Chapter 7: The Meg Giry Conspiracy Hour
When Christine rang the doorbell of the Giry residence, Mrs. Giry answered the door, but Meg followed closely behind. Both Giry women happily greeted the honorary third member of their household. Christine had been friends with Meg since they'd met on the first day of kindergarten, and the two girls had grown up as sisters. When they were in third grade, they'd hatched a plan to get their widowed parents to fall in love so they could really be sisters, but it'd ended unsuccessfully. Mr. Daae and Mrs. Giry had been very good friends, but they were not destined to fall in love. Every once in a while, the scheme was brought up and laughed at by the parents while their daughters cringed in embarrassment.
"I brought some of Mrs. Valerius' kanelbullar," said Christine as she handed the platter to Meg. "She gave me way too many the last time I went to her house for tea."
"Hey, that's not a bad problem to have," Meg joked.
Mrs. Valerius' famous baked goods were as valuable as gold. Her treats were always the first commodities to go when the old woman brought them to bake sale fundraisers around town.
"Don't mind if I do," said Mrs. Giry as she reached for the plate. Her hand was swatted away by her stingy daughter.
"Mine!" snapped Meg.
"I believe Christine brought them for the house, not just you. If you don't like it, move out." Mrs. Giry reached for another treat and shielded it from her fierce daughter.
"Well maybe I'd move out if you actually paid me!"
"Maybe I'd pay you if you actually worked."
It was a typical argument between the two Giry women, but it was all in good fun. Meg worked diligently at the ballet studio and dancewear store, and her mother paid her as much as she could afford. The Giry ladies enjoyed living together. It's always been the two of them for as long as Meg could remember, and neither saw any reason why things should change just because Meg was grown up. Sure, she could live on her own, but she'd always be coming back to her childhood home to share dinner and dish local gossip with her mother. They worked at the same place anyway; living together made their morning carpool easier considering Meg never went to bed at a reasonable hour and was always running late in the mornings.
Christine followed Meg into the kitchen and the two women took a seat at the table with the plate of delectable kanelbullar. Though Christine brought the treats for her friends, she couldn't resist the urge to steal a few back.
"Want anything to drink?" Meg offered Christine.
"Ooh! Do you have any of that iced tea I like?"
"Of course! The Giry house is always fully stocked with Christine Daae's favorite snacks."
Meg pulled the requested beverage from the fridge while Christine reached into the cupboard for a glass. She poured herself a generous amount of the iced tea. One sip, and she was instantly transported to her childhood when she'd retreat to Meg's house after school, searching for peace and quiet while her father taught violin lessons in their living room. Christine hadn't minded listening to some of his older, more talented students, but listening to beginners day after day was borderline painful. Now it was her job. Her father had gotten used to it, maybe she would too.
"We also got some of those chocolates you and my mom both like," Meg said as she dug through a cabinet. "Oh, wait, that reminds me!" Meg grinned ear to ear as she set the bag of candy on the table. She had news to share. "You'll never guess the weirdo I saw at the grocery store this week!"
"Let me guess. Tall? Black clothes? Mask?" Christine scoffed.
"Oh, darn! You already saw him then?" Meg pouted and set the bag of chocolates on the table.
"Yeah. His name's Erik. He moved into the old Leroux place."
"That's that guy who bought it?" Meg exclaimed. "Damn! He's even crazier than I initially thought."
"Oh, he's a real piece of work." Christine rolled her eyes and took another sip of her iced tea.
"Wait, you know him?" Meg asked excitedly.
She yanked her chair out from underneath the table and collapsed into her seat. Her eyes were wide, and her ears were ready to listen. Though she was bummed that Christine didn't share this juicy gossip with her sooner, all could be forgiven if Meg got the information she was looking for.
"He's the coworker Mr. Richard scrounged up for that summer camp I'm running," Christine replied. Why did everyone want to talk about Erik? If they knew him half as well as she did, they'd never want to hear his name spoken again.
"What's with the mask?" Meg asked.
"Heck if I knew. I don't ask questions." Christine threw her hands in the air.
She didn't care to know more about Erik than was necessary for the two of them to do their jobs, nor did she want to risk further damaging their already fractured relationship by prying into sensitive topics.
"Hmm...maybe it's, like, a cult thing?" Meg hypothesised.
Christine snorted her drink in laughter and reached for a napkin to clean up the mess.
"A cult? Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised, but I doubt it. With the amount of snooping people do around here, I feel like someone would've figured it out and sounded the alarm."
"Not if it's a secret cult," Meg insisted. She giggled, but her laughter was cut short when Christine stared blankly into her glass of iced tea. "Christine, is he creepy?" Meg asked in concern.
"No...not exactly…" Christine stammered. She didn't feel uneasy around Erik. He just annoyed her to no end. "He's just kind of rude. And definitely very antisocial. The kids love him though. They'll do whatever he says."
"Sounds pretty cultish if you ask me."
Meg raised her eyebrows smugly before laughing again. Christine pondered the situation briefly but quickly shook the idea from her head. Meg was always spouting out theories she'd learned when she went down the internet rabbit hole in the wee hours of the night, and Christine scolded herself for letting her friend's silly ideas cloud her good sense.
"This is ridiculous!" Christine snapped. "Meg Giry, you're just as bad as all those gossiping old biddies who have nothing better to do than drink tea and speculate about their neighbors."
"Well someone had to keep the old town pastime alive."
Meg put her hands up defensively as her best friend smacked her shoulder. Christine was convinced Meg was going to end up a grey-haired spinster who did nothing but sit on her front porch and engage in conversation with whatever poor soul happened to be passing by the residence of Old Miss Giry.
Meg poked and prodded for more details about Erik, but when Christine didn't have much else to offer, the chatter drifted into other topics of local gossip. None were as fascinating as the masked man who moved into the old Leroux place. Christine didn't want to talk about Erik, but he dominated her thoughts. She'd been quick to extinguish Meg's wildfire speculations, but the woman's runaway imagination had already planted a seed of doubt in Christine's mind. She was only partially convinced by her own claims that Erik was harmless aside from being a cranky recluse. There was a great air of mystery surrounding Erik. What was the purpose of the mask? Could Erik be of suspicious character? Christine pushed the ideas to the back of her mind where she stored her irrational fears and humiliating situations that came back to haunt her when she was trying to fall asleep at night. She was letting Meg fill her head with ludicrous conspiracies. There was nothing wrong with Erik aside from his grouchiness and his mask. Whatever the mask was for.
Where would POTO be without Meg Giry's tall tales and speculations? ;) Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Thank you to everyone for your support of my story!