The New Hero

II • Clair de lune

Approximately two hours later, there was no piece of furniture that hadn't been opened and looked into.
The floor of the whole room had been carefully searched, and every painting, mirror and frame had been moved. But the missing piece of the pendant was nowhere to be seen.
Cordelia collapsed onto a nearby armchair, which in answer gave a loud creak.
"I'm giving up." Panted Cordelia to the empty room.
Most of the dust that once covered the floor was now on her jeans and sweater.
Cordelia heard footsteps on the stairs, and after a minute Madame entered the room. "Oh Cordelia, you even rearranged the frames! I should have done that long ago... But you shouldn't have, you know-" Madame glanced at her dirty jeans. "this room has always been a terrible mess. Look at what you did to your clothes!"
Cordelia made a face and slowly got up. "No problem, Madame." She loosened her ponytail and put the elastic band around her wrist. She was so tired, she couldn't wait to go home and take a warm shower. She looked outside the window. The sun had just set. She glanced at the clocks on the wall.
"Ah, look at the time. I think I should go now."
"Of course. Did you find some nice books?"
"Books? Oh- oh yes. Sure." Cordelia's mind was still focused on the mysterious pendant.
The girl bent down and took the book about tides and another one, randomly. "Merci beaucoup, Madame. Oh, I also found this-" She took her necklace out of her sweater and showed it to the old lady. "Is it a problem if I keep it?" Madame squinted, to examine the small object. "Oh, pas de problème. But did you find it here? I don't remember it at all, how strange."
"You can't remember everything, Madame" Laughed Cordelia.
The old lady smiled kindly. "Maybe so, maybe so." She allowed. "Thank you for coming here today, Delia." She added with a more serious expression.
Madame always thanked Cordelia, regardless of what she had done in the shop. The girl smiled, shaking her head.
"It's no problem. See you in two days!" In no time the girl was already out of the door, waving at the smiling old lady. She walked down the stairs, exiting from the back door to pick up her bicycle in the backyard.
Cordelia opened the small, blue painted gate and got out, closing it behind her with the key Madame had given her.
A whole year had passed since the first time she had gone to help the old Madame with her antique shop, she remembered fondly.
Madame Matilda wasn't a relative.
The old lady was the mother of one of her mother's friends.
When Madame's daugher had died in a train accident, Cordelia's mother, at the time unemployed, had started helping her with the shop. Her mother was so kind hearted, she could not bear to see an old woman run her small shop all alone and with no one to help her.
One year ago, Cordelia's mother found a job as a nurse, and she didn't have the time to go to the boutique anymore. That's why, one day, Cordelia decided that when she had no schoolwork, she would have gone to the boutique to keep Madame company. And that's what she did.
Madame was such a kind and fun person, Cordelia often wondered how something so horrible could have happened to her. She felt sorry for the old lady, but she hid it carefully. She didn't want Madame to think she was helping her out of pity. She did enjoy the company of the woman.
Cordelia didn't have many friends. She had a way of seeing things that wasn't common in people her age. She didn't think of herself as better than them. She just understood that she couldn't get along with them, and accepted that fact.
That did not mean she liked being lonely.
She found an unexpected friend in the old woman. She was extremely wise, and she always had something interesting to say. Cordelia didn't have grandmothers, but she thought of Madame as one.
One of the first days she had gone to help at the shop, the old lady had said, while they were rearranging sone books: "Read as many books as you can: when you're that young, sometimes you cannot make experiences yourself. That's why you have to read. Read about other's experiences and make them yours. Learn from them. Learning from others is not a weakness."
Cordelia thought of Madame as she rode her bike. She thought of her life, wondered what she had seen and heard and done. She thought of how strange fate was, bringing people into your life and taking them away when you least expected it.
She thought of the objects in the antique shop, each one of them unique, and for this reason unexplicably important and precious.
Each object represented many people's lives. Their joys and their sorrows. That's one of the reasons Cordelia loved them so much. She felt that in some way, she had caught a glimpse of those people's lives.
As she watched the pale moon start shining in the lilac sky, she thought of the pendant on her necklace. Of how it may have gotten to the shop, and to whom it used to belong to, and lastly, of how right now, it seemed to be warming up underneath her sweater.

Notes
Hello! Thank you so much for reading! As always, let me know what you think in the comments, and don't forget to vote if you liked this chapter!
Next update will be on Saturday!

love ya
~Emma