Chapter Text
THE GREATEST CITY IN THE WORLD
Book 1
Chapter 1: A Street Turned Into a River
August 2012
“Rain’s coming in any moment. You’d better start moving.”
Eponine Thenardier merely cast a glance at her left wrist even as she set down her still half-full cup of black coffee. “I’ve got an umbrella anyway, Ma’am Fantine. It’s only a short walk to the bus stop,” she replied, pausing only to brush a strand of brown hair out of her eyes. “Nothing to it.”
“It’s the gutter I’m more worried about,” the cafe’s proprietor pointed out. She wiped her hands on her still white apron before going to turn up the volume on the flatscreen TV above the counter. For a few moments the blare of a commercial filled the still quiet cafe, prompting Fantine to adjust the controls once more before setting the remote aside. “Second typhoon in as many months!”
‘Which is why they say the world is ending, a shame really,’ Eponine noted as she brought her cup of coffee closer to her nose just to savor its nutty aroma. The Chez Fauchelevent was one place she could count on to provide a respectful cup of the famed Robusta brew known as barako. In her twenty three years of life, Eponine had come across few such establishments. ‘A cup for fifty pesos only, and that’s fifty pesos I shouldn’t have had today,’ the young woman thought as she sipped her drink. She set down her cup just as the cafe door clattered open. “Looks like you escaped the evening shift, Cosette,” she said by way of greeting to the newcomer, who was smoothing down her rumpled blue scrub suit.
“I’m doing back to back shifts next week though at the emergency room,” Cosette Fauchelevent replied, giving Eponine a warm smile as she passed by her friend’s table. Unlike her mother, who wore her brassy golden tresses in a hairnet, Cosette had taken the liberty of letting her long dark hair hang loose past her shoulders. “Mom, I stopped by the grocery,” Cosette said to Fantine as she handed over a plastic bag.
“Thank you, dear. I was beginning to worry about my roots,” Fantine said as she patted Cosette’s cheek. “I know you’re tired honey, but could you put some bread and snacks out before you go to sleep? Your father is still fixing the roof, but we still have to prepare for all the customers tonight.”
“That’s all---no other food?”
“I already have some things prepared if they want actual meals.”
Cosette nodded before stepping aside to let her mother go to the washroom. “Are you waiting for someone, Ponine?” she asked lightly while she put some rolls, cakes, and wrapped snacks into a few racks on the counter. “It’s time for a rain check.”
“Maybe,” Eponine muttered, trying not to flinch at the nickname. ‘She probably already guessed anyway, but she doesn’t have to be so teasing about it,’ she thought as she glanced up at the TV, which now showed a map of the Philippines all covered in red to show the incoming storm’s trajectory through the archipelago. ‘The rain will probably let up before midnight anyway,’ she decided before bringing out a thick sheaf of paper from her blue backpack.
Cosette yawned and stretched behind the counter. “Don’t hang around too late. They say it’s going to flood tonight.”
“Don’t let your parents catch you saying that,” Eponine retorted in a singsong tone. ‘Not like Fantine would notice; she gets engrossed when dyeing her hair,’ she thought as she listened to Cosette’s footsteps headed to the storey above the cafe. She thumbed through the stack of paper for an article on refugees before donning a pair of earphones and turning up the volume to drown out the patter of rain against the cafe’s glass window. “Why do professors think that grad students are waterproof?” she groused before beginning her reading.
When she looked up from a particularly lengthy paragraph, she saw that the yellow streetlamp outside the Chez Fauchelevent had finally been switched on, owing to the late afternoon hour as well as the now roaring downpour. Eponine leaned out of her seat to try to catch a glimpse of the rising run off in the street, only to get her view blocked by three fair young ladies and a tall man ducking into the cafe. “How high is it now?” she asked.
One of the girls gestured midway up her sopping wet black boots. “It’s worse down the street,” she said to Eponine. She looked to her companions, who were scurrying to a table in a corner. “Eliza, did you and Peggy bring the promo cards?”
“Not to worry, Angelica” the young male newcomer said, bringing out his wallet. “It’s on me.”
“You’re really too good Lafayette!” one of the younger girls gushed.
‘And another one bites the dust,’ Eponine thought before shaking her head at the recollection of another seeming act of gallantry earlier in the day, one that she’d been on the receiving end of. ‘Seriously what kind of guy pays for a girl’s photocopy bill?’ she wondered as she continued her studying, now paying less heed to the other patrons filling up the cafe.
Suddenly Eponine heard the door slam open and shut again, prompting her to look in the general direction of a young couple shaking out a black umbrella in the cafe doorway. “I thought you were going home early today!” she exclaimed. “I was looking forward to having the room to myself!”
“I decided to help Basilio with typing up his patient history,” the female half of this pair said through her chattering teeth. “What kind of coffee did you get, Eponine?”
“Let’s get you out of this wet jacket first, Juli,” the young man named Basilio said as he tugged on the sleeve of his partner’s coat.
Juli shrugged off the jacket gratefully before nodding to where Fantine was stirring some milk into a drink. “We left a mess. Sorry Ma’am Fantine,” she greeted.
Fantine gasped on seeing Juli. “Now don’t say sorry, you two sit there and get warm. Can’t have you catching your death here!” She immediately went to the door leading to the stairwell. “Jean! Could you please bring down two big towels? I’m sure I brought those up from the laundry already yesterday!”
“Who needs them?” a low voice called from upstairs.
“Basilio and Juli!” Fantine replied. She handed a clean hairbrush to Juli. “Just because you moved on from working here last year, doesn’t mean we’ll put you out in this weather.”
Basilio chuckled as he began checking the sodden contents of his own backpack. By this time his complexion had resumed its usual healthy golden brown. “The food is better here than at the medical school anyway,” he pointed out. He glanced outside and shook his head. “Hopefully this stops soon, so I can get you and Juli back to your dorm safely.”
“Apartment,” Eponine corrected. “We’re not a bunch of college students anymore. You’re almost a doctor already and you’re still calling it that?”
“Well I live in a dorm,” Basilio pointed out.
Juli reached over to rub Basilio’s shoulders before giving him a light kiss on his cheek. “Papa and I will help you get a better place.” She sighed as she looked at Eponine. “The last time, the flood didn’t reach our room, right?”
‘Only because the rain stopped after maybe an hour,’ Eponine thought as she shook her head at her roommate. “Did you leave something on the floor?”
Juli buried her face in Basilio’s shoulder. “Maybe the water won’t reach that high.”
Eponine hissed as she picked up her coffee again. “It’s nice to think about that,” she murmured. Truth be told, the floodwaters seemed to rise higher and higher every year. ‘At least we don’t live by a river,’ she thought as she checked her wallet once more. ‘One hundred and fifty pesos extra---but that’s not going to be enough to get a cab out in this weather.’ The very thought of walking home, a usual practice of hers, was enough to send a shudder through her bones as she looked out towards the street now awash with water sloshing onto the sidewalk.