Gafou Painted Smile

The Unexplainable

Gaston heard violent coughing coming from the other room. Gaston's grip on the towel he was running cool water over tightened. He wondered how could anyone do this to the man he cared about, the nicest guy in the entire village, the one who constantly complimented Gaston and took care of him during tough times, someone who helped anyone he could, and one of the few people that shared food with Agatha, the beggar woman most people thought of as wretched. He hardly had anything for himself, let alone enough to share with anyone. After realizing how rough Lefou had it, Gaston would "forget" food at Lefou's place or leave him clothes that "didn't fit quite right." He suspected that Lefou knew what he was doing so when Lefou would occasionally give away what Gaston had left him or refuse to accept something so valuable, Gaston would secretly enter Lefou's house and add money to Lefou's small collection and place a little more food in his kitchen. Most days Lefou would return home so exhausted from hunting and drinking with Gaston, shopping, and helping others that he wouldn't notice the little increase in his supplies or would believe that his memory was getting worse. Gaston replaced the warm, drying washcloth on Lefou's hand for a cooler, wetter one that he hoped would soothe Lefou's pain. What else confused Gaston is how this could've happened, he knew Lefou was a bit clumsy from time to time but he definitely knew to steer clear of fire. As a matter of fact, he always avoided it at all costs which was a little strange, Gaston had come to realize over the years the Lefou had some strange fears. Lefou would become very fidgety whenever Gaston mentioned going near candles or building fires so, Gaston had decided to handle fire related matters himself and avoid asking about the matter. If Lefou wanted Gaston to know, he would tell him. After considering these past occurrences, it was certain that Lefou hadn't simply burnt himself, there had to be an outside force acting on this incident, but what?