Eponine

I met Eponine on Pearl Street, just a block in from the river. The fog was so thick that at first I thought she was just another shadow, but she has that glow about her that you can never really mistake, no matter how hard you try. The old army trenchcoat hung loose on her shoulders and brushed the cobblestones. She's still so tiny, still just sixteen. The mist sparkled in her long dark hair. I took her by the hand, slipped both our hands into the pocket of my jacket.

We walked north on Pearl, the fog turning to mist and then to rain. She told me she remembered when the street got its name, from the hard packed layer of crushed oyster shells that was its first pavement. It's still there today, sleeping under the cement and the asphalt. "But how could you know that?" I asked. "You've never been in New York before tonight, and you're only here now because I thought about you so hard last night." She laughed and shook her finger in my face, "Too true, Jim. You really must control this thing you have for young French girls. I could understand how you felt about Joan, she was so beautiful, so brave and so crazy, and she died like a hero. But me? What can you possibly see here?"

God, I wish I had a mirror that could show her the answer to that....

I took her to the little bar where my friends and I always drank,  back when this corner of the waterfront was the center of the world for me. It's not there anymore, it's been gone for years now, but that didn't seem to matter tonight. We took the little table by the corner of the fireplace and she stretched her hands out gratefully to the warmth.

Smell of wood smoke, smell of brandy, touch of Eponine curling up against me, pulling my arm around her shoulder. We talked all night, about pain and kindness, about hunger, about hope. When the sky began to grow light outside she sat in my lap and threw her arms around my neck. I kissed her, even though I knew she'd died so many years ago. She kissed me, even though she knew what a coward I was. Then she stood up and walked to the door, the morning light on her face. She smiled and blew me a kiss, winked and said, "I'll see you later, love!"