She couldn't believe it! This was sooooooo freaky! She stood up and in an almost trance-like state walked closer to the Opera house. As she did this a man in a cape waltzed over to her and without warning pulled her into a dark ally way. "Let me go!" she screamed. The man ignored her and hoisted her over his shoulder and marched under the Opera house. Tzipporah fought like a wild animal; she bit and clawed at him, but made no progress. Then, as she began to recognize the dark tunnel, she grew quiet. This was the exact maze that led to the Phantom's lair. The strange man dropped her roughly into a boat and then addressed her for the first time.
"Who are you?" he asked, his voice shaking.
"Tzipporah" she answered, her voice barely a whisper.
The man then pulled down the hood of his cape. Tzipporah's eyes grew wide with shock as none other than the Phantom sat across from her.
"How did you get here?" he growled.
Tzipporah was silent. Even as a growl his voice still flows, she thought dreamily. "I don't know," she replied; her own voice quivered in confusion.
"Get out." The Phantom ordered as the boat struck the opening to a lair lit by a multitude of candles. Tzipporah fell out of the boat and sat on the damp floor, totally freaked out by her experience. The Phantom's cold eyes stared at her as though trying to read her mind. "I know why you're here." He spoke at last, sounding calmer then when he had first spoken. She just looked at him aimlessly, her mouth open in shock that she wasn't dreaming. "My music has finally found one worthy of my teaching. You must have an extraordinary voice, for it has been a long time since someone has been brought to me." He explained, looking down at her with a look of interest.
"Hold up here. I was brought back in time by your music! Man this is wacked! How can I and you and this and here . . . " Tzipporah then fainted. The Phantom stared down at her now lifeless body and rolled his eyes.
Tzipporah awoke in a swan-shaped bed. She looked around and immediately threw the covers off and leapt from the bed. "What the freak?" She lost her footing on the damp floor and crashed into the bedside table. The monkey music box fell over and started to play. "Oh, snap." She said, picking the thing up. "This is the actual haunted music box . . . "
"Whom are you calling haunted?"
Tzipporah screamed and threw the music box against the mirror. The phantom cleared his throat behind her. She looked at him blankly for a moment before she began spitting out an entanglement of apologies.
"I didn't mean... it started to... that bed is.. if I . . . did . . . uh. Did you see anything?"
The phantom stared at her.
"Ok, so I see you're a fan of the blank stare. Me too! I can play that game all day! Ready, go!"
Tzipporah opened her eyes really wide. The phantom blinked.
"HA! I WIN!"
The phantom frowned at her. "Where did you say you were from?"
"Well, do you want the time or the place?"
"Both will suffice."
"I'm from the proud country of the United States of America, year 2005. WE have electricity, AND indoor plumbing. Great stuff. You should stick around for it."
"And, do you live in an institution there?"
"Very funny. Why don't you give me a tour of the opera?"
"I'll make the orders around here."
"Aye cap̀n." She saluted him.
He reached to the chair and handed her a long black dress. "Here, put this on."
"Freaky. Please tell me this was not previously worn."
"It's new."
"Good. Why aren't you dressing me in white like Christine? She was your 'student' too, wasn't she?"
"No." He said flatly.
"What? I thought you had a thing for her. She ran off with that blond kid. Rich jerk? Remember?"
"Just put that on. Girls don't wear pants around here."
"Yeah yeah." She took the dress from him, and stood there. "Are you gonna watch?"
He left.
Tzipporah emerged with her dress half done. She went to the Phantom and put her back to him. "Zip." She ordered. He stared at her like she was insane. "Oh come on, it's not that hard. Just take the little tab and pull up." He still stared at her. "Get over yourself and just do it!"
He very carefully took the very end of the zipper, careful not to make any contact with her. He noticed her slash wounds, but didn't think anything unusual about a black girl having scars like that on her back. The phantom zipped her, then tried to hide a sigh of relief.
"There, that wasn't so hard, was it? God."
"Now can we PLEASE get to singing!" he asked, trying to cover his embarrassment over zipping up her dress.
"Sir yes sir! I am ready to sing!" she said once again saluting him.
The Phantom let out a sigh of annoyance "Ok, let's hear your scale." he ordered
Tzipporah tried to hide her nervousness and prayed that whatever came from her mouth sounded at least slightly musical.
Unfortunately, it didn't.
Her teacher's eye twitched when she finished. He coughed.
"I have no words to describe what I have just heard. Something tells me that you aren't familiar with SINGING. What you know how to do is merely a form of shouting. Do you have any relation to Carlotta?"
She stared at him, then took up a haughty nature. "I have never been so insulted in my LIFE!" She spun on her heals and left the room.
The phantom rested his forehead in his hand. "Why," he groaned. He shook his fist at the ceiling. "Why have you brought me another Carlotta! WHY?"
Tzipporah walked back into the room. "What are you trippin' off now?"
"Tripping?" The phantom looked at her, bewildered. "I'm not even standing."
Tzipporah rolled her eyes. "Forget it. Can we get back to work . . . " she saw the phantom straighten, "Cap̀n?"
He rolled his eyes, then turned his back to her. "Sing this note." He instructed, pinging out an A on his organ.
She tried.
He took a deep breath. "Please return to your quarters."
"To my quarters I go, then," she said sarcastically. "Cap̀n."
"And another thing, DO NOT leave this place. There aren't many children exploring the opera house. I'll be back later tonight with your dinner. You may want to work on your pitch." As he said this, he put a finger in his ear. Tzipporah went back to her quarters and flopped on the bed and pinched her eyes shut. "There's no place like home. There's no place like home." She said, kicking her heels together. She opened her eyes, finding herself still under a damp stone ceiling."Damn.
"Great, stuck under an opera house waiting until mister sun shine gets back. Forbidden to explore, with nothing to do except 'work on your pitch'" she repeated. She realized she was talking to herself, but she didn't care.
"I'm so bored! Curse you, adult ADD!" She sat up. "Hmm . . . "
Tzipporah got out of bed and walked over to the lake. She stuck her foot in. "Hmmm . . . " She looked around, then shrugged, dropped her dress and dove in. A split second later, she surfaced, sputtering, "Shit! This is cold! Now I know why he uses the boat." She shivered for a minute. "Oh well, it's something to do." Tzipporah started swimming laps. After a while she decided she should work on her breathing. Yeah . . . breath support. That's an excuse. She dove under water and glided around, examining the floor of the lake. She'd been under for a few seconds when she was suddenly pinned to the bottom by a long pole. It pushed off her back and came down again on her head. After the pole released her, she surfaced in a huff, panting vigorously. Then she spotted the phantom, and thought briefly about tipping the Gondola. Instead she followed it as quietly as possible.
The phantom docked the boat and stepped out. She sneezed. He spun around, then stared at her in a now very familiar look. "Tzipporah, get out of that water right now!" He ordered.
"Uhhh . . . "
"Yes?"
"Umm . . . " She laughed, "Funny story . . . "
"What?"
"See that?" she pointed to her dress that lay in a heap on the ground.
He looked down. "Oh God. You aren't . . . "
"I am."
He rubbed his eyes and turned around.
"I was uh . . . working on my breath support . . . " She said, as she got out of the water and wrapped the dress haphazardly around her. The Phantom started to turn around. "DON'T even think about it! ." She said, walking backwards into her room. She slammed the door. "Ok, now. You can look."
"This isn't going to be easy, is it?" he asked her as she waltzed over to him, now fully clothed.
"Nope!" she said, raising her arm triumphantly.
He frowned at her.
"You are an extremely unruly child." He said cooly.
"Thank you, and I would like to make it known that I am not a child. I am a 17-year-old woman and expect to be addressed as such." She protested.
"Ha, you a lady. You can hardly be considered a girl."
"Watch it! If I get any more of that you're going to need a full face mask." She said, making a fist.
"Let us begin." He ordered, glaring at her.
"Aye Cap̀n"
The Phantom then pressed a key on the organ and braced himself.
Surprisingly, she was close.
"Oh, good it gets better." He said. He was wrong.
After her lesson, the phantom merely put her food on the table, saying, "Here's your dinner." Then he got back in his Gondola and left. No goodbye, no see you tomorrow. He just left. Tzipporah glared at his back as she stuffed her mouth full of bread.
As the night, day, whatever it was . . . went on, Tzipporah became a little creeped out. She may have been a quite bold young woman, but she'd never actually been in a situation like this. Darkness, she found, packed a pretty freaky punch. As she lied in bed, she started trying to hum songs to calm her nerves. "Track down this murderer" was the first to pop into her head. It didn't exactly help. The candles started to burn out.
"Somewhere, over the rainbow..." Tzipporah sang quietly, then gave up. "What a load of shit." Then she got to thinking. Wait. He said children can't walk around in the opera. But I'm not a child. I'm a seventeen - year - old woman. She got out of bed, and dressed herself in a nightgown she found. "I hope this wasn't Christine's." She said.
Remembering what she read in the book, Tzipporah started poking around the Phantom's lair, eventually finding the tunnel she was pretty sure led to Christine's dressing room. Her only clue was the word, "Christine" etched into the stone above the entrance. She grabbed a candelabrum and started into the tunnel. Tzipporah got about three steps in before she shivered. "Shit it's cold in here," she said, and returned to the lair, grabbed a cape off of a nearby chair and turned back into the tunnel, following it as it wound up and around towards Christine's room.
