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She initially puts the show on for Alberta. A Parisian opera singer tragically murdered in some circus backrooms by her jealous best friend? Tales of secret, hidden teachers pretending to be biblical angels? Cheating? A vicomte tricked into raising another man's child? All mysteriously uncovered over the years by her descendants?
“What's that?” Hetty asked, the moment a picture of the Vicomtesse flashed on the television screen.
“Oh, just some true crime documentary. Alberta seemed to be interested, so I put it on for her.” Sam replied. Hetty seemed to be unusually enthralled in the show. Hm. “You know, this woman actually had two musicals written about her. Pretty wild.”
“Musicals, really?” Hetty whispered.
“Yeah, a book was written in like the nineteen tens and then decades later the musicals, a bunch of movies, all kinds of stuff.”
“I knew her.”
All the ghosts and Sam turned to look at Hetty.
“Well. I knew of her.” At Least half of them groaned. “...What?”
“That's not the same.” Pete muttered. “Not the same at all.”
It got quiet, and kinda awkward.
“So. Hetty. Anything else to share?” Sam said after about five minutes of TV going on about the singer's poor Swedish background. “How did you know of her? She sang in Paris?”
“I followed her story pretty regularly, with the Garnier in Paris. Her story of coming out on top over the resident Primadonna always intrigued me. I do love an underdog.” The rest of the ghosts made faces of disbelief. “I always wanted to go, of course, but then the chandelier fell, the ghoul terrorizing the Opera who also committed all those murders escaped and then…she disappeared and I never heard of her again.”
“Ghoul?” Alberta asked.
This part Sam could fill in.
“Yeah, the Phantom! He's actually more often focused on in the various adaptations, it's kinda why I liked this documentary, something finally focused on her. He was this guy who pretended to haunt the opera-” Everyone gasped, deeply offended, but she continued on. “He then pretended to be an angel to teach Christine. She rejected him because he was kinda controlling, maybe didn't have a nose and was extorting her bosses. But by the sounds of it, they had a kid? And she performed at a sideshow?”
“I didn't know she came to America. And died here. Decade after I did.” Hetty was gazing intently at the television screen, where the documentary was currently showing advertising from her Coney Island gig. Sam seriously couldn’t wrap her head around that part. Coney Island? Really? Hetty was still talking, “New York, as well. What were the chances?”
“Why is this important, exactly? No offense, Hetty. I just don't see why this is such a-” Sam gave a glare at Trevor and he quickly shut himself up.
“I just. Remember the scandal from the chandelier crash and her kidnapping and all. I always wished to hear her sing. She seemed to be such a beautiful woman! I mean, Coney Island seems a little below her caliber, but judging by the Vicomte she married, maybe she fell on hard times.”
“Is it just me or does Hetty seem…oddly nice about this woman's financial troubles?” Sass asked out loud, to no one in particular.
Hetty continued, “The papers called her the best soprano to ever hit the stage, such a talent who came out of seemingly nowhere. To find out she died from a jealous, baseless Carney act who stripped on stage is an outrage! Christine de Changy is probably haunting those grounds as we speak! Samantha, you must go and wish her well for me.”
Samantha looked at Jay, who just walked in and then back at Hetty.
“I am really sorry, Hetty, but I am not going to Coney Island.”
“Why does Hetty want to go to Coney Island?” Jay handed off the coffee she sent him out to get, before setting down on the couch next to Flower. “I didn’t sit on anyone, right?”
Sam shook her head and filled Jay in. “An opera singer she really admired died there. Tragically murdered by her former best friend, the one Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote those musicals about?”
“Ohhh, the Cats guy!”
Sam just thinned her lips and nodded. “Yes, him. We really shouldn't have seen that movie.”
Jay looked straight at Pete and shook his head. “Sorry, Hetty, we aren't gonna do that. Can't believe you have some celebrity crush, though. Women crush Wednesday, amirite?”
Hetty was blushing. “I decidedly do not!”
Trevor was doing math in the air before making a loud whoop, “Christine was like twenty something when that Phantom guy kidnapped her, which means you are a serial cougar!” He started wagging his finger in front of Hetty’s face.
Sam started to choke on the coffee her husband just graciously got her.
“ PARDON ?”
“Uh, guys, let's not call Hetty that?” Sam pleaded. She did not particularly want to think about her. Like that. At all.
“Call Hetty what? Also, like you okay, babe?”
Trevor was giggling like a middle schooler, and it was a little sad to watch just how immature he could get.
“You don’t need to know, Jay.” Her husband sadly aww-ed. Great. More immaturity.
“No! Tell him! I think I am truly cooking here,” Showing Gen Z Tik-Tok to Trevor was a mistake. “I mean the stable boy thing she has? Come on, guys. You can’t tell me I am wrong here!”
Hetty was bright red.
“Wait…Hetty…” Flower was drawing her words out, while also paying more attention to her fingers in her hair than speaking. “Why haven’t you said you were bisexual? We could’ve had a pride celebration by now? You know. Me, Issac, the guys in the basement. It's super accepting now, right Sam?”
“I mean, yeah, but maybe we shouldn’t assume things about people, Flower.” Was all she could stutter out.
“What is Flower assuming? I am feeling so left out right now, more so than usual.” Jay whined.
“Hetty’s sexuality. Specifically, possible bisexuality”
Her husband's eyes widened as he slapped his thighs and got up. “That sounds like a fun conversation you can have with the air. That I don’t have to witness. Gonna go cook. Something . I don’t know yet.”
Peter, Thorfinn, Sass, and Alberta all follow him out. Hetty’s face could rival the color of her hair. The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Of course, until Flower continued.
“Why not? I think it seems pretty cut and dry. I’m surprised more of you guys aren’t bisexual yet. You’ve been dead for years, why not? It’s all fluid after a while, guys”
Isaac brought a finger up and started to open his mouth before right away closing his mouth and putting his finger down.
“Wait, does that maid chick know that you aren’t bisexual then? It’s not groovy to lead someone on, man. Like don’t use someone to experiment on.” Flower turned to face Sam, “I don’t know if I feel comfortable inviting her to our pride event now.”
“We aren’t having a pride event, Flower.” Isaac groaned.
Hetty was looking right down at her lap and Trevor was circling the couch she was sitting on, chuckling to himself.
“Flower, I did not even think about that. That would be so hot to watch.”
That seemed to be the final straw for Hetty.
“Like I would allow that!” Her hands were curled into fists as she shot up from the couch.
“So you admit it could happen, though?” He continued to press.
Without uttering another word, or even looking behind her, Hetty marched right out of the room.
“Hey…Hetty?” Her ancestor was sitting in her bedroom looking out the window. At nothing. “Not even a hoity-toity Go away, Samantha ?”
“Go away, Samantha.”
“There you are!”
“I mean it. With how you just let those peasants make fun of me.”
“I wouldn’t call someone implying you might be bisexual as making fun of you. Those optics aren’t exactly great .”
“I like males.” Even those words were stilted, coming from Hetty.
“And that is completely a-okay. Some might say progress for you. But liking women is completely fine too!.” She laughed. “I mean, who knew me putting on some random woman’s documentary would start all of this wonderful conversation?”
“Christine Daae was not some random woman.”
“You know her maiden name?” At Hetty’s pinched face, Samantha waved a hand in the air. “Okay, if you want to just call it celebrity worship, that’s fine. Just like how liking both men and women is totally fine! And maybe, just one day, if me and Jay ever go visit the city sometime soon, Coney Island can be a stop.”
That seemed to perk Hetty right up.
“I mean, all the crap she went through, she must have unfinished business.”
“Yes. She must have.”