Limelight

Chapter Two: Mamma Giry

Chapter Two: Mamma Giry

October 30th, 1910

I sputtered and kicked as I felt a hot substance cover my face and body, I gasped and groaned; I shook my hands and wiped my face, it was water. I opened my eyes to see Megan, Victoria, Doctor Munroe, M. Richard, M. Barnabus, Mamma Giry, and Victoria's friend, Cindy. "You gave us a right scare there, Elizabeth, you've been out all night! Now it's well...to-morrow!" M. Richard cried handing me a soft, green towel.

All of a sudden the pink door to my room opened and in walked a fat man in an inspector's outfit; this man introduced himself as Inspector Henry Saddeninger, the inspector had orange hair and green eyes, his accent was unknown to me. I was lying in the foremost room of my dressing room; my dressing room consisted of two rooms, a sleeping room where my bed, WC, wardrobe and dressing screen were. The foremost room consisted of a living area, my desk, a mirror that was twice my height, and candelabra's that reached from the floor to over my head; my room's color was a dark red that was meant to match the curtains in the amphitheater. They placed me in the living area on a fainting couch, which, Inspector Henry now approached; the inspector got down on one knee and kissed my hand, taking off his hat as he did so. "Mademoiselle, I beg your pardon, but I must attain answers to some questions that no one can answer but yourself, and I need those answers this instant" said he, his tone when he said 'this instant' reminded me of when a child is naughty and the parent yells at them to do something 'this instant'.

It was Mamma Giry, a friend of my mothers whom I have known since birth, who spoke up against this inspector. "Don't you see?" She asked, breaking from Megan (her daughter) and hastily walking to me; she kneeled down beside me and held my hands "The poor girl is weary, she's only just awoken from a night-long coma; give the girl time to collect her thoughts and calm down! As Elizabeth's legal guardian I demand you leave her be for an hour and a half at the very least; don't you see that she is still shaken? My gosh, I would be too if someone held a cutlass to my throat" Mamma Giry growled standing and staring daggers at the inspector.

"Mamma" I whispered meekly, Mamma Giry quickly turned to me.

"Yes, child?" She asked sweetly, holding my cold hands in hers; I smiled weakly to her and asked if I could speak to her alone. "Of course my child! Of course" Mamma only had to turn her head for everyone to go running out of my room, M. Richard and M. Barnabus pulled the inspector out whispering words of warning to him about Mamma Giry. "What is it, my child?"

"This whole affair is strange, Mamma, I-I just arrived here this morning...well, yesterday morning, and I've almost been killed; what's happening, Mamma?" I asked holding Mamma Giry's hands tightly in mine, Mamma Giry smiled and kissed my forehead.

"Child, sweet, sweet child; it seems to me that someone in this opera is jealous of your position as Margarita. I suppose that that someone hired that man to attack you, darling." After Mamma Giry finished my thoughts instantly pointed to Christy, the old Margarita, people rumored that she had an army of followers and she was very angry when I received the part after my audition. Mamma Giry saw me thinking of this and smiled "do not worry, child, do not worry at all; you are in safe hands now, very safe hands. Tell me, child, what did you see before you fainted?"

"I saw...well, it was a figure...a black figure and it held something shiny...the figure was tall and gaunt, and Mamma, it saved me. I don't remember how, but I remember knowing that it saved me....you probably think I'm going mental, don't you?" I whispered with a giggle at the end, Mamma Giry gave a soft smile and shook her head.

"No, child, I most certainly do not; for, I have seen this figure also. You are right, darling, this figure saved you by cutting a large sandbag free and the sandbag landed on your attacker's head; knocking him unconscious. The shiny thing you saw was a knife, darling, to cut the rope" Mamma laughed "your not round the bend yet, child, not yet" I chuckled but several hundreds of questions surfaced, who was this figure?  Why did it save me?  Did the figure sing in the opera?

These questions I attempted to ask Mamma Giry but she hushed me with the wave of her shriveled hand "Child, you must be patient; suffice it to say that he is your guardian angel" Said she softly, I nodded and Mamma smiled again, pulling me into a warm hug as she did so; all of a sudden there was a loud 'thump!' and my door was flung open to reveal Victoria, Megan, and the inspector in a pile on the floor; they had been listening at my door and the door had given way. "Well, my gosh! The rudeness! All she asked of was a bit of privacy between a godmother and goddaughter!

Oh, the idiocy!" Mamma Giry growled she stood from me and balled her hands into fists, her eyes spat fire and I swore she could kill them all in her anger. The three quickly stood as straight as nails, Victoria and Megan remained silent whilst the inspector started to speak to Mamma, which was a very bad decision.

"Mademoiselle, I--"

"You, nothing! I was going to allow you to speak to Elizabeth afterwards, but now, now oh that is never going to happen! Get out of my goddaughter's room this instant!" Mamma Giry growled, her anger rose with every word spoken and her blood boiled, making her face turn a red color as she advanced upon the dumb inspector. Inspector Henry quickly bowed, not taking his eyes off of Mamma, and ran out of my dressing room; Mamma Giry slammed the door to my bed room and screamed "Stay out!"

 Mamma Giry sighed and fell, Megan reacted quickly and caught her mother, pulling her to a golden, silk chair that sat in front of my desk; I rose and quickly walked to Mamma Giry, Megan held her hand to calm her. "I cannot do that much more, girls, it takes an awful lot out of me; but I will not have some inspector terrorizing my goddaughter...or any of my girls." Mamma Giry said with a smile to each of us, I smiled but something attracted my attention that was behind Mamma Giry; Mamma saw this and moved a bit to reveal a red rose with black lace tied around the stem, Mamma smiled at me and held it out to me. "This is for you, I believe" said she, I slowly grasped the rose and as Mamma let go of the rose she cried out and yanked her hand back to her, we all looked over to her hand to see that Mamma Giry got pricked by the rose's thorn on her index finger. A little dot of blood was the only evidence that she had gotten pricked, Mamma Giry laughed and licked her finger, wiping it free of blood.

Now my door opened once again and inside strolled M. Richard and M. Barnabus, the managers/owners of the Opera Populaire. "Well, Mrs. Giry you gave Inspector Henry quite the scare! He came running down the hallway as white as a sheet and mumbling, all we could make out was 'g-g-g-g' then he screamed and ran out of the Opera House; we followed him and he swore up and down that he would never set foot in this Opera House ever again. What on earth did you say to that man?" Asked M. Richard who stood before the elderly woman with a stunned expression.

"Oh" Mamma Giry said softly "nothing, that terrible! it wouldn't have made him run out screaming...I simply told him to stay out of Elizabeth's room, and to not come back; hardly something that would make him run out screaming." Finished Mamma Giry, Mamma Giry was the box keeper for the Opera Populaire, this meant that during shows she would cater to the people in the opera boxes and keep the boxes clean for guests. Now M. Richard and M. Barnabus looked at each other with curious glances and then stared down at Mamma Giry, who smiled devilishly and nodded to the managers, M. Richard cleared his throat.

"Well, Elizabeth...Megan...Victoria and of course, Mrs. Giry, a celebratory dinner is going to be held in one hour in the parlor...don't be late" M. Richard said with the wink of his eye and the tip of his top hat. M. Richard was a young-ish man of around late twenties with brown hair and amiable, hazel eyes, he had a brown mustache and wore a golden monocle along with a big, black top hat; M. Barnabus was a man in his early thirties with blonde hair and vivacious green eyes, he wore no glasses but always wore a black, bowler cap and the both of them were almost always dressed in tuxedos. After the two left I looked over to Mamma Giry and asked her what all that was about, all Mamma Giry did was point to the beautiful, blooming rose in my grasp and smile.

The door to my bedroom was quietly opened and M. Barnabus's head poked inside "Girls, don't forget that to-morrow is All Hollow's Eve! In the lobby we will host a masquerade, your costumes are in the costume room with your names on the tags, good day!"