Same disclaimer, now leave meh alooonneee!
Chapter 2: When Sight Fails You
Amile was now four years old, still blind, but happy. Erik took good care of her, as a father. She never knew about the mask or anything, but she knew where she lived. What she lacked in sight, she made up for in everything else, like sound and touch. She knew the whole opera house backwards and forwards. She could play the piano with not very much difficulty, but she sometimes missed a key or two. Erik loved her with all of his heart. She still had the blanket that he had wrapped her up in when he found her. It was a crimson red blanket made out of some soft and cheap material. But she loved it. She had her own bed shaped sort of like a seashell with an eagle on the front. She pretended she was a mermaid sometimes. Erik always read to her so she pretended as much as she could. It was very amusing to watch her run around, pretending to be something from a story he might have read the night before. She didn't know what mermaids or fairies looked like, but she didn't care. It was just fun to her. He also sang to her since she still got a little bit feisty when she knew that it was time for bed. Sometimes, Erik was very sure that when she was old enough, she would become an insomniac, much like he was. Like father, like daughter.
One night, he was sitting on the sofa, just reading to himself when Amile walked in. She found a spot next to him. "Daddy?" she asked innocently. He smiled whenever she called him that. He feared, yet embraced, the day when she would get her sight back. He looked down at her. "Yes?" "There's a girl up there, in the big place, her daddy just died." A frown came to him and he set the book to the side. "What about her?" Amile bit her lip. "Well, she said that her daddy told her that when he was in heaven with God, he would send her an angel of music. And that angel would sing to her." A silence went through the room. "Continue." And she did. "I was thinkin', since you have a really pretty voice, maybe you could sing to her!" It was a stupid idea. Him singing to a girl who he didn't even know, in the form of an angel. He scoffed at the idea, an angel, a child of God. What had God done for him? Except, maybe, he did do something. Maybe he gave him Amile. The source of his affection. His love. And now Amile was pleading to him. She had no parents either, and she knew that. She knew Erik was not her real father. Maybe she had some sympathy for this new girl. "What's her name?" he asked finally. "Christine, I think. Her last name is something like, Daae." He stalled. Daae? He knew that name. Her father was the violin player. He knew that. "Fine Amile. I will be this girl's angel." Amile smiled and gave him a hug. "Thank you daddy!" she said. Then he looked back down at her. "Where were you when she came in?" "Right by the mirror hall thing." He was shocked. That mirror passage was in a dressing room behind closed doors and almost 500 feet way from the front door. How could she hear that? "But, how?" "I can hear really good. Madame Giry called me a little bat." The shock passed into a comfortable happiness. Madame Giry had helped Erik take care of Amile earlier. When Amile annoyed him enough, he would take her to Madame Giry. Then he thought about it. It was no real surprise that she could hear that. When one loses sight, they can focus on other things. And hearing was her focus.
