Chapter 3: Heart-to-Heart Talk

The girls rushed back home and opened the door to the cellar, and got surrounded by thick smoke. In the room, they spotted a man coughing and stuck in a barrel upside down. The barrel hopped around for a bit as it toppled over, and broke apart like a ballerina tutu.

Belle and Odette hurried down the stairs to the cellar and they both coughed from the smoke.

"Papa?" Belle called.

As soon as the smoke cleared up, there was a short, overweight and middle-aged man with a half-bald head with gray hair, green eyes, thick eyebrows and a thick mustache. He wore a lime green shirt with rolled up sleeves, an olive green vest, forest green pants, an orange apron, striped yellow socks, and brown shoes. This is Maurice, Belle's father and the adopted father of Odette. Aside from that, he struggled to get out of the barrel.

"How on earth did that happen?" Maurice said to himself as he attempted to pull the broken barrel down. He managed to pull it down, along with his pants, exposing his polka dot underwear. "Dog gonnit!"

"Are you all right Papa?" Belle asked her father with concern.

"Are you hurt Papa?" Odette also asked. "That was a very big explosion! We got scared when we heard it from the village and hurried home to check up on you!"

Maurice saw his daughters, and in embarrassment, pulled up his pants and the remainder of the barrel was stuck on his ankle.

"I'm fine Odette," he said grumpily as he kicked off the last remaining piece of the barrel off of his foot, "I-I'm about ready to give up on this hunk of junk!"

He kicked the machine in frustration, and made both of the girls smile. They knew Maurice better, and even when his new inventions don't work, he never gives up.

"You always say that," the brunette said chuckling.

"Every time when you try to get every machine right," the strawberry blonde added with a nod.

"I mean it this time!" Maurice grumbled as he walked up to his daughters. "I'll never get this bone-headed contraption to work!"

"Yes, you will!" Belle said, with optimism. "And you'll win first prize at the fair tomorrow."

The middle-aged man scoffed and crossed his arms, but the brunette put her hands on her father's shoulders and added, "And become a world-famous inventor."

"You really believe that?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course Papa," Odette said, smiling. "As a wise old man once said, at first if you don't succeed, try, try again."

"We always have," Belle agreed.

This managed to boost up Maurice's confidence and he hurried back to his machine, "Well, what are we waiting for? I'll have this thing fixed in no time!" he slid under the machine and said, "Hand me that dog-legged clincher there."

The brunette went over to the tool holder and grabbed a tool to give to her father.

"So did you girls have a good time in town today?"

"Odette and I've got new books," Belle said, shrugging as she walked over. "Papa, do you think I'm odd?"

Maurice appeared from underneath his contraption with his goggles, making his eyes large.

"My daughter odd?" the middle-aged man said. "Now where would you get an idea like that?"

"Oh I don't know," Belle said handing the tool to him. "It's just that I'm not sure if I fit in around here. There's no one I can really talk to, except for Odette."

"That's true," Odette said, sitting on a stool and slumped over. "Most of the people here always shun me because of my eyesight and my orientation."

The strawberry blonde took off her glasses to clean them off and treat her eyes. She reached into her apron pocket to pull out a small bottle of her eye drops. She leaned back and squeezed the bottle to place each drop in her eyes. Odette had to hold in her cry as the eye drops sting her eyes; even prevent her hands from rubbing them out.

When Odette was around six years old, she became infected with an eye disease known as glaucoma. Glaucoma is when the optic nerve from the eyes to the brain is damaged by intraoccular pressure, and caused Odette to become partially blind. Before she, Maurice, and Belle came to the village, Odette used to have a family, living in a city near Paris; but she, her parents, two older sisters, and younger brother were very poor, and they didn't have a lot of food and money.

When Odette was around five, her mother grew sick and died after Pierre turned four, and then her father began to drink and abuse his own children. Odette's older sisters, Estelle and Noelle grew horrified and ran away from home. Odette and Pierre were very close and stayed by each other to avoid being battered and bruised by their drunken father.

One year later, their father was making his way home from a pub and in his drunken state, was hit by a carriage and killed. Both Odette and Pierre went to live with a cousin, but the cousin had severe mental health issues and committed suicide. They were sent to an orphanage, soon after Pierre was taken away and separated from his sister.

During her time there, she contracted her eye disease and began to slowly lose her eyesight. She was horribly mistreated, humiliated, and bullied by the other children because of her failing eyesight and thought her blindness was a curse from God.

After spending a few months in the orphanage, Odette had enough and she ran away. She still managed to have half of her eyesight and was able to help guide herself. One day, a family riding in a wagon pulled by a Belgian draft horse encountered her. They were consisted of a man, a woman, and a little girl around Odette's age.

At first, Odette couldn't trust them, thinking they would lash out at her. But the couple had kind expressions and she broke down in front of them, saying she was alone and had no place to go. The couple told Odette she could live with them for a while. They continued on until they arrived at a town and settled down in a cottage. Odette and the little girl (who was Belle) slowly began to trust each other and became friends. The couple, Maurice and his wife, Colette saw how close Belle and Odette were getting and decided to welcome Odette into their family.

Belle and her parents helped Odette cope with her partial blindness, and invented a pair of spectacles to help her eyes adjust to the light. Colette was a schoolteacher and highly educated. She taught the strawberry blonde how to read and write, in raised letters and braille. The young girl began to enjoy her new life with her found family, even though she still missed her siblings and dreamed about finding them.

Everything was well for them until one day, Colette became ill with bronchitis and died when Belle was thirteen and Odette was twelve. Despite losing their mother, Belle, Odette and their father continued on with their lives for the next four years.

As Odette was developing into a woman, she began to realize how different she was from the other village maidens. She dressed modestly without showing a lot of cleavage from her chest; she wasn't attracted to the men for their appearances, she had no desire to have children and has no interest in getting married at a very early age. That was when the strawberry blonde discovered that she was asexual. After talking about it with Belle and Maurice, they still accepted Odette for whom she was, no matter where she fell on the spectrum. However, the people of the village misunderstood her asexuality as a curse of not being able to fall in love. This gave discomfort to Odette of being in a community that doesn't understand her true identity.

The medicine managed to get absorbed into her eyes and the pain had subsided. The strawberry blonde's thoughts were interrupted when her adopted father spoke up as he was still under the machine, "Well, how 'bout that Gaston? He's a handsome fellow."

"He's handsome all right," Belle said, before she vented about him, before sitting in a chair next to the fireplace. "And rude and conceited and… Oh Papa, he's not for me."

"Not to mention that he's very vain, cares about himself only, and reminds me of Narcissus. Yeah, he's definitely not my type either. I don't know if I'll ever find love myself, as long as I live," the strawberry blonde admitted, placing her glasses back on.

"Well, don't you worry, 'cause this invention's gonna be the start of a new life for us," Maurice said as he got up on his feet. "I think that's done it. Now, let's give it a try."

The middle-aged man pulled on a lever to start up the machine, and it started whirring. Belle, Odette, and Maurice stepped back in case the machine would explode. The machine continued to operate until the axe attached to it, began to chop a log that was on a platform with springs. Once the axe finished chopping the log, it flew up and made a perfect landing on the pile of firewood!

"It works!" Belle exclaimed happily.

"It does?" Maurice asked, as he ducked a flying log. "It does!"

"You did it! You really did it!" the brunette said, hugging her father with the strawberry blonde joining it.

"We're so proud of you Papa!" Odette cried, smiling.

"Hitch up Philippe, girls," Maurice announced, with a grin. "I'm off to the fair!"

Without warning, a flying log hit the man on the head and made him dizzy.

Soon after, Belle and Odette were outside of their cottage waving good-bye to Maurice. He had his invention loaded onto the cart and Philippe the horse was hitched on to pull it, and Maurice was ready for the fair.

"Good-bye Papa, good luck!" the brunette called, waving.

"Stay safe Papa!" the strawberry blonde added.

"Good-bye Belle and Odette!" Maurice called waving back to the girls, as Philippe gave a whinny. "And take care while I'm gone!"

And with that, Maurice and Philippe began to make their journey to the fair!