Eponine

CHAPTER 4: Turning

For almost half a year, Fantine hadn't visited Cosette. Almost everyone was thinking that she had finally given up her daughter to the care of the Thenardiers. The word is spreading that Mme. Thenardier is with child, the said woman is irritable; but not because of the said reason. Fantine hasn't dropped by for the last six months; however, she did send 10 francs after month she was last seen by Cosette or Eponine. Truth be told, Fantine came by the night another 2 months more, giving 20 francs a month. Mme. Thenardier's smile covered from ear to ear... Double of last work's pay. There was one night, when Eponine played alone with Nina, she overheard her parents talking. Mme. Thenardier would now describe Fantine's new appearance as a "school-boy-whore". However, the next month and the next, Fantine did not appear... At first, Mme. Thenardier was hopeful, but then, as time went by, she stopped hoping. Mme. Thenardier was already considering throwing Cosette away.

As Cosette swept the house and watch Eponine play, her mind wanders on a castle on a cloud. She had a dream last night, her mother came to her with a face as radiant as the sun, her clothes all pristine white, her hair... Her long flowy hair however, wasn't seen. Cosette cried when she woke, she awoke begging her mother to bring her.

"Crying at all is not allowed...

Not in my castle on the cloud"

"STILL THERE COSETTE?!" Mme. Thenardier's voice boomed.

Cosette snapped out from her daydream. She felt her hands tighten its grip on the broom; hands and feet, all red and cold from the chilling night of Christmas Eve. A while earlier, while scrubbing the wooden floors, Mme. Thenardier asked her to fetch a pail of water from the well in the wood.

"We should not have taken you in the first place, oh! The stupid things that we do! Like mother like daughter, the scum of the street!" Mme. Thenardier complained as the terrified Cosette tries to keep herself out of sight from the madam. "Ten rotten francs, she sends me, what's that gonna buy?"

"Mama!" little Eponine busted out from the inn's main door.

"Eponine!" Mme. Thenardier's expression shifted from a frown to a smile. She walked across the room, "Eponine, you look very well in that little blue hat". She cooed over her daughter, "here are some little girls who know how to behave and they know what to wear and I'm saying thank heaven for that."

Eponine never felt prouder, when she smiled, her dimpled cheeks always made an impression.

"Cosette!" Mme. Thenardier would scream again, "your tears would do me no good! I told you fetch some water from the well in the wood!"

"Please do not send me out alone," Cosette pleaded "not in the darkness on my own"

"Then show yer face!" Mme. Thenardier said irritably as she cornered Cosette "Or I'll forget to be nice, you heard me ask for something and I never asked twice..."

And then Eponine pushed the poor girl outside to the dark, cold Christmas Eve.

XXX

"Mama," little Eponine began, "the woman with long flowy hair did not come back, does that mean we would eventually adopt Cosette then she'll become my sister?"

A child's idea however silly it may seem, underlies a pure intent of kindness. It was clear that Eponine Thenardier had never hated Cosette. The little child thinks she has done the right thing whenever she pushes Cosette around. Since her mother had forbidden her to play with the servant girl, she might as well order the little girl around. Mme. Thenardier would never understand her daughter's logic.

"HEAVENS WHAT HAS GOT INTO YOUR HEAD, EPONINE!" her mother exclaimed. "And where, may I ask... You got an idea such as that? Didn't I tell you that girls like you never associate with girls like her?"