Chapter 3 – The Past Revisited

Mme Giry entered Erik's home to find him sitting at the organ composing. She came up behind him.

"Good morning Mme, this is an unexpected visit" he remarked without even turning around.

"How did you know it was me and not Kimberlee?"

"I could tell by your perfume, Kimberlee doesn't wear any herself," he turned to face her, "I suspect that is why you are here. You wish to speak to me about Kimberlee."

"Yes Erik I do. I don't want to hurt you, but you two cannot be in a romantic relationship. I have known about your friendship for quite some time now, and I know you are tutoring her singing, but that is as far as this should go."

"I don't know what you are speaking about, Kimberlee and I are merely friends? She is my only friend, other than yourself."

"Erik, don't lie to me. I can see it in your eyes…you are in love with her, and I fear she with you."

"Why should you fear this? You are right; I am in love with her and she with me, what is so wrong with that?"

"Because her father would never permit it, he only knows you as the opera ghost who hides in the shadows."

"Surely Jonathon would want his daughter to be happy and I can make her happy, I really can."

"Erik, look at this situation realistically, you live under the ground with no natural light, and you barely venture out of the opera house. How do you expect to make her happy? She cannot live under the ground forever without any interaction with other people. Erik, unfortunately you have become accustomed to this living, but how could you impose this onto her?"

"I could live above, as long as we are together."

"Erik, listen to yourself, you are making excuses. These are not the words or thoughts of someone in love, but someone who is lusting after another."

Erik took a deep breath and gently released it before speaking.

"Mme, I appreciate your concern, but surely you can appreciate that I would like you to keep your nose out of our business. Allow us to make these decisions on where we go from here, we are both adults now and capable of making these decisions."

"I know you are both adults, but you are young adults who have yet to live in the real world. You live sheltered lives, just be cautious and don't do anything rash. I'll leave you now to your composing, but please consider the things we have discussed."

"I will and thank you for your visit Mme Giry."

Mme Giry left Erik and went up to the dormitories hoping to catch Kimberlee before she left her room. Erik turned back to his organ and began to play a song that he knew Kimberlee enjoyed, she had hummed it often. He wanted to sing it for her later when she came for her lessons. The song was not opera so he was having slight difficulty with it, he had not listened to much of the music Kimberlee enjoyed, but he wanted to.

Mme Giry arrived at Kimberlee's room to find it empty. Knowing she would be at the rehearsals for the performance of Faust everyone was preparing for she made her way to the stage. Sure enough, when she arrived she saw Kimberlee with her father on the stages side having a rather heated discussion. She knew better than to interrupt so she made up her mind to talk to her later.

From the other side of the stage where she stood having yet another argument with her father, Kimberlee saw Mme Giry arrive. She guessed that she must have gone to see Erik; the woman was never late to rehearsals.

"Kimberlee, I asked you a question? Where were you last night? When I came by your room you were not there."

"I told you I was with a friend; I am allowed to spend time with my friends outside of the opera house am I not?"

"Yes of course, but who was this friend? I called everyone I could think of and none of them had seen you since school let out that afternoon."

"Her name is Erica and the reason you don't know her is because she is a new student and she's shy."

"Well I'd like to meet her, I worry about you."

"You know dad, not all young people are drunk drivers who go around killing innocent people. I'm not going to end up like mom did" she said bitterly immediately regretting her decision to bring this topic up and not only because it hurt her father; but her also.

Without even thinking her father slapped her across the face, the reminder of his wife's death was not one he welcomed, especially when for so long he had silently blamed his daughter for his wife's death. The slap was heard by all and everyone stared as Kimberlee's face was beginning to show signs of a bruise. She stared blankly at her father; he had never struck her, even as a child. Tears began to well up in her eyes as the shock set in; she pushed her father aside and excused herself from the stage. She ran to her room while the tears in her eyes began to fall freely. If Erik had been there he certainly would not have stood by and he would have been discovered by all, plus she did not want him to see her this way.

Meg and Christine were worried for their friend, they had all seen father and daughter argue before but he had never struck her. Jonathon hung his head in shame and went to his office, with Michael hot on his heels quietly scolding him for his actions and his secret thoughts which had led to those actions. The two girls looked up at Mme Giry and she gave her silent approval for them to follow her. When they arrived at her room they could hear her sobs through the closed door. They quietly knocked and waited for her to call back.

"Come in" she said trying to hide the quiver in her voice.

The door opened slowly. She quickly dried her eyes and plastered a fake smile on her face.

"Are you alright?" Christine asked

"Oh I'm fine, didn't even upset me."

"Then why do you have tear stains on your cheeks" Meg stated.

Kimberlee couldn't hold it in any longer. Her lower lip began to quiver and the tears began to flow again.

"He's never hit me, even when I certainly deserved it. I should never have brought up my mother, it was wrong."

"What happened to your mother, how did she die?" Christine asked

Kimberlee signalled the girls to sit on the bed as she pulled the chair toward them. She tossed the Kleenex box onto the bed and calmed herself before beginning.

"When I lived in California I was your typical teenager. I sang in the school's Jazz choir, had friends, even a boyfriend just before we moved. My friends and I liked to go out on the weekends to whatever party was being thrown that week and the rule was I could go as long as I didn't drink, do drugs or get into a car with someone who had been drinking. Well booze and drugs didn't matter me, or some of my friends, I usually went to these parties to make fun of the idiots who did drink, thoughI'd never tellmy parents that, they wouldn't have approved of that either."

The girls smiled and nodded.

"My mom always told me that if I couldn't get home with someone who was sober that I could call her no matter what time it was and she would come get me. That's what happened that night. That night I was with one of my girlfriends and her new boyfriend and that was the night she decided to get shit faced along with him. So I called my mom around 11:00 to ask her to come get me, but of course I would meet her down the street at the service station so no one knew."

"Of course," both girls said in unison.

"So I said goodnight to Julie and left to meet her. Halfway home we were entering an intersection when all of a sudden a car came barrelling at us toward the passenger side of the car. We swerved to miss it, but the car hit us head on. I remember my mother's arm flying across my chest to hold me back and the sound of glass breaking but I don't remember too much else. When I woke up in the hospital a few days later I had a huge bandage on my head and my chest hurt. I was hooked up to a machine to help me breathe. The doctor told me that I had been trapped in the car crushed between my door and the dashboard and that I had sustained some internal injuries, luckily none too life threatening. It was a miracle that I didn't die there; they had to use the Jaws of Life to pry me out of the car."

Both girls sat in silence and reached for a Kleenex.

"I asked my dad about mom and he started to cry, that's when I knew she was dead. He told me that she had taken off her seatbelt to shield me when she realized that the car was going to collide with me and that it was her who shielded me and not just her arm as I thought. The car was completely totalled, when I went to see what was left I knew it had been a miracle that I had survived and that my mother was my guardian angel that night."

"Do you know who hit your car?"

"It was my girlfriend Julie and her boyfriend. They had left shortly after I did and drove. Both were also killed. I was so angry I couldn't go to her funeral even though we had known each other for most of our lives, not that anyone really blamed me. I regret it now, but before I left California I went to her grave and forgave her for what happened and asked her to forgive me for not going to the funeral and more importantly, not taking her with me to meet my mom. I felt a peace right away and knew that she did forgive me so it helped a bit."

All three girls were now crying again when they heard the call for lunch. They dried their eyes, Kimberlee applied some makeup to cover up the slight bruise on her face and they headed for lunch. When they arrived everyone was very quiet.

"What, you've never seen a woman cry before. Jeez, get a life all of you" Kimberlee said.

Chatter quickly resumed among everyone. Jonathon came to get a plate of food; he needed it after being 'assaulted' by Michael's words to him. He saw his daughter across the room and cautiously walked over to her. They stared at each other for a moment and then Kimberlee wrapped her arms around her father and hugged him tightly. He returned the hug and whispered in her ear 'I'm sorry'.

"I know you didn't mean it, I'm sorry I brought it up" Kimberlee whispered back.

They continued to hug for a moment more and then parted to get their lunch. Jonathon took a closer look at her face and through the makeup could see a small bruise on her cheek and he truly was sorry he had struck her. Across the room both Mme Giry and Michael stood and smiled.

"At least those two never stay mad at each other for long" Michael said.

"Yes Mr. Lefavre, they have a good relationship."

"You wouldn't have thought that if you knew them years ago. Mother and daughter were closer, but then I suppose that's how it usually is, isn't it?"

"In most cases yes, until the daughter grows up."

Kimberlee had been through enough this morning, Mme Giry decided that one more day before speaking to her about Erik couldn't hurt, could it?