L'espirt de L'escalier

December 20th – Paris, Particularly around the corner from Notre Dame.

The wheels of the wagon trotted along the snow covered cobble stone road.

The city of Paris was busy with people weaving in and out of small shops, buying Christmas gifts and decorative trinkets for their homes. It was that time of year again, the time of year Clopin absolutely hated. Sure, he celebrated every holiday with a smile and a new puppet show to entertain the children on the streets. But, ever since Judge Claude Frollo started ransacking villages and killing off hundreds of gypsies for not practicing the Catholic religion, and since the day he had to watch someone he loved burn at the stake( for what Frollo called "treason"), Clopin made a new rule in the Court of Miracles. "Anyone seen exchanging gifts or hanging useless Holiday decorations will be banished from the Court of Miracles".

The wheels squealed to a stop. Clopin jumped from the wagon, the pearl-white snow crunched under his feet. He reached back and grabbed his floppy blue hat with the long yellow feather from the driver's seat. Brushing it off, Clopin glared around at all the Christmas streamers attached to the roofs from market to market, and all the reeds with large red bows that hung in the windows. He rolled his eyes and pulled the hat on to his head. Pulling on a lever, the back door of the wagon smacked against the snowy ground. While setting up his puppeteer stand, in his usual spot, he was attracting a much larger sized crowd than that on his usual days. Clopin often noticed the children's mothers would send them to watch his small puppet show while they shopped (that was the only part of this holiday Clopin liked, the more children the more the tip). Clopin ducked behind the stand and pulled the curtains shut. On the other side of the wooden wall he could hear children gathering and giggling. He pulled the puppet of himself over his right hand and looked at it for a minute. "Show time, Clo." He sighed, and pulled the string to open the curtains, he heard claps from his young audience as he started the show.

Meanwhile: Inside the Cathedral

"Minister Frollo, your niece is beautiful!" the reverend exclaimed as he shook her hand.

"Thank you, Reverend! I am happy to be attending your services during this beautiful holiday season," the young woman said smiling, "Your church is lovely!"

"Well, Miss Anna," the reverend started, "We are happy to be having you."

"Thank you, Reverand, and might I add-"

"I don't mean to interrupt this "engaging" conversation, but we must be going." Frollo cut in, he and the reverend never really saw eye to eye.

"Oh, yes," said the reverend eyeing Frollo coldly, "I must be going as well, a lot of Christmas business to attend to. Happy Christmas!" The Frollos made their way to the door of the church.

"Wait for me by the carriage," Frollo ordered, "I have forgotten to speak to reverend about some… argent matters."

Anna nodded and slipped through the heavy church door out into the cold. She pulled her dark green shawl over her shoulders. She was about to step into the carriage when she heard a loud outburst of laughter from around the corner. Anna pulled her shawl tight against her body, and followed the laughter to a crowd surrounding a small red wagon decorated like it was from some kind of circus. Anna made her way through the crowd and stood behind children sitting on some wooden benches. It was a puppet show! There was a puppet of a lion and a puppet of a princess hopping around joyfully making the crowd howl in laughter.

"Oh, Princess," whined the lion in a deep voice "Please forgive me, I did not know I was going to scare you! Some people say I'm the cuddliest lion in the village!"

"Oh sweet lion, I know you did not mean to scare me," The princess said in a high shrill voice "I came to find you, to tell you…. I love you!" With that the crowd awed, and the puppets kissed. Just then the lion broke away from the princess and started shaking, a few children gasped.

"Oh no! My dear lion! What is happening?" the princess cried, and the lion disappeared behind the wooden wall of the stand. A colorful puppet with a floppy blue hat with a long yellow feather popped up.

"The princess's love for the lion was so strong, that the kiss they had shared turned the lion back into a brave solider!" The puppet darted back down, and a puppet of a soldier slowly made his way up.

"My Princess! My Princess!" cried the soldier "You have broken the curse and turned me human again!" The crowd cheered as the puppets shared another kiss, and the red curtains closed. Anna joined the audience in clapping as the curtains opened again, and each of the puppets took their bows. The puppeteer stood and took his bow as well.

"Thank you, thank you!" Clopin called over the crowd, "Thank you all! I'll be here tomorrow with another tale, a tale I like to call "The Bird and the Cat"!" the crowd started another applause, and Clopin bowed again. He pulled the curtains shut and exited the puppeteer stand holding his hat open for coins. A few people dropped coins in to his large hat and thanked him for a wonderful show. Anna searched her bag for a few coins and made her way to the puppeteer.

"That was some show," she said, dropping the gold coins into the hat.

"Merci, mademoiselle! You will be back tomorrow for another show, yes? I would love the pleasure of having a beautiful young lady like yourself at another one of my shows." He took her hand and kissed it.

Anna blushed, "Well, I-"

"Anna! Get over here this instant!" She turned to see her uncle calling harshly from the carriage.

"Oh, I have to go!"

"Until next time, Anna." he kissed her hand again and sparks flew up her arm and through her entire body. She turned, trotted through the thick snow and ducked in to the carriage.

Anna stared out the window as another snow fall began. She day dreamed about the beautiful colors on the puppeteer's outfit and puppets. She thought of the electricity and natural high she felt after he had kissed her hand, she could almost still feel his lips there…

"Anna! Pay attention when I ask you a question!" Frollo broke her thoughts in that raspy, evil-like tone of his.

"Oh," she cleared her throat "Im sorry, Uncle, I was day dreaming-"

"Young ladies shouldn't be wasting their time day dreaming," he huffed "I asked you what that filthy gypsy was saying to you earlier in the square." The way he said it made it sound ugly.

"Well, he-"

"People of our class should not be associating with people like that filthy street rat!" the way he spat the words "filthy street rat" made the blood rush to Anna's head.

"He is only a poor street performer," Anna breathed holding in her anger "He looks like he loves what he does, and that is entertaining."

"He is a thief and a murder!" Frollo spat again "there is nothing entertaining about murderous cut-throats, and whore women dancing in the street for coins! All of them are dangerous, and I suggest, if you know what's good for you, stay away from those gypsies!"

Anna held her tongue for the rest of the carriage ride to the Palace of Justice. She could not see how someone so beautiful and so full of life... could be bad.

Thanks for reading! please review, and stay posted for the next Chapter! (if this gets enough views and publicity, then i'll make a tumblr and a twitter so you can stay posted when new chapters come out!)

i really hope you enjoyed!

~biirds