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A/N: Please review! I like to see what people think. Hope you enjoy the latest chapter. This is where all the good stuff starts to happen. evil grin

Chapter 18: The Quiet Before the Storm

Many more months flew by, past Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years and my birthday. We were soon into the spring of 1876 and I was twenty-one. I know I am skipping a lot of time but do you really want to hear about me cleaning and doing domestic things? That's about all that happened during the year 1875. I cleaned house and accompanied Erik to lessons. His fame was growing and he was starting to get uncomfortable. He soon had forbidden Alex's and Jack's parents from inviting friends to the lessons. Erik claimed that if they ever did it again, he would immediately stop the lessons. I knew he wasn't joking. Erik never joked about that kind of thing. Thankfully the parents listened and no more surprise guests ever showed up at the lessons. That was probably the most exciting thing to happen that year, other than my revelation of the future.

Erik had soon gleaned from me everything he needed or wanted to know about the future. Our conversations of the future soon dwindled into just random comments every once in a while. That was fine with me. Thinking about home made me wish for it more. Though Erik believed me, he asked me for some historical events that were to happen in the near future so that he could test whether I was really telling the truth. I wasn't much of a historian on Paris history, but I told him that in 1889 they were going to build the Eiffel Tower and that in 1903 the Wright Brothers would succeed in flying. He nodded and said we'd wait to see what would happen. And so we did. Too bad those events were years away.

Something strange soon began happening as soon as spring made herself known in Paris in the year 1876. Erik started distancing himself from me. He requested that I no longer go with him to the houses of his students for lessons. He all but cancelled our walks in the park together. We had been doing those daily for over two years. I couldn't think of single reason why he would stop going for the walks with me. If that wasn't enough, he became terse, cold, and distant. Dinners suddenly began to consist of sounds of eating instead of the friendly banter we used to engage in. What had I done to earn such treatment? I could think of nothing.

Louise quickly saw what was happening and gave me her own wisdom in the matter. She had been delighted to see Erik and me spending so much time together. She knew it was doing him a world of good. Louise did not want to see our friendship fall apart. I know she meant well and I appreciated it, but I truly wished she hadn't gotten involved. I would much rather have just dealt with it on my own.

Her piece of advice was for me to go and apologize to him. Great. That was an excellent solution. Problem was I didn't know what I had done. But, I decided to see if it would do any good. In one of the rare moments I had with him now, I apologized. He pretty much threw it back in my face, though he did it kindly.

"It's nothing you've done. I've just been a complete fool. So, don't worry your childish head about it." It was all I could do not to retaliate back with some mean comment. I was devastated. My only friend in that world was starting to abandon me. What had I done wrong?

A month went by so slowly that I wondered if I was actually living five years in the course of that month. His treatment did not worsen, but it didn't get any better. I was still regulated to the house and was not permitted to go with him to the lessons. Everyone asked about me, but he just told them that I was becoming to busy to go with him. Office work was taking up my time, he said. That was completely not true. It was all so frustrating.

But, by the end of the month, I began having a sneaking suspicion that there was something else entirely going on. I had an odd feeling that it wasn't me he was mad at or angry with. He had told me he had been a complete fool. So, he was angry with himself and taking it out on me. I tossed several different theories around inside my head. What could possibly be going on inside that genius' head? The one thing I wished it could be I thought could never happen. But, it had. And he was doing everything in his power to fight it.

April of 1876 came on with lots of sunshine and warmer weather. But, like the saying goes, April showers bring May flowers. And so the rain came and came and came. Even if Erik had wanted to, there was no way we could have walked in the park. He had to cancel lessons for a week due to the amount of rain. On April 16th, the biggest storm I'd ever seen hit Paris. We were in for a nasty adventure, and I'm not just talking about the storm…