by Jane Smith
‘Your FACE!’ she squealed.
‘YOUNG LADY!’ Nellie’s father roared. ‘That’s IT! I’ve had enough of your silly pranks! It’s off to boarding school with you! If I can’t teach you how to behave, then boarding school WILL!’
Nellie’s laughter died. She sat up and stared at her father with enormous dark eyes. Annoyed as Carly was about the salt prank, she couldn’t help feeling sorry for the little girl. She looked so sad, sitting there all spotted with
crumbs and tea and cream. Then Nellie burst into tears, jumped up and scrambled from the room.
‘Excuse us,’ Carly mumbled, standing and putting her empty plate on the table. She hurried out the door with Simone at her heels. Dora stuffed the rest of the scone into her mouth and ran after them.
Nellie was sitting on the front steps with her head in her hands, sobbing. Carly sat on one side of her and Dora on the other. Simone stood in the doorway and folded her arms.
‘Ouch,’ said Carly, as the bones of her corset dug into her ribs.
‘It’s so unfair,’ Nellie wept.
‘Boarding school’s not so bad,’ Dora tried to console her through a mouthful of scone.
‘Yes, it is,’ said Simone.
‘Shut up,’ Carly snapped. ‘You’re not helping.’
‘I don’t want to go to boarding school,’ Nellie whined. ‘I just want to stay home with my family. I don’t want to go to school; All I want to do is to be a famous opera singer!’
Simone gazed down at her with a strange look on her face. Then she pushed Carly aside, crouched in front Nellie and stared closely into her eyes.
‘What did you say?’ she whispered. Carly and Dora looked at each other. What was up with Simone?
The little girl sniffed. The lace ribbon around Simone’s neck dangled close to Nellie’s face. Nellie took hold of a tail-end of the bow and twisted it around her finger.
‘Don’t!’ Carly yelped, as Nellie tugged at the ribbon. It was too late. The bow had come undone.
Carly and Dora looked at each other and cried, ‘Let’s go!’. And Carly snatched the lace ribbon from Nellie’s hand just as she and Dora whipped the shawls off their shoulders and vanished into darkness.
CHAPTER 4
‘What was that all about?’ Dora asked Simone, once their heads had cleared. ‘Why did you act so weird when Nellie said she wanted to be an opera singer?’
They were back at the school concert, dressed in their black choir outfits. Simone ignored Dora’s question. She was shaking her head and slapping her forehead as if trying to wake herself out of a daze.
‘Did that really happen?’ Simone whispered. ‘Am I going mad?’
‘Well, we really did go back in time,’ Dora replied. ‘But I can’t promise that you’re not going mad.’
‘Are you telling me ...’ Simone went on, still shaking her head, ‘... that we really did just meet a young Nellie Melba?’
Dora and Carly stared at each other. Carly cleared her throat. ‘Nellie Melba?’ she whispered, remembering what Ms Carrigan had said. ‘The opera singer?’
Dora shook her head. ‘No,’ she said. ‘That kid’s name was Nellie Mitchell.’
Simone bit her lip. ‘But—’
‘It’s our turn next!’ Ms Carrigan announced. ‘Come on, line up!’
The audience was clapping and the choir on the stage was bowing. Carly watched as they filed off the stage. The girls quickly shoved their shawls and lace ribbon into their bags. Ms Carrigan organised her choir into a line and waved them forward. As they marched towards the stage, Carly’s stomach churned with nerves. She wanted to do her best in the choir performance, but it was hard to concentrate. She couldn’t get Simone’s remark out of her mind: did we really just meet Dame Nellie Melba?
They marched up the steps and onto the stage, and climbed up onto the choir risers. Ms Carrigan came last onto the stage and turned to bow at the audience. The people clapped. A spotlight beamed down on the choir, making Carly sweat. The audience fell silent. Ms Carrigan turned to the choir, a huge grin upon her face. The spotlight upon her crazy hair made it look as if her head was in flames.
‘You can do it!’ she mouthed at them.
The pianist struck the introductory notes. Then they started to sing: ‘Gin a body meet a body, comin’ thro’ the rye ...’
Carly was terrified at first, but her voice gained strength as she sang. She could hear Simone’s voice beside her, high and strong and lovely. And on her other side ... Dora was singing in tune! It was a miracle! Carly wanted to peek at her friend but she knew she had to keep her eyes on Ms Carrigan.
They sang on and on and, when they were finished, Ms Carrigan beamed at them and the crowd clapped and cheered and whistled. Carly’s face hurt from smiling. Even Simone lost her scowl for a moment. Dora was pink with pleasure.
They filed back off the stage, down the stairs, and into the audience. When they took their seats, Simone leaned across and whispered to Carly and Dora. ‘Well, that went okay.’ She snatched the lace ribbon out of her bag. ‘Now, I don’t know about you, but I want to go back and find that Nellie kid again. Come with me if you like.’
As Simone started tying the lace around her neck, Carly and Dora quickly looked at each other and nodded. They grabbed the shawls from their bags and wrapped them around their shoulders – and, in a flash, they were gone.
CHAPTER 5
‘Where are we?’ Carly wondered.
The girls were standing in the long corridor of a grand brick building. Doors came off the corridor on both sides.
‘It looks like a hotel,’ said Dora, tiptoeing along the hallway towards an open door. Then she stopped abruptly, turned back and whispered, ‘or a school.’
Carly and Simone crept up behind her, pressed themselves up against the wall and peered through the doorway. They saw twenty girls or so – all in long-sleeved, floor-length dresses like theirs – sitting at desks that were lined up in rows facing a blackboard at the front of the room. Their eyes were glazed over with boredom.
‘Yep, definitely a school,’ said Simone.
The girls were chanting something over and over, but Carly couldn’t make out the words. ‘What are they saying?’ she whispered.
‘Sum, es, est,’ they droned.
‘It means “I am, you are, he/she/it is”,’ Simone whispered. ‘It’s Latin.’
Carly and Dora turned and stared at Simone.
‘You know Latin?’
Simone shrugged. ‘A bit.’
Dora shook her head in wonder and turned back to the classroom. ‘Hey,’ she whispered, ‘Is that Nellie Mitchell? Third row from the front?’
Carly and Simone craned their necks. At that moment, a young woman in the third row turned her head and looked straight into Carly’s eyes. She was not a child anymore; she looked as if she might be in her late teens. She had wavy, dark hair, black eyes and a long, straight nose. When she saw Carly, her eyes crinkled up into a smile.
‘Yes,’ Carly murmured. ‘That’s her.’
The young woman’s hand shot up in the air and she said something to the teacher. They couldn’t see the teacher’s response, but the next thing they saw was Nellie rising from her chair and skipping out of the room towards them.
When she reached the corridor, she grabbed Carly’s arm and muttered, ‘Quick! Come away from the door!’
They hurried down the corridor, turned a corner, and followed Nellie down a staircase and into an empty room. Nellie shut the door, leaned on it, and turned back to them, out of breath and laughing.
‘Well!’ she said. ‘Thank you for saving me from that Latin class!’
‘You’re welcome,’ Dora replied.
‘It’s good to see you again,’ Nellie went on, then peered closely at Dora. ‘You haven’t grown much, have you? You should eat more.'
‘Is this your boarding school?’ Carly asked. ‘Last time we saw you, you were upset about going to boarding school. But this doesn’t seem so bad.’
<
br /> ‘This?’ Nellie waved a hand around the empty room. ‘No, this isn’t bad at all. But it’s not boarding school; I’m a day girl here.’
Nellie wandered about the room with her nose in the air like a haughty princess. ‘I did go to boarding school for a while,’ she said, shuddering. ‘It was awful. I was always at the bottom of the class. We had to get up at six o’clock every morning and have cold showers. I used to take an umbrella into the shower with me – until I got caught.’
Carly and Dora laughed. ‘Eventually, my father let me go home,’ Nellie went on. ‘I was so miserable there.’
‘Enough chit-chat,’ Simone butted in. ‘Are you really Nellie Melba?’
Nellie Mitchell raised her eyebrows. ‘No,’ she replied. ‘I’m Nellie Mitchell. You know that!’ Then she paused to think. ‘But Melba is a rather nice name ...’
‘You could use it for a stage name,’ Simone said, folding her arms and putting a sly smile on her face, ‘when you become a famous opera singer.’
Nellie threw back her head and laughed. She had a hearty cackle that made Carly and Dora want to join in. ‘I don’t know about that,’ she chuckled. ‘My father would never let me be an opera singer. I think I shall be a famous organist instead.’
‘No, you won’t,’ Simone said stubbornly. ‘You’ll be an opera singer.’
‘Simone!’ Carly warned.
But Nellie just raised an eyebrow at Simone. ‘Will I, then? Well, my singing teacher, Miss
Christian, does say I have a lovely voice. But for now, I need to practise the organ. It will be far more use to me than Latin. So – are you coming with me?’
‘Coming where?’ Dora asked.
Nellie gave a wicked grin. ‘The church across the other side of Fitzroy Gardens has an organ that I practise on sometimes. My Latin teacher thinks I’ve gone to the sick room, but if I hurry, I can get to the church and do an hour’s practice before lunch. Are you coming?’
‘Across the gardens?’ Carly crossed the room and peered out of a window. They were on the ground floor; there was a big park across the road and, beyond that, a church. ‘Won’t we get caught?’
‘Well, it’s a risk,’ Nellie admitted. ‘We have to go past the headmaster’s office. But I’ve done it before. Follow me!’
Nellie trotted out of the door and the girls followed. They tiptoed down the corridor towards a massive front door. Nellie put a finger to her lips and pulled the door open. They hurried outside into the bright daylight. There was a small garden enclosed by a timber fence, and a pathway leading to a gate.
Nellie gathered the girls close. ‘Once we’re out of the gate, we’ll be fine. The tricky bit is that we have to pass the window of the headmaster’s office to get there. Follow me!’
Then, to Carly’s astonishment, Nellie dropped down onto all fours and crawled along the gravel pathway that wound past a low window at the front of the building. She turned and beckoned for the others to follow. Dora, grinning from ear to ear, got down on her hands and knees and crawled, choking with giggles and snorts. Carly sighed and followed. It was hard to crawl wearing a corset and a heavy skirt and petticoat, and she kept getting stuck on the fabric and falling on her face in the dirt. Simone, huffing with irritation, crept close behind.
They were nearly past the window when they heard the dreaded sound: a rattle as the window pane slid open. A head appeared: a grey-haired head with a long nose, large eyes and a bushy beard.
‘Miss MITCHELL!’ a deep voice boomed.
The girls nearly jumped out of their skins. Dora spun around and rolled onto her back, arms and legs flailing like an upturned cockroach’s. Nellie snorted with laughter at the sight of her.
When she had stopped laughing, she wiped her eyes and sighed. ‘I suppose I’m in big trouble now.’
Simone stood and dusted herself off. The girls were all covered in dirt and grass. ‘I knew this was a stupid idea,’ Simone said crossly. ‘And a waste of time. You should stick to singing, not organ lessons.’
‘Maybe you’re right,’ Nellie said solemnly. Then she urged, ‘Listen: the headmaster will be out soon and he mustn’t find you here. Quick, hide behind this bush until I’ve gone inside with him. Then go and wait in the gardens across the road. Meet me outside the gate after school.’
They hid just in time to see the tall, angry man with the beard striding out of the front door towards Nellie.
‘Who were those other girls?’ he bellowed. ‘Where are they?’
‘Oh, they were just some kids from the street,’ Nellie replied. ‘I sent them on their way.’
‘Miss Mitchell, you are in BIG trouble!’
They watched as Nellie followed the headmaster back inside the building. She turned and gave them a secret smile and a wave. When the door closed behind her, the three girls scurried down the path, out of the gate and across the road into Fitzroy Gardens.
CHAPTER 6
Carly, Dora and Simone found themselves in a beautiful park with long, broad pathways lined with trees.
‘That was close!’ Carly said.
Dora’s face was flushed with excitement. ‘Are you sure that’s Nellie Melba? She doesn’t seem like a famous opera singer,’ she said. ‘Wouldn’t an opera singer be ... I don’t know ... more posh or something?’
‘She’s only a teenager, you idiot,’ Simone sneered. ‘Opera singers aren’t born posh.’
‘Dora’s not an idiot,’ Carly snapped.
‘Whatever,’ said Simone.
They wandered along the pathway and argued about how to fill the hours until the school day was over. They didn’t quite know when it would be over, but guessed it would be sometime in the afternoon. Dora wanted to explore the gardens (she was fond of plants) but Simone said she’d rather walk to the centre of town to look at shops. Carly was afraid they would get lost if they went into town, so with two votes against one, the gardens won. They were all agreed on one thing: they were not yet ready to go back to the present.
They spent a few hours walking around, looking at statues and flowers and trees and a little white rotunda with a domed roof. Dora cried out with joy every time she saw a flower that was new to her. Carly found it all a bit dull, but she didn’t want to admit it in front of Simone, who was complaining loudly about the heat, the boredom, the corset – pretty much everything, in fact.
Sometime in the afternoon they heard a high, musical trilling sound.
‘What bird is that?’ Carly wondered, brightening up. She loved birds. She liked all animals.
But it wasn’t a bird. ‘Hellooooo!’ a voice sang out.
‘Nellie!’ Dora cried, turning to see Nellie Mitchell romping across the grass towards them.
‘I told you to meet me at the gate!’ Nellie said, smiling to show she wasn’t really angry.
‘We didn’t know what time you finished,’ Carly explained.
‘Never mind,’ said Nellie. ‘Let’s have some fun!’
She turned and trotted along the pathway towards the road. Carly and Dora ran after her and Simone trailed behind.
‘Did you get into terrible trouble?’ Dora wanted to know.
Nellie shrugged and rolled her eyes. ‘Extra Latin homework,’ she said with a shudder. Then she stopped and pointed to a horse-drawn bus that was parked at the side of the road, and her eyes glinted with mischief. ‘What’s this then? A bus all alone without a driver?’
Carly watched as Nellie skipped towards the bus.
‘What’s she up to?’ Carly asked.
Dora shook her head. ‘I have no idea.’
Nellie hummed as she stroked the necks of the two horses attached to the front of the bus. The horses snuffled and stamped their feet. Nellie turned and beckoned the girls. ‘Come on!’
Dora skipped towards the horses, her eyes glittering behind her glasses. Carly and Simone followed.
Nellie said, ‘It’s a shame to leave this bus sitting idle. Look how restless the horses are! Let’s go for a ride.’
‘What?’ said Carly, stunned. Even Simone was speechless.
‘How hard can it be to drive a bus?’ Nellie said, climbing up onto the driver’s seat and snatching up the reins. ‘Are you coming? Come on, it’ll be fun!’
Carly and Dora gazed at each other with open mouths. Simone shrugged. ‘All right,’ she said, pushing past them and climbing up beside Nellie. The bus was a big boxy doublestorey thing with two small wheels at the front and two big ones at the back. The bottom section was closed in with glass windows, but on the top deck, the rows of seats were open to the sky.
‘What are you scared of?’ Simone jeered. ‘Babies!’
Dora took a deep breath. ‘We’ll never hear the end of it if we don’t,’ she muttered. ‘And besides ... it does look fun ...’
Carly nodded, laughed, and climbed up the steps to the top deck. Dora scrambled up after her.
Nellie flicked the reins, shouted ‘Giddyup!’ and they were off! The horses sprang forward and the bus lurched into action.
‘WOOHOO!’ Dora squealed as they hurtled along the dirt road. Carly clutched at her bonnet. The horses cantered and Nellie sang and the bus rattled and the girls bounced from side to side on the wooden seats. The horses sped around a corner and the bus swung around, flinging the shrieking girls to one side.
‘Watch OUT!’ Simone screamed. ‘Tree ahead!’
Nellie howled with laughter and urged the horses on.
Just as it seemed that they would crash head-first into a tree, the bus swerved and a gust of wind whipped the shawls off Carly's and Dora’s shoulders. They reached out and caught them, just as the world sank into darkness.
CHAPTER 7
Carly blinked.
She looked down; she was in her black choir costume, and her shawl was tucked safely in the carry bag slung across her shoulder. She flexed her arms and legs and fingers and toes: no broken bones.
She gazed around. There was Dora, also in her choir uniform, her pigtails messy and her freckles standing out brightly against her pale skin. She was shaking her head as if to clear it, and her glasses were sliding down her nose. And there was Simone, standing apart, holding a lace ribbon in one hand and scowling.