Les Parisien

Gabrielle

   During the French Revolution, Europe was in chaos. People starved, families were separated, kings were dying.
  Gabrielle was a young sewer who lived in a small apartment in Paris. She lost her parents when she was only a child and had to live with her aunt, an old woman called Madge. Gabrielle worked during all day, to earn some money, which didn't pay her bills.
   – Bonjour, Gabrielle – said Aunt Madge – Are you leaving for work already?
   – I have to pay our bills, Aunt Madge –  she replied.
   Gabrielle got her purse and left to work. The streets of Paris were dirty, and soldiers were passing every day. People in the streets were dying of diseases, hunger or cold. The young lady passed quickly through the streets, avoiding the ugly picture of the people. She was young and very pretty, with fine clothes, different from the poor fated beggars.
   She worked in an old building with many windows, called Maison Berger. Mounsier Berger was an old man, who wore round glasses and had a well grown mustache. His daughter, Darcey was around forty years old and wasn't pretty. The sewers worked in long tables and cutting themselves was very common.
   Claudette was a young dark haired sewer who worked next to Gabi. She was also young and beautiful, but very mistreated though. The young sewer was a close friend to Gabrielle, and lived with a young boy named Daumier in the same building as Madge and her niece.
   At the end of every day Gabrielle walked to the Opera and used to sit against the wall and hear the music, that made her forget the reality. That day, Handel' Agrippina was playing, and the crowd was vibrating. The girl put her ear on the wall and she could listen to every sound inside the building. She forgot everything that happened on her miserable life, she was dreaming.