actually a senior, and turned out to be very socially savvy, which I kind of guessed because of her charm on me. This also meant that if the Phantom was a senior, she knew plenty about her own class and would be more likely to have connections.
She smirked to me and told me she "had her leads", but decided to be mysterious about it. I guess our get-together was enough to make this friendship official. She also said "bye, Christine" when she left.
As I was saying. When I came to the theater earlier today, something about this finally coming together made me more in tune with who I was supposed to be. I took out some things I wanted to share with him, which included the script for our play coming up, and spent most of the time reciting my lines, clenching my fists, and jumping off the edge of the stage for dramatic effect. I loved this character Vivian I had gotten. She was a melodramatic bitch, but it was great. The Phantom found me extremely amusing, because I heard him laughing when I feel over about half way in. And not purposefully. It was those square heels that decided to curl around the carpet, and my turn was a little lop-sided. I asked him if he would please come out and practice this damned thing with me, now that we were starting to become more comfortable, and he agreed to help me if I put the script behind the curtains. He was Capola, Vivian's sister's mistress...except a guy. Whatever the word for a guy mistress was. And we were having an argument. I loooved it. For one, this guy was a good actor. You must've figured that, but you weren't me, and you weren't standing there, distracted by his skillz to the point where you were forgetting your own lines, like I was. He said I really needed to concentrate. Well WHAT DO YOU EXPECT. I was practicing with someone who was 1. Very good. And 2, a hot phantom. And we were doing something that reminded me of the Angel of Music bit.
"Hey." Amidst this reminiscing of our little Phantom/Christine practice session, Madame Giry sent me an im. After a short exchange, she let me know that she had talked to a few friends who were semi-outcasts, or basically...people she'd met that were not so social, but as I said, she had her charm. Actually, these people were pretty much Me's. Well anyway, she asked a semi-outcast if he knew of any skinny guys, with optional long black hair, that hated most of his peers. He said there were a few of those in every school. If not, a large handful. She then resorted, with a few other people, to ask about a "dark, all black, perhaps suit-wearing guy". Yeah, they all thought she was joking. We agreed...that there just simply wasn't enough information that I'd gathered, and I needed to do a better job. Then we came up with this:
She sneaks into the theater after I go in to see him. I could go to the side door, she could go to the front, sneak into the doors to the lower, back rows of the audience, and... "record his voice" she said. It reminded me of the comment I made to Mariam the night he had me in the dark. This was something that belonged to only him, unlike the phrases she'd been using to describe him. If even one person recognized his voice, we just might have an answer.
To cut to the chase, we tried it, on Sunday. She gave me her cellphone number, and I gave her mine, I called when I was going to see him, and the plan was that once I was at the side door, I'd text her, enter, and twenty minutes later, she would park in the senior parking lot, walk up, and enter the front doors, then record when he was talking with her phone. I made sure to keep him well distracted with the play practice...trying not to be too expressive, for some odd fear that it would give away that I was up to something. I didn't even see her enter. We had a pretty normal night, and when I was walking past the school, I called her to ask how it went.
Success.
She had two solid minutes of him, giving me tips on my lines. Some parts not so clear... she said she could slightly hear him moving across the balcony. It gave me the idea of her staying there after I left. Just to find out...where he...went.
No success with the voice. It made me SO frustrated. She played this thing to like a few of her classes, as a whole. Then admitted to also showing it to Mariam. Mariam thought his voice fit his creepiness. That was the only comment anyone gave about it, because the rest just heard a random voice that meant nothing.
So I was thinking. Maybe the Phantom was never real. Maybe I just made him up as an imaginary friend one day because I wanted something like this to happen to me. And Madame Giry is just pretending to have his voice on her cellphone because she doesn't want to have to be the one to break it to me...that I'm a troubled loser. Yes, you're reading about someone who has gone cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. Except more like Phantom Puffs. Or Erik Puffs.
