VII
The break turned out to be exactly what Antoinette had expected, a mess of lessons and practises. The only ones who had any time off were the musicians for without a performance there was very little point for them to be at the theatre.
"And one and two and three, very good my little ones."
"Madame can we try pirouettes?" a young girl asked eagerly.
"Not today my dear."
All the dancers moaned in protest and begged her to teach them. Antoinette chuckled quietly and shook her head.
"Please Madame…please?"
"No, look at the time, I must go for supper as must you. Practise is over for the day my dears."
The little ballerinas scurried from the room, giggling and chattering among themselves. As they left Meg pushed her way through the small crowd with Christine. Gustave followed after them
"What are you doing here Monsieur?" Antoinette asked, scooping her daughter up in her arms.
"I had a meeting with Monsieur Lefevre and Monsieur Reyer," he replied, "and Christine insisted on coming with me. Naturally she ran off to find Meg."
"Naturally."
Gustave gave a small bow and picked up his daughter, "Good evening Madame Giry."
Antoinette put Meg down as she tried to wiggle free.
"Christine's papa looks sick," Meg said, "and he coughs a lot."
Antoinette nodded her head in agreement; he was always terribly pale and had dark circles under his eyes. If it weren't for that he might be handsome, he most likely was at some point in his life.
"Come my dear, we must go to supper."
An apple, it certainly wasn't a meal, but it was better then nothing. With a disgruntled sigh Erik tossed the core into the lake. Boredom, it seemed to eat away at his very existence. There was only so much one cold do as a ghost and most of it was terribly boring.
"There is no doubt I will go mad soon," he grumbled, "wonderful, now I am even talking to myself!"
Sitting at the organ he depressed several of the keys, allowing the sound to fill the air for a moment before releasing the keys and letting the sound linger like a heavy fog. A new opera was to be decided upon soon, for once he had no say in the performance, not that he had wanted a say. If he had that soft manager would no doubt have given it to him though.
He sighed again and watched as his breath wisped away before his eyes. It was always cold in the winter, especially so far beneath the theatre, but he had become used to it. As long as he wore a robe or a jacket over his clothes it wasn't so bad.
"I wonder if it has snowed yet," he mused, fiddling with the keys of the organ, "hmm, again I am talking to myself…this is truly becoming a habit."
Erik wandered through the lair and picked up a violin. It needed to be tuned from lack of use, but that would give him something to do. Glancing around he attempted to locate the case for the instrument for that was where the bow would be. That in itself seemed a daunting task given the number of objects he had.
"I will be at this until morning," he muttered and started to search.
Antoinette nearly cursed when the announcement was made to her Monsieur Reyer and Gustave in Monsieur Lefevre's office. The new opera meant another month of preparing, rehearsals, set construction and utter mayhem. Still, it was the operas that kept the theatre in business and food on the table.
"We will be putting on a performance of Don Pasquale," Monsieur Lefevre announced cheerfully, "a comedy by Gaetano Donizetti."
"A comedy?" Monsieur Reyer asked as Antoinette raised her eyebrows.
"Is something the matter Madame Giry?"
"No not at all, in fact I am pleased. We have not performed a comedy in some time."
"Yes well, for one O.G. has not sent us any 'suggestions' as to what we are to perform," he said irritably, "the music will be given out tomorrow and then you may begin to put together the chorus and the ballets."
"Very well monsieur."
"You may leave now," he said, "have a good day Madame Giry, Monsieur Daae, Monsieur Reyer."
"You as well," Antoinette and Gustave murmured. Monsieur Reyer simply nodded his head.
"Your ghost does not like comedies?" Gustave asked once they were away from eh office.
"That is how it appears," Monsieur Reyer replied irritably, "he seems fond of tragedies. I only hope he does not decide to interfere halfway through rehearsals…it is not unlike him."
"We can only hope," Antoinette replied.
"And if he does?" Gustave asked, "What would he do?"
"Who knows!"? Monsieur Reyer exclaimed, "He will do whatever he wishes. He might have us change the opera or simply cause no end of trouble during rehearsals and the performance."
"He would do that?" Gustave asked, it seemed as if there was no end to what the Opera Ghost would do.
"Of course," Antoinette replied, "have you learned nothing in these past weeks? The phantom does whatever he wishes whenever he wishes."
"Maman, maman!" Meg called, running towards her mother as fast as her short legs could carry her, "maman!"
"Slow down or you will fall," Antoinette scolded as Meg stopped in front of her.
"Maman I was looking for you."
"I told you where I would be," Antoinette said, "and I though I told you to stay in the dormitory with the other girls."
"But maman this is important," Meg said, twisting something in her hands, "I found this."
She held up an envelope with a red wax skull seal and handed it to her mother.
"Where did you find this?" Antoinette asked.
"Outside the dormitory," she replied guiltily.
Antoinette opened the envelope and withdrew the letter. It was short and written in the same black ink as always. Still, it was strange for him to travel so far to leave a note.
"Hmm," she said and crumpled up the note before the others could read it.
"What are you doing?" Monsieur Reyer asked, panic in his voice.
"It is nothing of importance," she replied, "simply a thank you for his salary."
"A thank you? He has never thanked us before," Monsieur Reyer objected.
"He is very fickle," she replied, "perhaps he is in a good mood."
Antoinette then took Meg's hand and led the little girl away from the two men. So he wanted to see her, an odd request for him. It had been years since he had personally requested a visit
"I need you to stay in the dormitory this time," Antoinette said sternly.
"Of course maman," she replied.
Antoinette was happy that the chapel was normally empty and this time was no exception. She crossed her arms over her chest and waited. If he wanted to see her he would have to come out.
"Good day Madame," he said silkily from the walls.
"I will not speak with walls Erik, come out if you wish to see me."
She could hear him give a disgruntled sigh as he came out form his hiding place. He didn't like to be forced into the open, there was always to off chance that someone might come down and see him.
"You wanted to see me?" she asked.
"Oh, yes I did," he replied as he sat on the bench, "didn't I?"
"Oui, and quite risky as well. What if someone else had seen the letter?"
"Oh, I trusted that you wouldn't allow that," he replied.
"So, what was so urgent that you risked this meeting?"
"I hear that they have decided on a new opera, a comedy. Don Pasquale?"
"Yes."
"How nice, the theatre hasn't performed a comedy in some time."
Antoinette rolled her eyes, he made it sound as if the theatre had had the choice to decide on the previous operas, "It was not as if Monsieur Lefevre had the choice."
"Hmm, well I suppose it will be fine. I don't intend to have it changed at any rate," he replied, staring out the stain glass window as he spoke.
"You still have not answered my question," Antoinette reminded him, "why did you ask to see me?"
"I don't know," he replied, shrugging his shoulders, "company I suppose…it can get terribly boring when there is no one to converse with."
"You have gotten along fine until now."
"You don't believe me then," he stated, "fine, I do not care."
"If you have nothing more to day then I must leave, there are matters to be attended to."
"I am curious, Madame," he said as she turned to leave, "has it snowed yet this year?"
"Non."
He made a thoughtful sound in his throat, "Odd, I thought it would have…farewell then Madame."
Antoinette made her way back up through the theatre; Erik surely had the most interesting moods. Had it snowed? What an odd question for him to have asked. Such things as the weather didn't seem something a ghost would care about, and he was becoming more and more like a ghost as the years went by.
"Madame Giry!" Gustave called, "I have been looking for you."
"Is that so Monsieur Daae?" she asked, "I was in the chapel, what is it you need?"
"Monsieur Lefevre wanted to speak with you."
She couldn't suppress the annoyed sigh that escaped her breast, what could the man possibly want now? Gustave seemed to notice her annoyance for he frowned slightly.
"Fine, thank you Monsieur."
"Of course," he replied with a small bow, "I am returning home now, good day."
"Good day Monsieur Daae."
She was already nearly down the hall when he called, "Madame?" she turned, "if you would be so inclined I would like to invite you over tonight for supper."
"Merci Monsieur Daae, you truly are too kind."
"Is that a yes?"
"Oui monsieur, and thank you."
He gave a small bow, "Five-thirty then."
Antoinette couldn't help but smile; it would be nice to eat a meal in a house instead of a kitchen or dormitory. Besides, rehearsals would start soon and they would all be either too tired or too busy to have any proper conversations or visits. And sometimes it was nice to have discussions with someone who was not always half hidden in shadow.
Once again thank you to all my reviewers, love you all. Lotte Rose 37 he will start noticing Christine in a few chapter so you know. Chibi, sad that you are all out of cookies and to answer your question I have taken french in school since grade 1, french imersion to be correct (Canadian) and I love anime freaks lol I'm one myself actually and most of my friends are. So I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter and will continue to review and I hoep to get some new reviewers as well. Oh and Baby-Vixen so sorry I shall reinstate you in the corps.
