Chapter 9
By the time I had returned to my garret, the party-goers had been cleared out, and not a thing had been tainted or disorganized. In fact, if I didn't know better (which at the time I didn't) I'd say it was in a much better condition than it had been when I had left.
I flopped down on my bed and stared at the dark ceiling, feeling all but accomplished. I'd been turned down, and I was in love. I could feel it in my heart, just as I had when I first saw Satine. I was in love again….
…and it was horrible.
The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return… Not being loved in return was quite a depressing feeling. That was the part I hadn't discovered until now. It didn't take much for Satine to return my love, but Selene was (and I never thought it could be possible but) more stubborn than her. I really felt that she liked me for a moment, and suddenly I was out in her hallway.
She could definitely move fast too, I'd give her that. Scott had to be crazy if he actually thought that she… and I…
Little did I know that yes, yes he WAS crazy enough to think that.
As I tried to get a few hours of sleep in before I started thinking of my sad past once again, Scott was sitting in his room with a candle lighting the corner table. He was steadily typing away at his old, dusty typewriter, a sparkle within his eyes. "Christian wrote on what he felt and what he saw… So therefore… I can do it too!" He ripped a page out and placed in a new one. "This play will be the best of the century! This is the story that will bring people mobbing back to the Moulin Rouge. THIS IS BRILLIANCE ITSELF!"
"SHUT UP!" Joseph yelled from his and Scott's bed.
"Oh… sorry…" Scott murmured, shrinking his head onto his shoulders and grinning in embarrassment. As Joseph laid back down, Scott continued working well on into the night until the candle's light blew out.
When daybreak arrived, I was asleep at my typewriter, once again with a blank sheet of paper to go on.
Scott was ironically in the same position, snoring lightly at his house. Next to his residence, in the Cardigan household, the Duke had once again arrived to work out some paperwork.
Sitting at the breakfast table, the discussed various things, just about all of them relating to the empty nightclub and how they were to come across seizing it for their own purposes. Francis Cardigan's horribly ugly fiancée came into the room, setting down a cup of hot tea for her engaged.
"Thank you, dear," He nodded, not really acknowledging her presence.
"Here you are, sir," She said to the Duke as she removed the tea cup and saucer from the tray she had brought it on. Unfortunately, her clumsy hand slipped, and the tea spilled all over the Duke's front.
"AHG!" He cried, standing immediately.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" She cried, covering her mouth with her hands. She then tried to clean him up with a napkin.
"This seems to happen more than it should," The Duke complained as Cardigan stood.
"I'll go get you another outfit!" Francis said, looking positively humiliated.
"I'm very, VERY sorry, Monsieur," The woman cried, sobbing melodramatically.
"It-It's all right," The Duke said as Francis emerged with a gray suit and white blouse. It was much lower class than what he usually wore, but it would do until he got home to his other suits.
The Duke stared at it with slight disgust and nodded, taking it.
Next door, Scott blearily arose from his slumber... That is, until he remembered what he had typed up. "Ah, brilliance!" He cried, standing. A few of his slicked back strands of hair fell loose into his face.
"Again?" Joseph cried, rolling his eyes as he looked up from his bed. "Well, at least you waited for morning this time. You don't think that Selene isn't cooking breakfast again, do you?"
It was a stupid question, for Scott could smell the scent of breakfast wafting from the stairs. "I've got to hurry and eat! I need to meet up with the members of the Rouge House!" Scott said, bolting down the stairs.
Selene had just set the breakfast on the table when he appeared and sat down. "GRACE!" He said quickly and proceeded to shoving the entire meal down his throat in one bite.
Selene would normally be angry about this kind of behavior, but she was extremely distracted and didn't even notice.
She sat down at the table and leaned her chin upon her hand, staring off into space.
"Hey, Selene?" Scott said, mouth full of food.
"Wh... What?" She asked, snapping back into reality.
"These eggs are runny…"
She stared at him blankly.
"Eggs…" Scott said after swallowing. "Runny eggs…"
"…Oh! Oh…" She said, staring at his place. "I um…"
"It's okay," He said. "I hate eggs." He pushed his plate which was empty of all but the eggs forward. "The meat was burned too, but it's okay. I cook much worse."
"…What?" She asked. She hadn't been listening to a word he'd said.
"Selene… Are you okay?" He asked, staring semi-concernedly at her.
"I… I'm fine!" She replied, heat creeping into her cheeks. "Fine, fine! Just… having an off morning! Yes, that's it!"
Scott watched her for a moment. "Okay!" He said, then rushed out the door to find his friends, only managing to grab his coat and hat from the hanger on the way out.
She sighed somewhat dreamily and picked up Scott's dishes. "That stupid writer…" She said, carrying it into the kitchen. "Why… can't I get you off of my mind?…"
I had no idea at the time that I could get into someone's head like that… It was quite an interesting trait, and if I wasn't so naive, I probably could have used it to my advantage.
Scott was long gone by the time she returned.
-
Scott's bohemian friends were all in a line with Ying, Yang, Black Cherry, Scott, and Smoke from left to right as they walked down the street, talking quickly. Smoke was wearing a jacket for once, but Black Cherry didn't seem to care that she was still dressed down.
"I really do like this," Smoke said, referring to the pile of parchment that Scott had written his 'brilliance' on. "It's quite captivating, and it has that bohemian feel without it being to copycat. Incredible."
"I think it'll be the show of the century," Scott said. "Just think, if we perform this at the Moulin Rouge, we can sell tickets that will have us living like kings for an entire lifetime! It'll be fantastic! It'll be wonderful! It will be spectacular!"
"Spectacular," Ying and Yang added in.
"Precisely," Scott said. "So, Smoke, do you think you can make some good tunes for it?"
"Since when could I not?" Smoke said confidently. "I'll head home and get to work on it right away."
"See you later then," Black Cherry said.
"Goodbye," Smoke said, turning and walking off.
Black Cherry watched him go, flipped her hair, and looked back at Scott. "I expected you to get the sitar player first, Penniless Poet. Shouldn't you have shown it to him?"
"I didn't want to bother him. He has some things to think about."
"What do you mean?" Ying and Yang asked.
"Well, last night we found him outside Selene's door looking completely lost."
"So?" Black Cherry said, raising her eyebrow.
"Well, I had the worst kind of breakfast this morning. Selene is extremely distracted. I believe something happened last night that hit them both pretty hard," Scott said, fighting back a grin so that he could look concerned.
"Really?" Black Cherry said, her mind racing with ideas. "How about you send Ying and Yang to check on our sitar player while you go check out the stage for the Moulin Rouge and make sure you've blocked everything correctly?"
"Why don't you go see Monsieur Christian?" Scott asked.
"-because I've got costumes to make," She said, turning on her heel and marching away.
"Oh…" Scott murmured. "Well, you heard her. Go!" Scott said, waving Ying and Yang in the direction of my apartment.
"Right-o!" They both said, saluting and zooming off in perfect unison.
Scott went in the direction of the Moulin Rouge. Ying and Yang were headed towards my garret, but Black Cherry… No, she wasn't headed for her costumes at all. She was off to do some dirty work of her own.
-
It seemed I was sleeping at my desk a lot more than I used to. It was fairly stupid for it was uncomfortable, and every time someone arrived I fell out my chair.
"Monsieur Sitar Player!" Ying and Yang cried, swinging open the door without so much as a knock.
I screamed out, stumbling to my feet. I stared at them for a few moments as it registered.
"Good morning," They said.
"Why are you here?" I asked, sliding my hands over my face.
"We came to see if you were all right on orders of Black Cherry and Penniless Poet, sir," They said, staring around the room in wonder.
"All right…?" I questioned sleepily. "Why wouldn't I be all right?"
"Well…" The two of them both rocked back and forth on their heels. "Penniless Poet told us that he saw you outside of his sister's bedroom door yesterday night and just left without so much as a word to him or anyone else. Smoke informed us that he saw you leave with the Penniless Poet's sister before and thinks that maybe she did something to hurt you or perhaps you did something to hurt her or even perhaps that something GOOD came out of it?"
I stared at them blankly. Half of it had gone in one ear and out the other. "…No?" I asked myself.
Ying and Yang looked at each other.
"Is that so?" They asked.
I shifted my eyes suspiciously.
"You need to loosen up," They said.
"Loosen…" I rolled my eyes. "All right, what do you want?"
-
Black Cherry, meanwhile, was well on her way towards the home of her Penniless Poet where his Satine look-alike sister resided. Not even knocking, she opened the door and walked inside.
"Oh, no… it's you," Joseph said bitterly from his and Margaret's spot in the parlor.
"Do you want to pway?" Margaret asked, holding up one of her dolls.
"Not now," Black Cherry said. "You seen your older sister?"
"She's wandering aimlessly around the house, staring off into space," Joseph said.
"Thanks."
Selene was found up in her room, staring out the balcony with a spaced look on her face.
"How's it going?" Black Cherry called out.
"All you need is love…" She sang barely above a whisper, not paying attention. "Love is all we need…"
"Hello, anybody home!" She yelled, pounding her fist on the door.
Selene turned around in surprise.
"Lovely day to stare off into universe, huh," Black Cherry said. "Let's talk."
Selene looked at her like she was nuts.
"You heard me," She responded. "Sit down and let me talk to you."
-
I stared out the window, listening to them babble on about Scott's new play that was actually worth the read and how they wanted me to come to the Rouge House and read it for him.
My eyes centered on the large windmill, and their voices slowly faded away while the memories of the dance across the sky and the kiss and… everything slipped in and out of my mind.
Christian:
Who can say for certain?
Maybe you're still here
I feel you all around me
Your memory so clear
Deep in the stillness
I can hear you speak
You're still an inspiration
Can it be…
That you are my
Forever love
And you are watching over me
From up above?
I went off into my own world where I could see Satine, smiling at me and dragging me out for another dance on the clouds.
Christian:
Fly… me up to where you are
Beyond a distant star…
I wish upon tonight
To see you smile…
If only for awhile to know you're there
A breath away is not far
To where you are…
"Monsieur Sitar Player."
-and my world was gone. "Yes?" I asked.
"Surely it's not that bad a plan, is it?"
I had my food firmly placed on the window sill, ready to hoist myself into her arms. That Green Fairy was really out to get me… and I hadn't even had a glass of Absinthe today! I suppose that was why.
I grinned sheepishly and hopped back down. "I'll read it. Sure. Let's go."
"Splendid!" They cheered. "Penniless Poet will be very happy."
I'm sure he would be. If I spit on him, he'd most likely die of happiness.