AVENIR

Chapter 2: I Believe in You

I stared in amazement at the little boy with the fierce blond locks and the chiseled face who had just completely lowered his guard and mistaken me for Patria. I quickly began to stammer, feeling the immediate need to start things off right. "No, I'm not – Patria. I'm just a girl," I said, casually shutting the bathroom door closed. My futuristic clothes were still on the bathroom floor, and I knew enough about the so-called "butterfly effect" to know that if this young Enjolras saw the wrong things, he might go crazy, his future could be ruined...so I had to keep every sign of the future out of his sight.

Yet as I continued to stare down at this Enjolras miniature who actually was Enjolras, my brain became conflicted. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to tell him the truth, to let him see who I truly was. Maybe for the first time ever, I would be understood, and believed.

And suddenly I knew why I must be here: to put Enjolras on the right track at a young age. I was here to make sure that he would succeed on the barricades. I was here, funny as it sounded, to save his life.

Once again, I was reminded of why Javert saved me - so I could save them. I decided right then and there that Enjolras needed to know the truth, otherwise he would never trust me later on when I had to tell him the most painful truth of all – the truth about his fate.

"Who are you, then? What happened to Ms. Laurent?" The real babysitter.

"Ah...to be honest, Enjolras, I don't know where she went."

"How do you know my name? What is your name?" he asked fiercely, looking as if he would bolt out of the room at any second.

"Enjolras, please don't be alarmed," I said, sitting on the floor and thus getting down to his level...equal footing and all that. "I'm going to be completely honest with you. I don't know why I am here and I don't know where your sitter – Ms. Laurent – is. I know your name because I come from the future."

Enjolras remained standing, and slowly blinked. He was incredibly intimidating – a perfect mirror of his future self.

I continued. "I come from Marseille. You're a smart young lad, so I assume you know where that is. And the thing is, in the future Marseille, it's the year 2020 P.D. – not A.D., but P.D – past death, because they were able to cure death, and no one where I come from gets killed unless they have to be," I shuddered, thinking of my brother.

He didn't have to be killed!

I kept on: "And some people, the debased, the forgotten, the people like me were never given names. We were born on the streets, sought after by the government to be killed, and so I was on the run most of my life. They killed my brother. They knew we would fight back with all we had – so they had to get rid of us."

"That happens here," muttered Enjolras. "I know it happens. My parents try to shelter me..." he stopped. "But I know what is really going on," he growled, sending shivers down my spine. This was Enjolras, all right. He looked straight at me. "How did you get here?"

"I was rescued, brought to Paris. They wanted to take advantage of me there also, so I ran away. I felt like I belonged to no one. Then I found this," I said, pulling out the artifact: the broken halves of the letter E. "It was part of a letter...and you might find this very hard to believe, but the letter I found was written by the future you. The writing was too faded to make out, except for your name at the bottom. The moment I touched your signature, this artifact appeared...and it brought me to you. I cannot explain it. I just wished to believe in a better future, and it seems as though it has brought me to you."

While all of this was happening, Enjolras slowly leaned against the wall, arms crossed and listening. He was a good listener for someone his age, so much so that he was acting like an adult. Once I was finished, I could see the gears in his brain turning. He was considering whether what I just told him was true or not, what he should say next – and his eyes never left mine. Holding back a shiver – he was incredibly intimidating! – I stared back. You can trust me. Please. Then to my utter astonishment, he slowly sat down, reaching for the broken artifact. "Be careful," I said softly, placing the halves into his tiny palms. I braced myself for something to happen, but the halves remained their dull bronze color. He fingered them silently. "Un message de l'avenir..." he was saying. A message from the future.

"I'm going to go and get my things from the future, so you can see what they look like," I said. I opened up the bathroom door, grabbed my clothes and my satchel, and returned to the bedroom. "Look," I said, placing the fabrics into his lap. "This is what I wore when I came here. That's why I felt I had to change, in case your mère found me. I didn't think she'd understand..." Still silent, he placed the halves of the artifact next to him on the floor and began fingering the clothes. His eyes widened, and I knew he hadn't felt anything like it before. "Ca doit être reel..." he was saying to himself. It has to be real.

"Believe me, this is real," I said. "Here." I reached out a hand. "This is not a trick. I'm a real person."

He slowly placed his hand in mine, feeling the realness of my skin, and I in turn gasped, as I finally realized that he was not a hologram or a vision, that this was not a dream, and I felt a perfectly human hand placed in mine, and I believed.

Enjolras soon pulled away. He was still staring. "I..." he stopped. "What should I call you?"

"I have no name, Enjolras. In Marseille, they called me horrible names, but I have never been given a real name."

"Well you are very much real," he replied, "and...I don't know how else to put this, but I believe you. I don't know why you are here, but I believe you...for you are l'avenir. I believe in you...may I call you Avenir?"

Avenir. The future.

"You may, Enjolras." I was beaming. "And I do know the answer to your question. I know now why I am here, and I have figured it out just by talking with you. But I'll need to show you one last item I happened to bring with me from the future."

"There is more?" he asked, eyes slowly narrowing.

"Yes, one thing more," I said, opening my satchel and pulling out Les Misérables.