Rooftoppers

After carefully grooming herself to hide any trait of eccentricity, Sophie accompanies Charles to his appointment with the chief police commissioner. Her eyes are now continually drawn to the roofs of the buildings they pass. The police building looks perfect for climbing. However, the meeting turns out to be an “ambush”: The rigid-faced commissioner threatens Charles with prison if he doesn’t abandon his “childish search” and leave France. All records of the Queen Mary’s passengers, he claims, were lost in the shipwreck. He also says that all female passengers perished. If Sophie persists in looking for her supposed mother, he will start an inquiry that will have her put in an orphanage, but he would rather avoid this “fuss.” Sophie is enraged but manages to control herself.

Once outside, Charles tells her that the chief commissioner was clearly lying—the only question is why. He speculates that the police have been suppressing the ship’s records because of their corrupt involvement in an insurance scam. Ten years ago, it came out that crooked shipowners were bribing officials to certify their unseaworthy ships as safe so that they could be sunk by the owners for the insurance money. As a result, hundreds of passengers drowned. The sinking of the Queen Mary may have been such a case. The records probably still exist, perhaps in the archives of police headquarters—to be used as leverage, if necessary, against other accomplices. The building’s top floor has 100 filing cabinets. Catching Sophie’s look, he forbids her to go snooping up there. Every floor of the building, he warns, is heavily guarded. The best hope for them now is to hire a good lawyer. He extracts a promise from her to avoid other guests at the hotel and not even open the door of her room. Sophie readily agrees, “innocent-eyed.”

That evening, Sophie climbs out onto her roof and waits for sunset. She marvels at her lack of fear of heights, a stark contrast to her usual, fearful disposition. The rooftops make her feel closer to her mother. To give up looking for her would be “as impossible as flying” (129). First, she must find Matteo. Heading north over the rooftops, she leaves small articles of hers—a stocking, a hair ribbon, and a shoelace—along the way, as a way of showing Matteo that she’s not afraid. Finally, coming to an unusually wide gap between buildings, she hesitates to jump. Instead, she throws her nightdress across, like an offering, and runs back home to bed.

The next night, Matteo slips into her bedroom to return her nightdress and stockings; she wakes up to find him a few inches from her face. Believing that “fearless” people are not often tattletales, Sophie confides in him and asks for his help in finding her mother. Matteo scoffs at Charles’s plans to hire a lawyer, claiming that none of them would dare take on the corrupt police force. He says that he lives on top of the law court, giving him a front-row seat to the city’s malfeasance. He adds that, from the rooftops, he also hears all the city’s noises: the voices, the crimes, and the music. Excited to hear this, Sophie gets out her cello and plays Fauré’s Requiem for him, in double time. Matteo thinks he may have heard it but can’t be sure: Sophie will have to come out on the roofs and listen for herself.

The next night is chilly, so Sophie puts on warm stockings and a makeshift scarf before meeting Matteo on the roof at 2:30 am. Matteo’s clothes are as threadbare as ever, and he carries a backpack. Offering to show Sophie where he lives, he cautions her that it’s on top of one of Paris’s tallest buildings. He says that he avoids buildings in “poor” districts because the roofs there are usually pointed, which makes running difficult. He also prefers tall buildings, which allow him to travel unseen. The ground, he says, he avoids altogether: “You can’t get trapped on a rooftop” (139). Sophie asks if someone is looking for him, but he changes the subject, leading her on a breakneck chase across the rooftops in the direction of the law building. For 10 minutes, they run without a pause, leaping over the gaps between roofs and using drainpipes to clamber onto taller buildings. As they enter a neighborhood full of official-looking buildings flying flags, Sophie glimpses a shadowy figure of a girl swinging from a lamppost, which Matteo claims not to see. As they near their destination, Matteo tells her to remove her shoes, saying that toes are vital for keeping your balance on the rooftops.

When they reach the last gap, Matteo shouts at her to stop: The next roof is too crumbly to jump onto. The only way to reach it is to “step” across. This terrifies Sophie, but Matteo assures her that her “drainpipe” legs were made for rooftopping. Advising her not to look down, he holds tightly to her arm as she stretches her leg tentatively across the gap. Taking no chances, she glues her eyes shut and tries to calm her pounding heart. When her foot tremblingly makes contact with the far rooftop, Matteo flits past her and, with surprising strength, pulls her across. However, he has lied to her: There is still one more building to go.

When Sophie unglues her eyelids, Matteo is pointing to his “home”: a beautiful edifice of yellow sandstone adorned with statues of women and warriors. However, the gap separating it from their rooftop is too wide for them to leap across. Matteo usually crosses over by climbing a tree and a drainpipe on the other side, but that route takes practice, so he has brought rope in his backpack to help her across. With a grappling hook, he hitches a tightrope across the gap and fearlessly steps out. Sophie recoils in terror, but Matteo says that if she doesn’t follow, he won’t help her find her mother: “Cowards don’t deserve help” (154). Seeing Matteo inch along the rope, Sophie follows almost without thinking. Halfway across, Matteo stops so that they can see the glorious, glittering city of Paris spread below them, “Fabergé-egg beautiful.” Floating above this city makes Matteo feel like a “king,” but Sophie feels like something greater—like “a warrior, a sprite, a bird” (157). With a whistle, Matteo summons a couple of pigeons from their nest and hands Sophie some grain to feed them. One of the pigeons, a very old one that Matteo has named Elizabeth, lands on Sophie’s collarbone and looks her steadily in the eye, as if recognizing her. A blue tit lands on her hand, making her feel “bejeweled.” Paris, she whispers to herself, is kinder and wilder than she ever dreamed.

Sophie remains on the tightrope for half an hour; only at the first hint of dawn does she let Matteo help her across onto the law building where he makes his home. The rooftop, about the size of a town square, is of smooth slate, and Matteo shows Sophie his food and furnishings: apples, nuts, a saucepan and kettle, and the bow and arrow he uses to hunt birds. For food, he mostly kills pigeons and uses their down and feathers to make blankets for cold nights. Seagull feathers, he says, are the best for warmth. As Sophie watches, he demonstrates how to shoot, pluck, and cook a pigeon and how to make a fork out of its bones. Sophie asks if he has ever tried living indoors, and he says that he once spent several months at an orphanage after being injured in a fight; his wound had turned septic, and he needed to seek medical attention. He says that the orphanage was a joyless, tightly regulated “hell” with barred windows. He finally escaped by crawling up a chimney. As Sophie explores the rooftop, she hears snippets of music and conversation from half a mile away.