Erik Storms Out

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Erik Storms Out

        Going on Erik's various contradictory stories about being the Phantom of the Opera (yes, you laugh, but it doesn't seem so unlikely to an ignorant 16 year old with a very open mind), I decided to try and hammer out a cohesive story, using the various Phantom novels as a leaping off point. I carried this to the next logical extreme: I attempted to write a full length musical about it. Erik was horrified. I cannot even begin to describe his shock and anger at this "outrageous disobedience" as he called it. In retrospect, this was probably not the most intelligent way for him to put it. I do not buy heavily into astrology (no offense to those of you that do), but I am an Aries, and I do have that same stubborn, rebellious streak in me. Apparently, my beloved thought somehow that I was beneath him, and that he knew better than I did. Somehow, he had the idea in his head that I was his child, or his pet. I was not going to stand for this; I told him exactly what orifice he could stick it in.
         Naturally, he got very upset with me, and I was immediately sorry. It was too late. We both fired our ultimatums: If I produced this play, he would never speak to me again, and if he didn't stop barking orders at me, I was going to produce the play.
         Something about this argument shook something up in me head. I had visions of Ellanna screaming at him as he stumbled around their house, high on pot, and of him ripping up the musical scores that she would write. I had unshakable images of his over protectiveness. He combed her hair for her, chose what she would wear, and never, never let her read the newspaper for fear that she would read reviews and either develop a horrible ego, or be crushed by a harsh critic. Behind most of it, there was love and sweetness, but it was painfully clear that Erik was a man/spirit with some serious control issues.
        I'm still not sure why, but I went ahead and produced the show. It cost my my grades, my health, countless hours of sleep and reduced me to tears on more than one occasion, but I did it. My Prose Writing professor had a perspective on my tale of woe that made a lot of sense to me. "I can't imagine what would drive anyone to do that work if not obsession. To be so committed, so involved and so contentious about a protagonist... I don't think I could call that anything but love."
        Erik kept his promise. On the day I posted the casting announcements, he left. A presence that had been constantly with me, day and night, for two and a half years simply got up and left without a word. I was devastated, but I slowly became aware of what I hadn't been seeing. There was a whole lifetime before Ellanna met Erik, and then some.