Disclaimer: I do not "On My Own", that is from Les Mis.
Erik's Gift
News of Aminta's returned sight spread like wildfire among the young chorus-girls-in-training. Madam Giry was thrilled, as Aminta had been one of her best dancers before the accident. A blind ballerina isn't much good, is she? But now that she knew that Aminta could see again, she insisted that she return to dancing lessons as soon as possible, an idea to which Aminta readily agreed. She had always loved dancing, and was devastated when she realized that her blindness made it virtually impossible. Plus, now she could spend more time with Erik, but this she kept to herself, of course.
She remembered everything she had learned when she was younger, and she was even more flexible than ever. She had made sure of that over the years, just in case her sight ever returned. Just as she and her parents were leaving Christine's dressing-room, admirers had swarmed Christine, and Madam Giry took that opportunity to pull Aminta aside and talk to her about starting up ballet again. As they now had a little time, she asked Aminta to show her what she still remembered, just so she would know where to place her class-wise. Aminta quickly proved ready to join with the other girls her age, even though they'd been studying longer. She was, and had always been, a fast learner. Madam Giry was thrilled, and told Aminta she looked forward to seeing her in class the next day. She smiled to herself as she watched Aminta leave with her parents. She was startled out of her private thoughts when she heard the Opera Ghost's voice say softly, "Madame Giry, I require your services…"
Aminta was happier than she could remember being in a long time, save for when she was with Erik. She recognized nearly everything she saw, and could see even the tiniest changes. For instance, she noticed that the chandelier had been replaced. She wondered why. It hadn't fallen again; probably the notoriously fickle management had simply grown tired of the old one. The managers, also, she recognized and remembered, but did not speak to. She had never much cared for them, really. Descending the grand escalier, she saw another familiar and unwelcome face.
"Signora Sapo (A/N-Spanish 'toad')," she muttered darkly.
"Aminta," said Christine reprovingly, but she couldn't keep from smiling. Raoul snickered in a most undignified manner. Carlotta (for of course it was she) shot them an icy look before passing by with her nose in the air.
Dinner was lively and enjoyable, though Aminta didn't eat much. Her parents didn't worry about this; Aminta had never been a "big eater". She was perfectly fine with them believing that this was the reason for her lack of appetite. She found that she didn't want them to know she had had dinner with Erik before. Her father was already getting his trousers in a twist over this whole thing, she didn't need to rub salt into the wound.
She stayed up late that night in the library with her parents. They spent hours just talking, reading aloud from some of the books Aminta had left lying around. She read from some of her Braille books, as she had stories that they did not. It was very late when they finally decided to retire to their rooms. Both Christine and Raoul hugged Aminta tightly, telling her again how thrilled they were that she could see again before going to bed. That night, Aminta dreamed of Erik. Not the Angel of Music, not the Phantom of the Opera, but Erik. At first she saw them together, sitting in Box 5 watching a performance. Aminta left briefly at intermission to see if she could find her father, but she did not. When she returned, Erik was not there. Suddenly she found herself up in the catwalks where Joseph Buquet had met his demise so many years ago. Raoul and Erik were on catwalks facing each other, both glaring intently at the other.
'Who's hunting whom?' wondered Aminta. 'And more importantly, why?' Confused and curious, she watched as her father suddenly darted off to the left while Erik simply climbed one of the ropes up into the walks above. Aminta found herself there before he arrived, but both were there before Raoul. He was obviously unprepared for Erik being there before him, and finally began to panic.
'Which,' thought Aminta derisively, 'any fool should have done before this happened!' She watched, a little scared, but thoroughly fascinated with the spectacle before her. Erik slowly, tauntingly advanced on Raoul, while Raoul tried to look brave while searching desperately for a way out. Just as he made to jump off the catwalk, the Punjab lasso whipped through the air, quite literally stopping him dead. Aminta stared on in horror. She didn't get along with her father as well as she'd like to, but still!
"Oh my God," she whispered, speaking for the first time. Erik turned in surprise at the sound of her voice; he somehow had not known she was there.
"Aminta…" he said, reaching out to her. "Aminta…"
"Don't come near me!" she cried.
"Don't come near me!"
"Aminta, are you alright?"
Aminta opened her eyes slowly and sat up. "Oh, it was a dream! It was only a dream. That's OK then." She looked over and saw Raoul standing near her, looking at her in concern. She smiled up at him reassuringly. "It's OK, Father. I was only dreaming." Raoul didn't look entirely convinced, but he nodded, knowing he would get nothing more from her.
"Well, it's time to get up," he said. "You don't want to be late for your first dancing lesson, do you?"
"Oh! I forgot!" she cried in surprise, jumping out of bed and hurrying past him. She went down to the kitchen and ate a hurried breakfast before going back upstairs to get dressed. She found her mother ready and waiting for her when she got downstairs again, so they went off together.
Aminta didn't even recognize her old friends in her class, but she remembered them all, and they were all excited to see her again, and that she could see them again! Madame Giry allowed the girls a few minutes to chatter and reacquaint themselves before calling their attention with a bang of her cane on the floor. There was a lot that Aminta had to learn, but she learned it quickly. After spending her life paying excruciating attention to detail, how could she not? She had soon caught up with her classmates, and she did not fail to notice Madame Giry's approving smile. They were granted a ten-minute break after around an hour and half of practice, and most of the girls went off to their dormitories to rest and talk. Only Aminta stayed behind, electing to be alone for a while. When she was quite sure that she was alone, she began to sing softly to herself:
"On my
own
Pretending he's beside me
All alone, I walk with him till
morning
Without him
I feel his arms around me
And when I
lose my way I close my eyes
And he has found me
In the rain
the pavement shines like silver
All the lights are misty in the
river
In the darkness, the trees are full of starlight
And all
I see is him and me for ever and forever
And I know it's only
in my mind
That I'm talking to myself and not to him
And
although I know that he is blind
Still I say, there's a way for
us
I love him
But when the night is over
He is gone, the
river's just a river
Without him the world around me changes
The
trees are bare and everywhere
The streets are full of strangers
I
love him
But every day I'm learning
All my life I've only been
pretending
Without me his world will go on turning
A world
that's full of happiness
That I have never known!
I love
him
I love him
I love him
But only on my own."
Her voice trailed off, and she listened as the last notes died away in the empty room. Or rather, the seemingly empty room.
"Aminta."
Aminta gave a start when she heard her name, and then smiled when she realized who it was.
"Erik," she said to the air. Then she flushed. "Were you listening to that?"
"Yes."
"I'm terrible, I know."
"You are not terrible."
Aminta shrugged slightly. "I always used to wonder something when I was younger. With Mother, she had the talent but not the drive or the desire. I have the drive and the desire, but not the talent. What I wondered is, can you make something from nothing? Could you teach me to sing like Mother?"
As there always seemed to be whenever they spoke, there was a silence.
"You do have the talent," Erik said at length. "You just haven't fully awakened it yet. With that, I can teach you. I will teach you, for I assume you were asking me to?"
"Yes." Aminta smiled. Her smile faded, however, when she heard the voices of her friends coming back. "There's no time now, but I'll be here later waiting for Mother's rehearsal to end. Shall I meet you in her dressing-room?"
"That would be acceptable." She couldn't see him, but Aminta could've sworn Erik was smiling. "Until then."
"Until then," she agreed. More than once during the rest of the class did Madame Giry have to tell her to concentrate.
'I am concentrating,' thought Aminta. 'Just not on ballet.' Still, she knew better than to cross Madame Giry, so she did her best to push thoughts of her lesson with Erik into the back of her mind and bring ballet back to the front. But even so, her attention wandered. Finally, practice ended. As Aminta was leaving, Madame Giry caught her arm.
"Is something wrong?" she asked.
"Why, no," replied Aminta in surprise. "Oh, because I wasn't concentrating? I'm terribly sorry about that, I've just had a lot on my mind lately."
"I suppose that's understandable," said Madame Giry with a forgiving smile. "Go on then." And she did. She retuned to her mother's dressing-room, changed out of her ballet clothes and back into her regular clothes, and waited by the mirror for Erik. She didn't know how long she waited, but it seemed like a long time, and she was on the verge of opening the mirror and going down to him when she heard his voice again.
"I'm sorry for the delay," he said. "I was working."
"I see," said Aminta. Thus began the first of her lessons. As with ballet, she learned quickly. But singing was different from dancing, and she still had a lot to learn. But she was finally comfortable with her own voice, and for the first time felt like she had potential. People had always joked about her becoming prima donna after her mother, maybe now that dream had a chance. With Erik, the possibilities were endless. She could do anything if he said she could.
All too soon, it seemed, the door-handle jiggled and Christine entered. She was startled when she saw Aminta, but smiled at her.
"Did you have fun at your lesson?" she asked, entering all the way into the room and closing the door.
"Yes," replied Aminta. "I missed a lot, but I picked up pretty quick. Mme Giry said I should have caught up with the rest of the class in a few days."
"Good for you!" said Christine approvingly, slipping behind the screen to get changed. Aminta looked back at the mirror, which had "dissolved" again and become transparent so she could clearly see Erik standing behind it. She smiled and gave a helpless little shrug. He nodded, bowed briefly, and vanished into darkness once more. As always, Aminta felt a slight, cold detachment and sadness as she watched him fade away into the shadows. Christine came out from behind the screen, chattering on and on about new productions and upcoming rehearsal dates, and how she couldn't wait for the day that Aminta danced onstage. Aminta didn't hear a word she said. She was staring at the mirror, absorbed in her own thoughts. She made slight noises of assent now and then to make her mother think she was listening, but really she wasn't. Soon Raoul came to greet them and they decided on a place to go for dinner (Aminta couldn't shake the feeling that they were going out so many nights just for her, when she'd really rather have dinner at home). They returned later than the previous night, as they had gone for a walk in the park. Aminta was very tired when they finally returned home, and went straight to bed.
So it continued likewise the next day. The third day, however, the twenty-fifth, the theatre was closed to prepare for the annual Masquerade. Aminta didn't know if she wanted to go, considering she had never been much of a "social butterfly". More like the caterpillar who hides in its cocoon, really. Her parents left her to decide as they went out to purchase costumes for themselves. Hours later they returned, and brought with them a shiny black box with a red ribbon around it and a rose tied into the ribbon.
"Oh, you didn't have to-" she began when she saw it, and then she saw the look in her father's eyes. He looked ready to kill, not like he had brought home a surprise for his daughter.
"This was outside on the doorstep," explained Christine. "The tag is addressed to you." curious Aminta took the box, untied the ribbon and set the rose aside carefully, and opened the box. What lay within took her breath away, and Christine gasped when she saw. Inside the box lay an exact likeness of the ornament mask Aminta had, except life-sized and made of gold satin, a perfect fit to her. It lay nestled on top of the most beautiful gown Aminta had ever seen, also an exact fit to her. The gown was long and full-skirted, sleeveless and off-the-shoulder, made of a deep crimson satin with a floral print, and an overskirt of gold satin. The neckline was somewhat low and square. It matched the mask perfectly. For a long time Aminta just stared at the treasures that lay within the box, hardly daring to believe that they truly were hers. Finally, she spoke:
"I shall accompany you to the Masquerade."