Hey! I feel so loved! Anyway, I'm really sorry if my chapters lately have been kind of stupid or boring or cheesy. I've been having a few problems that I need to deal with so I've been pretty stressed out, so that's also why updates might be coming slower. But otherwise...here's another update. I hope it's okay. I don't own POTO, but I'm saving.
I whispered silently, "Breathe, Meg...just remember to breathe." She nodded and took a deep breathe in. I picked up Madeline and played with her hair, but watched the carriage out of the corner of my eye. I saw Raoul get out followed by his brother, Phillipe, who was even more pompus than Raoul. For a few moments, everyone stood in awkward silence, until good old Phillipe broke the silence.
"Well...are we going to stand out here all day? I have reserved a private area for...matters...to be discussed. Come now." He started to usher us in, but I hesitated.
"Meg, I don't think I should." She looked at me with pleading eyes.
"Christine, you are coming in with me. Please." I sighed and reluctantly followed her. When we entered the restaurant, Phillipe obviously slipped the maitre d' a few francs because he smiled pleasantly and gladly led us to our seats.
Phillipe had reserved a private room which was obviously used for meetings or parties. I sat down with Madeline, who was starting to wake up, and Meg did the same with Elijah, who was suprisingly quiet. There was, once again, an awkward silence. This time, it was Raoul who broke it. "Um...can I see him?" Meg looked at me, then at Elijah, then at Raoul and reluctantly handed him over.
"Please be careful with him. He's not used to strangers, so he might start to cry." Raoul took Elijah and held him in an awkard position. Anyone could tell that he didn't have much experience with infants.
Raoul studied Elijah for a few nerve-racking minutes, until Elijah decided to show his lung power. He let out a scream louder than any he ever had released. Raoul gota scared look on his face and quickly handed him back to Meg. I stifled a giggle at Raoul's reaction until Madeline decided to compete with Elijah. Even after Elijah was finished, she was still hysterical. Finally, I couldn't take it. "Meg, I'm going to go and take her for a walk before she drives everyone to insanity." Meg nodded, and I quickly left the room. I felt bad for leaving Meg, but I was thankful at the same time because I felt very awkward in there. Once I got outside, I put Madeline in her carriage and headed for the Opera House. I figured that Erik was probably missing her by now.
By the time we reached the opera house, Madeline was almost silent. When we reached Erik's office, she had completely finished crying and started giggling. I knocked on the door to Erik's office lightly, then opened it up. He was sitting at a desk writing something, while Dante and Gustave were sitting on the floor drawing. "My men are hard at work, aren't they?" Erik looked up and smiled.
"I didn't expect to see you here!" He got up and kissed Madeline on the head and tickled her belly, then put his arms around my waist and kissed me. "What brings you here?"
"Ugh...Meg had to meet with Raoul, so I came with her. I was there for a few minutes, but then Madeline decided to show off her Carlotta impression, so we left."
Erik took Madeline from my arms. "What were they speaking about, I wonder?"
I shrugged. "I honestly don't know. He's such a...a...fop. I mean, his perfect hair and perfect clothes and perfect nails. He's worse than a woman." Erik nodded and smiled.
"You know...I still have my Punjab if she'd like me to take care of him. Then he'd never bother her again." I started laughing.
"ERIK! Not in front of the children! That's all we'd need was them to start talking about taking care of people with Punjabs. They repeat everything, you know." Erik started laughing.
"Yes, you are right. I do hear little Madeline repeating everything we say." I rolled my eyes at him.
"You know what I mean. Those little devils there." Just then, the looked up.
Dante jumped up and ran over and jumped in my arms. He was such a Mama's boy. "Mama, I didn't know you were here! Me and Gustave were drawing pictures! We drew a picture of that icky lady, Carlotta. Papa said that she sounds like toad, so we drew her with a toad face! Gustave show Mama the picture of Toad-Lady." Gustave dug through the pile of pictures until he found the one he wanted. He picked it up and ran up to me. I put down Dante and picked him up and both he and Dante started to explain the picture to me.
"Whoa, slow down! Come over here, let's sit down. Then you can explain the picture to all of us." Erik laughed.
"Oh, I already heard about it. But I think in the mean time, I'll go change Madeline. She's getting kind of smelly..."
I laughed, then Gustave and Dante each grabbed one of my hands and dragged me over to the couch. I sat down, and Dante sat to my right, Gustave to my left and started explaining the strange picture to me. Apparently, Carlotta was a toad with a magic spell on her to make her a human but she was stuck with the toad face and voice. But at her old pond, she was the best croaker, so she thought she's be a good opera singer, which is why she came here. The opera managers felt bad for her because she was so ugly so they hired her, and she threatened to bring her toad family here if they didn't cast her as the lead. But their Papa wasn't afraid of toads, so he made sure she wasn't cast as the lead. I had to laugh at their creativity. For only four years old, they both had wild imaginations. Even Erik, was was now sitting behind his desk, still holding Madeline, was laughing. They told their stories with such enthusiasm that it wasdifficult not to laugh.
After the laughter had subsided,Dante and Gustave went back to theirdrawings.Erik and I weresitting on the couch, quietly singing a lullaby to Madeline, but in the process, I was falling asleep. The serenity was interrupted when there wasknocking on the door. I sat up just as the door opened. Meg was standing there holding Elijah. "Um, Christine, can we talk for a moment. I promise it won't take long. I just...I need to ask you something." Inodded and stood up.
"Erik, do you mind...just for afew minutes." Erik shook hishead.
"Not at all, darling. Take as long as you have to." I kissed himquicklythen headed out of the room.
Okay, I almost fell asleep at my computer while I was writing this. Either it's REALLY boring or I'm tired. Anyway, R&R, please.Ithink I'mgoing tobed. Night.