I couldn't believe it: the Paris Opera
House! But how did we get here? What do we do now?
Tyler was more
panicked than any of us. He turned to me and shook my shoulders violently.
"Becca! You know where we are, so how do we get back?! I can't stay here!
I won't!" Tyler sat down in shock, or was it exhaustion?
'Nessa looked up
slowly at the façade of the building. "You know, that's some great artwork. I
love the gargoyles," she said, obviously changing the subject.
"Yeah," Maddy
agreed. "Groovy."
"Hey Becca,"
Ralon laughed. "That gargoyle looks like you!" Before he could get distance
between us, or add more, Caelie had landed a tight fist on top of his head with
an amazing amount of force behind it. He had offended her as much as he
had me. Ralon fell, in a daze. I high-fived Caelie.
"Lets go inside,"
she said. Kevin and Tyler helped Ralon walk by placing his arms around their
shoulders.
We entered the
building.
* * * * *
The inside was
truly breathtaking. There in front of us stood the grand Escalier in all its
splendor. An enormous chandelier twinkled from high above.
"Whoa…" Jamie
breathed in awe. The rest of us could only nodd with our heads tipped up,
mouths open.
Ralon groaned
softly, reminding me of before. I had a strong urge to punch him soundly, but
resisted the urge. He made me so mad at times, and yet, part of me could not
help but lo- "Caelie?" I asked. "If Garnier built this Opera house over 200
years ago, than why does it look-"
"So
brand-spankin' new?" Caelie finished for me. "I was just wondering the exact
same thing. And the chandelier doesn't look like it should after-"
"Erik broke it?" I smiled. "Good point."
"Lets go ask
someone," Maddy suggested.
We approached a
tall, distinguished looking man. When we tried to talk to him, he cut us off,
yelling in French. I wasn't sure what we had done that would make him so angry,
but even if his eyes had turned red, he wouldn't have looked more mad. He
finished with an exclamation on the last word. With an arrogant flip of his
head, he sauntered out of the lobby.
"Well," Maddy
stated sarcastically. "What a nice guy."
"Now I know
we're in hell," Kevin grumbled.
"Well, news
flash, Toto. We certainly aren't in Kansas anymore!" Jamie snapped at Kevin.
* * * * *
After asking
several other citizens, with basically the same result, we trudged outside.
"We're doing this
all wrong," Mallory frowned. "We need to fins out a different way to talk to
people."
The group stood
in thought. Not even 2 seconds later, the silence was broken by a startled
yell. It no doubt came from Tyler, who was flailing his arms, tumbling down the
front stairs.
"Oomph!" He landed
squarely on his ass in the middle of the street. He jumped up and turned back
towards us. Then he just stood there,
glaring at me.
"Whoops," I said
in sarcastic innocence. Caelie giggled. When Tyler turned his glare onto her,
she burst out laughing. She never has liked Tyler, and with good reason.
Clomp-Clomp—Clomp-Clomp—Clomp-Clomp—Clomp-Clomp
"What the?…"
Tyler wondered aloud, being the deep thinker that he is.
Tyler turned
towards the sound, now looking straight at the front of a carriage pulled by 2
running horses. Tyler froze with a deer-in-the-headlights look in his eyes.
The driver tugged
on the reins again and again. "Whoa! Whoa!"
I watched the
horses straining to stop the moving carriage. It came to a halt. No more than 5
inches from the horse's faces. One horse stretched its neck and lightly touched
Tyler's forehead with its nose. With the same look still frozen on his face, he
collapsed in a heap.
A man jumped out of
the carriage. After speaking to the driver, he faced us. We couldn't understand
anything that he said, but he was pointing at Tyler.
"Mallory?" Jamie questioned.
"You're French, right?"
"My French vocabulary
is very limited, but I'll try," Mallory spoke to the man slowly, racking
her brain for words she knew. He looked slightly insulted at this 'obvious
butchering' of his language, but stayed nonetheless.
"So, you can't
speak French?" the man repeated. "I thought you looked like you were
foreigners. Strange fashions you English have." Gesturing again at Tyler, he
continued apollegetically, "I'm very sorry for almost running over your
friend."
"Don't be,"
Caelie whispered to me.
The man
continued, obviously not hearing Caelie. "My name is Charles DeChangy. It would
put my conscious at ease if you would stay at my home, at least until
your friend recovers."
We all huddled
together to talk it over.
"Friend? I can
pretend Tyler's my friend if this guy's offering a place to stay!" she
whispered again.
"What if this guy's
a mass murderer who's only acting nice?" Kevin whispered with wide eyes.
"Then you'll be
the first to go," Jamie smiled, patting him on his shoulder.
"I think we
should go," I put in. "Tyler probably needs medical help-"
"Mental
help," Caelie helpfully corrected.
"-And Ralon looks
like he desperately needs a place to lie down. No offense Ralon, but you look
like shit!"
Ralon- who could
now stand on his own- smiled weakly, one hand on his head. The look in his eyes
sarcastically asked me why on Earth would he feel like that? I
could tell he was still mad at Caelie and me, but trying not to be.
"What do you
think, Mallory?"
"Well," she
smiled a little timidly. "I agree with you, but I think we should take a vote."
The result of the
vote was that everyone agreed to go except one. Big guess as to who that was.
"Tyler didn't get
to vote!" Kevin fumed. "He'd agree with me!"
"Kevin, Tyler's unconscious,
would you like to join him?" That shut him up.
We dragged our
reluctant group member to the carriage, where Tyler had already been loaded
into. For a moment I wondered if any of the girl's votes had been swayed by
those twinkling hazel eyes and apollegetic smile of that man- Charles. But,
knowing my friends, I knew they hadn't.
We filed into the
carriage and tried to make room for all. Some of us had to sit on other's laps,
but finally the carriage began on its way.