A Light in the Dark

Chapter 25

Chapter 25 (Gustave's POV)

The next couple of years flew by before Papa and I even knew it. One morning I was a sixteen year old boy who was stuck fixing rides and painting set pieces, and the next, I was a nineteen year old businessman.

After I graduated high school, there was really no need for me to go on to college. Papa had taught me everything that I would ever need to know. I was to inherit the park after he passed. He had already made me an equal partner. Now that I look back on it, he was probably a brave man to let a nineteen year old take over half of America's most lucrative business.

I was sitting in my office paying bills when there was a little tapping at the door.

"Do come in," I said from my desk.

When the door opened, the most beautiful girl in the world was looking back at me with her pretty gray eyes.

"Elaina!" I exclaimed. I jumped from my desk. I knocked over some of the books that were sitting on the corner, and Elaina laughed at my enthusiasm.

She had gone to North Carolina after high school. Her grandmother lived there and was very sick. Elaina had been gone an entire year, and I missed her terribly. Often times, Papa would try to soothe me, but I would shut myself off in the theatre and play all of the pieces that I had ever written for her. Playing them made me feel like she was there with me.

I took her in my arms and spun her around before I finally dipped her down and kissed her hungrily. She pushed me away. "Gustave, that's quite naughty of you," she said giggling madly.

"Can you blame me?" I shrugged. "You've been gone for so long."

She took my hands in hers. "I know," she said, "It's been too long." She pecked me on my cheek, making me blush as I always did. "You have so much to tell me I'm sure," she whispered.

I pressed my forehead against hers. "I'm sure you have much to tell me as well," I said back gently.

She shook her head. "There's not much to tell. Gran lived out in the middle of nowhere. There was absolutely nothing to do! You can only imagine how torturous that was for me!"

She was right. I couldn't imagine Elaina being pinned up with nothing to do. Her creative imagination pretty much always allowed her to find some way of entertaining herself.

She began jumping up and down. "She didn't even have a piano, Gustave! There was no music! No music! It made me miss you terribly! I missed hearing you play." She tugged at my coat and rested her head on my chest.

I lifted her chin so I could see her face. "Then I suppose that we should soothe your craving for music shouldn't we?" I said smiling.

She nodded eagerly, and I began to pull her towards the theatre. I sat down at the organ throwing my tailcoats behind me and making Elaina giggle. I handed her one of my more recent works and directed her to stand center stage. I closed my eyes as I listened to her sing. The acoustics in the theatre amplified her voice to be ten times louder than it actually was.

Suddenly she stopped. I opened my eyes to see her staring off stage. Papa then came walking out of the shadows. I held my breath. Elaina had never seen, much less met, Papa before.

"Gustave, shouldn't you be working?" his voice boomed through the theatre.

I cringed. "I was just taking a break, Papa." I pointed to Elaina. "Look, Elaina's back from North Carolina. It's a special occasion. I'll finish everything tomorrow. I won't let anything get behind. I promise."

He nodded. "Alright, Gustave, but if I get a letter stating that I'm behind on payments, the blame is on you."

"The blame is on you," I mocked in his heavy French accent.