As the laughter subsided the friends started to talk of what they had been up to.
Rosie had moved to an apartment with Marius and had helped him promote his new career as a singer. She’d spent the last year as his manager, organising gigs and seemed to have a had a whale of a time.
“ And once…” she explained, “…Marius was doing a show at the Opera House and you’ll never guess who was there…Christine! Christine Daae! THE Christine Daae!” Rosie’s eyes sparkling as she spoke. “ Who’d have thought it eh…?!”
Jenny and Lucy had helped two students set up a foundation for the under-privileged in Paris. They seemed to have spent most of their year setting up various poor houses around the city, aided by their co founding students and with a little advice from another face that they all knew.
“ We really wouldn’t have been able to help half as many people if he hadn’t have shown us where they were living…” Jenny told them.
“ He was so helpful! I don’t know where we’d be without Gavroche!” Lucy smiled fondly.
Mark and Grantaire had started a partnership that had proved very successful. Since opening their first bar, which had become one of the best in town and host to many prestigious events (including Marius’ singing debut!) they had bought the Café Musain where they were sitting now. But Jo seemed to have something else on her mind.
“ Er….whatever happened to that little fan of yours….Éponine Thénardier?” Jo asked with a wicked glint in her eye, which sparkled as Mark blushed.
“ Oh….well she’s actually managing our first bar for us!” Mark grinned. “ She spent so much time with us…well…me…that when Grantaire and I decided to start work on this place she was the best person for the job, knows the place inside and out!”
“ Well, I’d never have thought of that…Éponine the bar maid!!” Rosie snorted.
Jo had moved in with Javert, the ex-police Inspector turned author. His crime novels were selling like hot cakes and Jo, it seemed, had spent most of her year alone.
“ Well, he’s been away taking his books to new publishers and signings and so on…” Jo sighed, suddenly quiet, “ Anyway, he’s home in a couple of days!” Her face lighting up a little. Rosie squeezed her friend’s hand with a comforting “ I know what it’s like!” smile. The friends continued to eat, drink and swap stories for hours, laughing, crying and enjoying each others company for the first time in months.
“ Jo, why are we having this meal all of a sudden?” Mark suddenly asked.
“ Yeah I wondered that too…” muttered Jenny as she drank some more wine.
“ Well, it’s kind of like an anniversary today…” Jo spoke quite seriously and the others thought for a minute and then looks of realisation covered their faces.
“ A year.” Rosie gasped.
“ We’ve been here a year?!” Lucy hardly believed it.
“ We’ve been away from home for a year…” Jenny’s voice suddenly became tearful.
“ It can’t be…” Mark tried to joke.
“ It is…” Jo continued, “ A year today we…well…we arrived!” A silence followed as for the first time the friends thought seriously about what was happening. They had been away from their homes and families for a year, living in what they could only describe as a dream world. They had all thought about it from time to time but no one seemed to believe just how long they had been away.
“ But it only seems like yesterday…” started Rosie.
“ It can’t be…” Mark repeated, as if trying to convince himself.
“ Well it is.” Jo said with a tone of finality, taking a large mouthful of wine.
“ But…what about home…how will we…I mean…will we ever…??” Rosie began with a panicky voice. She looked around at her friends and was met by shaking heads and shrugging shoulders.
“ I don’t know…” mumbled Jo, “ I don’t know.” Mark suddenly slammed his fist down on the table, making the girls jump.
“ For god’s sake!” He shouted. “ Let’s not upset ourselves about this! I mean, we found a way into this…well…world didn’t we?! And when we’re ready to leave…I’m sure a way out will present itself! We’ve survived this long and to be honest I’ve had the best time I’ve had in my life!” The others thought for a moment and slowly but surely they began to smile.
“ You’re right…” Lucy smiled, “ Why worry about things we can’t change…anyway…I had something to tell you all…well an idea anyway…”
“ What is it?!” Rosie looked up with an eager look on her now cheerful face.
“ Yes, what?” Jo demanded.
“ Well Jenny and I were thinking…it’s been ages since we’ve spent time with each other…and…”
“ And we’ve all been quite busy…” continued Jenny, “ So we were thinking…”
“ Well we were wondering….” Lucy looked around at the faces of Jo, Mark and Rosie, “ Why don’t we go on holiday?” She paused for a moment, expecting to be laughed at but she wasn’t. Instead the faces of the others lit up as they thought it through,
“ Would we be able to bring…well…friends…?” Rosie blushed slightly.
“ Of course you could!” Mark grinned and then laughed. “ Although I think I’ll leave Grantaire behind!” The others laughed too.
“ Well, Jehan it too busy he says to come and Feuilly thinks Jenny and I need a break so we’ll be coming alone too!” Lucy smiled.
“ I’ll ask Phillipe but I can’t see why he wouldn’t want to come too!” Jo grinned. “ He’s been so busy lately and it’ll be nice to…well…see him!!”
“ Oh this is exciting!” Rosie giggled. “ Oh…where will we go?”
“ We haven’t been out of the city before now so…how about the countryside…?” Jo suggested.
“ Good idea….where will we find out some information….? I mean, there aren’t exactly any travel agents round here?!” grinned Rosie.
“ And we can’t really go to ‘lastminute-dot-com’ can we?!” Jo laughed.
“ I don’t suppose they did…I mean do book holidays as such here do they?” Jenny thought.
“ I say…we hire a coach or some horses and just go where the wind takes us…” Jo said grandly, standing up and pointing towards the door.
“ Yeah!” Rosie leapt to her feet next to her friend. “ We’re all going to go on a summer holiday!”
“We’ll do the things we always…well…wanted to!” Jenny stood up too.
“ We’ll have fun and laughter on our summer holiday!” Mark stood next to them, glass of wine still in his hand.
“ We’ll stop talking in lyrics!” groaned Lucy as she too stood up. The friends charged their glasses once more before falling back into their seats, yelling with laughter. The door quickly opened and Grantaire looked in worriedly,
“ Are you lot alright…? We can hear you over the people in the bar!” The friends looked at each other and chorused,
“ No more worries for me or you…for a week or two!” The friends laughed even louder as Grantaire gave them a confused look and vanished out of the door mumbling something about drinking too much with ones friends. The friends began to plan their holiday with must gusto (and vino!) and decided to pack that night and leave the next morning. They said their farewells and agreed to meet back at the Café in the morning, complete with luggage, friends, food, drink, travel game ideas (that was Rosie’s suggestion) and, as Lucy pointed out,
“ A map would be useful too!”
PART NINE
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