The Lure of the Phantom ~ Part Four

The dreams continued, but Kathy was so busy with everything else that she hardly ever gave them a second thought.  Not only was she finishing her senior year in high school, but the ballet, French, and singing lessons, were taking up all of her spare time.  Her teachers were frustrated with her, as she was progressing at an almost unnatural speed. Eventually her teachers informed her parents that they had taught her all that they knew, and that she was indeed turning into a great protégé.  Kathy wanted nothing more than to go to Paris and study there, where the real Phantom himself had shown Christine only a glimpse of his beautiful and unearthly genius.

Sadly, one month before graduation, Kathy’s mother died suddenly of a blood clot, and she was left behind, a child, who did not know how to become a woman, and who would never learn from her own mother.  One who would stumble around in darkness and feel the incredible loss of the one person in this world who had loved her most.  She felt as though, it were the closest one could come to dying, without actually dying.  She felt incomplete.  All these thoughts swarmed in her head as she watched the casket lid close with an ear-deafening snap!  Suddenly the words from “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” began to sing in her mind.  The words took on an entirely new meaning! It was at that moment that the music from the musical seared through all of her emotional boundaries in a way it never had before.  An almost unnatural wail issued from her mouth that she could not contain. She fell to the ground and began to sob, until she had no more tears to shed.

That was the night that the dreams took on a strange and almost frightening reality. Now, she dreamed that she was there, at the Opera House in Paris, a silent witness to the events that inspired Gaston Leroux and later on Andrew Lloyd Webber.  She watched, at first, form a bird’s eye view, and as the dreams progressed and became more real, she began to get closer and closer to the characters, until she felt as though she could almost reach out her hand and touch them. 

The summer after, graduation, Kathy began to loose herself more and more in her dreams.  They were an escape from the heart-breaking loss she felt when she was awake. She began to loose all interest in anything but sleep.  Her father became terribly worried about her, and made the decision to take her to a counselor.

Kathy was so lost in her own world that she barely responded to her first sessions with Todd the counselor.  After her 2^nd session, he asked her father what might, be able to get her attention.  “Well, she does love Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera”.  During her next session, Todd told her that he had a surprise for her. As he said this, he went over to his stereo and pushed the play button.  As the Overture began, Kathy’s eyes became bright with excitement and she listened attentively, singing along softly to herself.  Suddenly, Todd turned the music off.

“I see that I have discovered a passion of yours”, he said. 

“Yes, I think of almost nothing but going to Paris in the fall, to study there.  I long to go to the Opera House, and visit the home of the real Phantom.”

“Well, you are not going to get very far acting like a living zombie.  What is it that makes you like this? Are you having trouble accepting your mother’s death?”  Kathy slumped in her chair as if she had been defeated.  “It’s not just that, it’s that I’m…” Kathy looked around as if someone else was watching.

“What?” asked Todd, as he leaned forward in his chair to encourage the confidence that Kathy was about to impart.

“I have these dreams.  They're about the “Phantom of the Opera”.  They are so real to me.  I am quite fascinated by them.  They don't seem to follow any particular pattern, and they are unlike the musical or any of the novels.  There are distinctive differences.  I have not told anyone about them, not even my dad.”  Todd went over to his bookshelf as she spoke and pulled a leather-bound book from its place on the shelf and turned to Kathy.

“I think it would be of great benefit for you to keep a “Dream Journal”.  Then you can keep track of them, and I can help you to decipher what meaning lies behind them” He handed her the journal, and Kathy looked at it.  She opened it and flipped the pages, pondering over whether to trust this man with her dark secrets or not.  When she finally looked up, she saw that he was also trusting her, to be open and honest with him.

“I'll do it”