The Miserable Lives in His Past (on hiatus for awhile)

The Miserable Lives in His Past

Prologue - Narrator

You alone can make my song take flight, help me make the music of the night

-France, 1874-

Ever since Christine had realized she loved Erik, their lives had changed for the good. They were happily married and they lived in a small house on outskirts of Paris, secluded from everyone. Christine and Erik could not be happier. One day, Christine's curiosity got the better of her. "Erik," she started. Her husband looked up from the piano, but he did not stop playing. "What is it my love?" He asked. "Well, I want to know more about you. I want to know more about your parents if you know anything and would be willing to share." Christine said cautiously. Erik stopped playing. "My parents?" He asked. Christine nodded. He sighed. "Ok. I don't know much, but what I do know is significant. My mother's name was Euphrasie but everyone called her Cosette. When she was three years old, her father abandoned her and her mother leaving them with nothing. Fantine, Cosette's mother, had to give Cosette to a family to take care of her so she could raise money to pay for her daughter. Cosette was treated as a servant for the family. That didn't change her good heart. One day when Cosette was 7, her mother died and asked a man named Jean Valjean to take care of Cosette as her last dying wish. Jean Valjean took Cosette away from the thieving family and gave her a better life for the next few years. When Cosette was 16, she met a boy named Marius Pontmercy and fell in love with him. I remember my mom telling me that Marius said, "A ghost you say, a ghost may be. She was just like a ghost to me. One minute there and she was gone." referring to how Cosette used to disappear in crowds. One of Marius's friends proceeded to say "We talk of battles to be won, and here he comes like Don Juan. It's better than an Op-er-a!" I guess that's where I got the ghostly attributes and the inspiration for "Don Juan Triumphant". Anyway, one day there was a rebellion against the French Republic. All of Cosette and Marius's friends died in the rebellion. They eventually found each other and got married. On the day of their wedding, Jean Valjean died which left Cosette distraught. Four years later, Cosette was found with child. Unfortunately, 5 months later, Marius died. Cosette couldn't cope with all the grief so she broke inside and became cold hearted. She despised everything. So when she gave birth to me, she feared and loathed my monstrous face. When I was 6, she sold me to a traveling circus. Before she left me, she wrote me a letter and told me to open it when I was an adult. I still have the letter now. It basically explained her past and told me that I would never be happy and that I would live the next generation of the miserable lives that were cursed in our family. The les misérables if you will. So yeah. That's my ancestry." Erik told. Christine was speechless. "Oh my gosh Erik, that's horrible! No mother should despise her child no matter what her past!" Christine exclaimed and started to sob. Erik stood up from the piano bench to comfort his distraught wife. "It's alright my love. I have you now. Let's not dwell on the past." Erik comforted. Christine sniffed. "Now you know some of my story. I'll spare you the rest for another time. I don't think you could handle so much misery in one day." Erik said softly. Christine sniffed in reply. As Christine cried in his arms, Erik realized again for the umpteenth time how much he loved his wife and how much she loved him. He smiled in spite of himself as he embraced Christine. His mother was wrong. He would not finish the rest of his life in misery. He had found his happiness and he would hold onto it for as long as he lived. He looked at Christine with a soft smile on his face as he held her close. "Cosette was wrong. You won't live the rest of your life in misery as long as you have me." Christine sniffed. Erik smiled once more. "I was just thinking the same thing." He replied softly. Several minutes passed of them comforting each other. Erik thought if could live the rest of his life with Christine in his arms, he most certainly would. When she entered his life, the misery he was cursed with started to melt away until it was completely gone. Christine saved him  just as he saved her. The lives in his past may have been miserable, but the lives in his present and future were happy. Nothing could change that, not even his mother. Not even the history of the Pontmercys. Nothing could make Erik's life like his mother's because he was determined to stop the miserableness that ran in his family. Erik smiled. "The miserable lives in my past can't haunt us anymore." He whispered. And it was true.