The Invention of Hugo Cabret Part 1, Chapter 7

Secrets

• Text
• Hugo enters the bookstore and looks around—and sees the girl.
• Illustration
• The girl with the bobbed haircut sits in the middle of a rather messy, very cluttered bookstore filled with books (duh) and an assortment of other fancy cultural items like busts of famous people. She’s holding a book to her chest.
• Text
• She tells Hugo that Papa Georges still has his notebook. Then she tells the bookstore owner (Monsieur Labisse) that she’s taking a book on photography and will bring it back.
• Time to go confront the old man. Hugo stomps on over to the toy store and asks him about the notebook, but he just gets shooed away again.
• He tries again and again, and on the third day, the old man just hands him a broom and tells him to help out.
• After Hugo sweeps, the old man tells him to go buy a croissant and coffee for him. Then he hands Hugo the toy mouse that was destroyed when he was caught stealing and tells him to fix it.
• He's really putting this kid to work.
• Illustration
• We see Hugo standing at the toy counter with a tool and the little mouse in his hands. We also see the old man, though we can only make out the bottom of his face and his mouth set in a very, very severe straight line. He has a spectacular mustache. Spectacular.
• Zoom in on a close-up of Hugo with a different tool in his hand, still at work on the mouse.
• Zoom in again, and we see Hugo working on the mouse’s rear end, fixing something with a very precise tool.
• Then we see an image of the mouse running around on the counter after Hugo’s set it down. This is one handy kid.
• Text
• The mouse is utterly fixed and the old man asks Hugo about the drawings in his notebook.
• Hugo isn’t a sucker though and he tells the old man to give it back first.
• But the old man isn’t a sucker either, and he tells Hugo that if he wants his notebook back, then he’ll have to come to the booth every single day and help him fix toys.
• Hugo doesn’t have any choice but to agree.
• Well played, old man. Well played, indeed.