CHARLES
"Charles." I was brought out of my thoughts as I sat at the window in my hotel room by the daroga's voice. Almost three weeks had passed since I had left Dad's house.
"Monsieur Khan!" I said, brightening. He remained solemn. "Oh God, Nadir, what is it?" I asked and he shook his head.
"It's Madame Giry. She's passed away…I am sorry." He said, bowing his head slightly before returning to his own room. I stood staring at the door he'd just walked through before running after him.
"How?" I cried breathlessly down the hall, "How?" I asked again and he turned back toward me.
"Pneumonia. The funeral is tomorrow morning at the church." I sighed, leaning against the hotel wall for support.
"Are you going to go?" I asked him and he nodded in his subtle way.
"I suggest you do the same Charles." He said before disappearing around the corner.
Early the next morning, I shaved and cleaned up at bit before putting on one of my better black suits. I pulled the black cloak that I had taken from that house five levels beneath the opera around me since I had no other and it was still quite chilly. It was not velvet, but cashmere. I stared at my reflection. I wonder if he had ever looked on himself like this in the mirror. I put a hand over the right side of my face to try and catch a glimpse of the way he must have looked. I imagined I had to look somewhat like him since the only thing I had inherited from Mother was the curling of her hair. I had to look like someone, didn't I? Over the past few weeks, I had slowly come to terms with my identity. It still stung, but I didn't feel the need to heave whenever I thought of it.
My thoughts moved on to Madeleine, who had found one of the missing links in her own identity, ironically, the man I called father all my life. Madeleine, whose hazel eyes reflected all of the horrors of the world with a single blink. How much I had been sheltered from and how much she had suffered. It wasn't fair. I hadn't been fair to her and I knew it.
"Charles, you don't know the whole story!" She'd cried as I'd walked heartlessly away from her. I didn't deserve her love. No one did...oh God, how could I cope if I came back to find her in the arms of someone else? I would have to kill myself. Was this how he had felt about Mother? Nadir entered my room.
"Dear boy...what are you doing? We must go!" He said and I nodded, turning to him. His eyes widened but he nodded.
"You do the cloak justice." He grinned. I nodded and followed him, combing my unruly hair back with my hand.
"I don't know about that..." I said as I shut the door behind me.
We slid silently into the back shadows of the church, I couldn't let them see me, but I could see the back of Dad's head. Seated beside him was Madeleine. I could see she was sobbing, and I felt tortured and helpless because I couldn't bring myself to go and touch her as I longed to. Would she even accept my apologies? I wouldn't if I were her. Her brown curls gleamed in the sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows. At the altar sat the casket, which to my horror, was open. Granny Giry...A sob wretched through my body involuntarily as I felt the daroga's hand pat my back. Madeleine's head began to turn but she stopped when Aunt Meg leaned over to whisper into her ear. I saw Maddie shake her head repeatedly, but finally nod. She slowly stood in her simple black dress and walked to the head of the church.
"I um...I'm not very good at this..." She said, looking at Dad who nodded. She gave the pianist, a nun, a nod. Ave Maria began to fill the room gloriously and Maddie began to sing, or at least attempted to. Her face was shining with tears, but her voice was magnificent. So wrought with emotion.
Ave Maria
Gratia plena
Maria, gratia plena
Maria, gratia plena
Ave, ave dominus
Dominus tecum
Benedicta tu in mulieribus
Et benedictus
Et benedictus fructus ventris
Ventris tuae, Jesus.
Ave Maria
Ave Maria
Mater Dei
Ora pro nobis peccatoribus
Ora pro nobis
Ora, ora pro nobis peccatoribus
Nunc et in hora mortis
Et in hora mortis nostrae
Et in hora mortis nostrae
Et in hora mortis nostrae
Ave Maria
She finished as Deirdre joined her side, pulling her into a long embrace before turning back to everyone.
"If Granny could see us all now, she'd tap her cane on the ground and berate us all for being so weak...That was her, all serious always. Yet, when she loved, she loved with her whole heart and soul and fought for those she cared about. She was everyone's guardian Angel, out to save the world one by one..." Deirdre laughed. "Now she really is our guardian Angel, so it shouldn't really hurt so much...but it does." She stopped and Maddie picked up for her, holding her around the shoulders and trying to stay strong.
"I never believed in fate or anything like that...but Madame Giry showed me that I was wrong. Horribly so. She saved me...took me in...she made me believe that we are meant to meet the people we do."
Madeleine stopped, looking at everyone as if testing them. God, she looked so Heavenly upon that altar with the sun creating a golden halo around her brown curls.
"She always said that people come into our lives for a reason, and that we are meant to learn something from each and every person. I know now she was right. She was always right..." She finished and walked with Deirdre to the side. As they were walking back, she stopped dead, staring right at me even though I knew she couldn't see us. She shook her head as if berating herself for acting foolish. Something was different in the way she carried herself. She was more careful, more delicate it seemed. I took one last look at her and walked out of the church quietly.
As we walked back to the hotel, Nadir sighed.
"Charles, I think I may have found a clue to where Erik is...if he is indeed alive as I believe him to be." I stopped, turning to look at him.
"Where then?" I asked, unsure if I was ready to know the truth. He looked at me, his black eyes serious.
"Before Madame Giry died, she said she had once run into a Mademoiselle Marie Perrault, a friend of Erik's mother's. Apparently, he sent her letters frequently after leaving the opera from all over and she'd kept Madame Giry up to date. It seems, however, that he had returned to Persia after some time and actually was present when the last shah signed the Constitution in December, five days before his death, since my native land is now going through a Revolution, but that is not the matter here."
I sighed,
"Is Mademoiselle Perrault still living?" I asked, and he nodded.
"She is still quite alert...perhaps we shall write to her." He said and I shrugged, my heart thumping.
"He might not even care..." I said aloud and Nadir spun on me as if I were crazy.
"Not Erik...all he ever talked about was love...love and beauty were his weaknesses, for they were the things he always said he couldn't have. You were a product of the only experience he'd ever had with love or beauty for that matter." I looked around the nearly empty streets.
"Do you know where this Miss Perrault lives?" I asked and he nodded.
"Just outside Rouen. In a village called Boscherville." I suddenly was excited.
"I've been through there!"
We arrived a while later there, and found her home. She answered the door herself, her eyes wide when she saw me.
"Charles..." She whispered and I frowned.
"I'm sorry Madame, but how is it you knew my name?" I asked and she shook her head.
"It can't be, I am losing my mind..." She muttered but I remembered the portraits in the private drawer.
"Charles Destler, you mean..." I said, realizing. She nodded. I took her hand.
"I am Charles de Chagny...at least...I was." I said, and she looked pale but pulled both the daroga and I into her home.
"You're Christine's son, aren't you?" She asked and Nadir nodded beside me, accepting her quick offering of tea. I nodded, not sure of what to say.
"He isn't here, if that's why you came..." She said, staring at the daroga, who shook his head.
"Actually dear woman, we were wondering if you had any idea where he was." She looked out the window. "Not exactly...you see his letters never had a return address. I know at one point he had traveled through Russia and Italy but he'd ended up in Persia the last few years again after beginning a successful architectural firm in Italy." I gasped.
"C & E Associates?" I asked and she nodded. I laughed, suddenly at the pure irony of it all. "I'd been offered a position there just last summer!" She looked at me with sadness in her eyes.
"You are his son aren't you?" She asked and I nodded.
"I only just found out, so you can imagine my shock." She looked thoughtful.
"Goodness, if his mother, Madeleine ever had set eyes on you...she would have dropped dead."
I stood then, at the sound of the name and turned to Nadir. Don Juan Triumphant opened this weekend. He nodded that he knew what was on my mind.
"Madame, if you would be so kind as to reach me at the Bordeaux Hotel in Paris if you hear anything at all...I would greatly appreciate it." He said, rising himself. She nodded, looking at me still.
"Oddly enough, I haven't heard from him in some time now...almost three months, but if I do I promise, I will let you know." I bowed my head to her.
"Thank you Mademoiselle Perrault. Stay well." I said as Nadir led me back out into the light as I turned my focus to the journey that lie ahead.