Lisette

Chapter 12 ~ The Delusion That the World can be Made a Better Place

Enjolras was already at the Café Musain when we arrived there, but there was no one else yet. Having ordered a meal for Gavroche, and something for myself as well, we went along the corridor to the back room, and I took advantage of Enjolras having brought a pen and ink with him. Over the food, we began on the basics of what each letter was, and how they each had a lower case and a capital, and by the time some of the other young men began arriving, we had started on how each letter could make different sounds. By the time we were losing the ability to hear ourselves think due to the conversation levels, he had begun to piece together how to spell first my own name, as he had shortened it, since it was nice and simple - Lis - and then his own name.  

"I think," I said to him, as Grantaire began an incredibly loud speech on who-knows-what "That we'd better leave it there for now. I'm not sure we'll be able to get much else done, with this chaos! Still, you're welcome to stay, and keep warm, for as long as the rest of us are here."

He grinned his thanks, and went back to going over the letters I had written out on a page of my notebook. Beneath the alphabet, I had written both our names, and then some other words that he might come across in day to day life - rue, boulevard, bastille, temple, seine, eglise... 

Enjolras, now he had regained possession of the pen that I had borrowed, buried himself in writing, but Courfeyrac, who had only just arrived, came and joined us.

"He's a little young to be a student," was his first remark.

"No one's too young to learn, though," I answered. "And for all that you call yourselves Les Amis de l'ABC, it seems that so far I'm the only one who's given half a thought to the practical education anyone, rather than simply tossing it around as an idea."

"Granted," he responded, and then after a pause, asked: "So are you going to introduce us?"

"Gavroche, this is Courfeyrac. Courfeyrac - Gavroche. Gavroche is normally to be found over by the Boulevard de Temple. He's making the beginnings of learning how to read, though we've given up on the lesson for now, on account of - well - all this," I finished, gesturing to the rest of the room, but mainly Grantaire, who had yet to shut up. He was the only one of the group who I had barely spoken to. The rest I knew fairly well, to differing degrees - I probably knew Jehan, Joly, and Courfeyrac best. And Enjolras, of course, though he was far more reticent about his background and his family than any of the others. Almost as though he were ashamed of them. 

As Courfeyrac fell into talking with Gavroche, and as Gavroche showed him what he had learned so far, I took my sewing back up and looked idly over Enjolras's shoulder, at what he was writing. It looked to be the beginnings of a draft of a book to teach reading. He must have felt my gaze on him, as he looked up at me. 

"Listening to you teaching Gavroche - I thought it would be useful to have some kind of small pamphlet - something that doesn't cost the world, to try and help people learn the basics of reading. In some ways, I think it could be more important than the one telling people's stories. And for this, if you were to draw some simple pictures to go with the words, that could be engraved...?"

"Of course - I should be happy to. And in teaching Gavroche, and perhaps others, I'll be able to work out what the best order of doing things is. Though it may be different for each person."

"Even if they can't write, being able to read can give such an advantage. And so many of the materials that are currently in print to help with teaching reading are religious. People should have a choice. They should be allowed to learn without having to have God thrown into the mix."

"You don't believe in God?" 

"How can I? When we're surrounded by all this suffering. It's all well and good for rich priests to go on about strength through suffering, and how the meek shall inherit the earth, but people shouldn't have to suffer. No one deserves such conditions as so many are forced to live in."