A Story About Love
Chapter
Two - The Sparkling Diamond
Chloe walked to the mirror in her dressing room and gazed at her reflection. She had been told that she was every man's fantasy, the kind of woman they thought about at night as they drifted off to sleep. But, she looked at herself in the mirror all she saw was the things that she wasn't. She wasn't loved, and had never been in love. In fact, she had been taught not to believe in love.
All she had was her face, her voice and her body. Men paid her to make them happy, and that was what she did. None of them cared about her, or her dreams. She was only a fantasy to them.
She could hear the noise of the dancer’s feet as they flew across the dancehall floor. The bustle of men and women here to indulge their every pleasure. The music filtered its way backstage, as it did every night, causing her head to throb with pain.
***Voulez vous coucher avec moi? Ce soir?***
Harry Zidler was out there now, getting the male patrons riled up for her big entrance. To look out amongst the throng of people that filled the nightclub every night could be a magical thing sometimes. Bodies coming together with the passion of the music that blared through the room.
***Feel the beat of the rhythm of the night, dance until the morning light.***
She heard Harry's grumbling voice barreling out across the crowded floor all the way from where she was.
***Got some dark desire? Love to play with fire? Why not let it rip? Live a little bit! 'Cause you can, can, can!***
And the crowd loudly echoed his sentiments, making the walls shake around her.
***Yes, you can, can can! Here we are now, entertain us! We feel stupid and contagious!***
Chloe looked downward and frowned. She really had come to hate this place in the past few months. Part of her would always belong here, it was the only home she had known for a very long time. Since the day that her mother had left her on the street at 10 years old, she had wandered. And, at age fifteen, she wandered into Montmartre and the Moulin Rouge.
Harry had taken her in, and been the closest thing to a father she had ever known. He believed in her voice, her talent, believed that she could someday leave the Moulin Rouge. But, still, she had to sell her body in order to survive. Even to Harry, she was only worth what someone would pay for her. She knew he cared for her, but it didn't matter, she was still just a piece of property.
And, tonight was the night she would have to make the ultimate sale. She was to meet with Duke Phillip, a man who was interested in investing in the Moulin Rouge's next production. And, although she would have to give her body over to another man, it was her only chance to become a real actress.
Her body didn't belong to her, it belonged to the men who paid their money for it. But, her heart and soul, whatever little of it was left belonged only to her. It was the only thing that kept her clinging to a tiny bit of hope sometimes.
She looked back into the mirror again. The beautiful face with the sad blue eyes. She shut her eyes tightly and laid her hands on her chest. "One day, I'll fly away. One day I will leave this place and never look back."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Brady stood in the entrance of the Moulin Rouge, and was nearly blown back by the noise inside. He moved in further, his eyes nearly popping out at the sights and sounds of it all.
If there was a way to define the word "cacophony", then surely the Moulin Rouge embodied every aspect of that one word. The sound of the music, the voices of the people filling it from wall to wall, and the twirling of the can-can dancers was enough to make you dizzy.
In all of the years that Brady had lived already, and all of the years that were to come, never would he experience something that could compare to his first glimpse of the Moulin Rouge.
Harold Zidler was a rotund man, with a wild mop of curly red hair and a mustache to match. He moved across the floor with ease, shouting out to his patrons.
***Outside it may be raining, but in here it's entertaining! Cause you can, can, can! Cause you can, can, can!***
***Here we are now, entertain us!***
***Outside things may be tragic, But in here we think it's magic!***
Toulouse led him to a table, just to the left of where Duke Phillip happened to be sitting. Brady sat down, but never took his eyes off of the display in front of him. Everything inside the Moulin Rouge seemed brighter, louder and to be moving at a speed that was double of everything outside.
***Hey sister, go sister, soul sister, flow sister
Gitchie, gitchie, ya ya da da
Gitchie, gitchie, ya ya here
Mocha Chocolata ya ya
Creole Lady Marmalade ***
Another chorus of shouts came from the crowd, and then it all suddenly seemed to stop. Everything moved in slow motion except for the one light descending from the ceiling. The room was silent, and Brady breathed in slowly, caught up in the magic that was about to take place.
Toulouse leaned forward and pointed up to the ceiling as he excitedly whispered in Brady's ear. "It's her! The Sparkling Diamond!"
Chloe descended over the crowd like an angel sent from above. Brady had never in his life seen a creature so beautiful. Her hair was long and dark, cascading past her shoulders in waves. She had skin that looked smooth and soft, and such perfect features that they were surely sculpted by the hands of God himself. But, the thing he noticed most of all were her eyes. Wide and blue, like the ocean at sunrise, and Brady could see right through them and into her heart immediately.
Indeed, nothing was quite as it seemed in Montmartre or at the Moulin Rouge. For Chloe was not merely just a beautiful face and body to match, but Brady saw into her soul, and saw immediately that she could be so much more than what other people saw in her.
Her song began and she started singing, soft and sultry at first.
***The French are glad to die for love. They delight in fighting duels. But I prefer a man who lives... And gives expensive jewels.***
The music grew louder, the tempo faster, and she began an elaborate and raucous dance number, along with the other dancers.
***A kiss on the hand may be quite continental
But diamonds are a girl's best friend
A kiss may be grand but it won't pay the rental
on your humble flat... Or help you feed your -meow- pussycat
Men grow cold as girls grow old,
and we all lose our charms in the end
But square cut or pear shaped,
these rocks don't lose their shapes
Diamonds are a girl's best friend...***
But, Brady wasn't the only one who was to meet with Chloe tonight. Little did he know, at the table next to him was Duke Phillip, Zidler's investor. Harry took a seat across from the Duke, explaining that he had arranged a private meeting with Chloe after her number... totally alone.
Toulouse leaned in to speak to Brady, but he could not take his eyes off of the angel that was moving across the dance floor. "After her number, I've arranged a private meeting with just you and Mademoiselle Chloe totally alone."
Brady's eyes widened, barely breaking the trance he was in. "Totally alone?"
Toulouse nodded reassuringly. "Totally alone..."
***Cause we are living in a material world,
and I am a material girl!
Black star, Rozz call,
talk to me Harry Zidler, tell me all about it!
There may come a time when a lass needs a lawyer...***
Harry had rejoined his sparkling diamond on the dance floor to finish out the number with her.
***But diamond's are a girl's best friend.***
They performed the next part together, alternating lines.
***There may come a time when a hot-boiled employer thinks you're***
***Awful nice...***
***But get that ice or else no dice!***
Harry and Chloe ducked out of sight, as the dancers continued around her, preparing herself for a quick costume change. She whispered to him, nervous about the meeting that was to take place tonight.
"Is the Duke here? Phillip?"
"Of course, Chloe..."
"Where is he?"
In the meantime, Toulouse had accidentally made a mess all over Phillip as he passed by the Duke's table. He was attempting to clean up as, Phillip pushed him away angrily. Harry peeked through the crowd and saw Toulouse waving a handkerchief at Phillip.
"He's the one that Toulouse is shaking his hanky at."
Toulouse moved back to the other table to ask Christian for another hanky, and Chloe glanced over the crowd to see Toulouse waving a hanky at a strikingly handsome young man in a tux. But, the man she was looking at was not Duke Phillip, it was Brady.
"Harry... Are you sure?"
Toulouse moved back to the Duke's table and continued his efforts to clean up the mess he made. Harry looked again and nodded. "That's the one, chickpea. I hope that demonic loon won't frighten him away."
Chloe looked at him with concern. "Will he invest?"
"Oh pigeon, after spending the night with you, how could he resist?"
"What's his type? Wilting flower?" Chloe posed sweet and innocently, trying out one of her many looks.
"Bright and bubbly?" She smiled widely, letting her eyes light up happily."
"Or smoldering temptress?" She raised one eyebrow sexily and growled like a tigress.
Harry paused thoughtfully, considering what the duke would approve of. "I'd say smoldering temptress. We're all relying on you, Gosling... Remember - a real show, with a real theater, with a real audience. And you'll be..."
Chloe sighed softly, her hopes and dreams ever present in her eyes. "A real actress..."
Her costume was changed, and she emerged suddenly from the crowd around her to bring the song to a close.
***Cause that's when those louses go back to their spouses. Diamonds are a girl's best friend!***
As the music ended, she glided across the floor towards Brady, the man that she thought was Duke Phillip. He looked up at her as if he had never seen anything like her in his life, and she purred seductively towards him.
"I believe you were expecting me."
Brady couldn't believe that somehow he was allowed to be in such close proximity to a creature so rare and beautiful. He barely stammered out his reply. "Yes, yes, yes..."
"I'm afraid it's ladies' choice."
Brady looked at her in confusion and she grabbed on to his hand, yanking him on to the dance floor. They began dancing around the floor together, and Brady shut the world around him completely out as he stared into her eyes.
Chloe seemed to be strangely affected by his presence. Could the duke that she had heard so much about really be this handsome? And, it wasn't just his face that affected her, there was something in his smile and in his eyes that felt like a song to her. Beautiful, melodious and healing.
She shook off the butterflies that were flying around in her stomach and did her job as instructed. She wasn't there to fall in love with this man, she was there to get his money. "So wonderful of you to take an interest in our little show."
"It... sounds very exciting. I'd love to be involved."
"Really?"
"That is... assuming you like what I do, of course."
Chloe looked at him with one eyebrow raised. Most men didn't care about what she thought of their sexual abilities. Interesting. "I'm... I'm sure I will."
"Toulouse thought that we might be able to do it... in private."
"Did he?"
Brady nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, you know, a private... poetry reading."
That was definitely strange. Sure, he was paying, he could call it whatever he wanted to. But 'poetry reading' was certainly a new one to her. "Oh, uhm... a poetry reading? I love a little poetry after supper."
She winked at him and let go, moving back to the trapeze that would help her ascend towards the ceiling from whence she came. Her song continued, and she kept her eyes glued to the handsome man she thought was Duke Phillip.
***Diamonds... Diamonds... Diamonds are a girls best...*
She tried to force the next words out, but her breathing came heavily in sharp gasps. The world around her began spinning, and she felt the blackness close in on her. She fell from her trapeze as she fainted, landing in the arms of Chocolat, one of the men at the Moulin Rouge.
The crowd around her was silent, watching as Chocolat carried her back to her dressing room. Harry had first issued a sound of fright, but quickly remembered that his fear could be bad for business. He shouted back to the crowd, encouraging them to continue their revelry.
Toulouse stood next to Brady and enthusiastically patted him on the back. He was off, ready to meet in private with Chloe, to share with her the poetry that was in his heart.
***
I hope I explained the mistaken identity thing well enough for the people who haven't seen the movie. But, just in case: Chloe thinks Brady is the Duke because of Toulouse going back and forth between the two tables. That's the set up for the entire next scene.
Thank you to my fans (all five of you) for encouraging me to continue this story.