by Janis Mackay
We walked over. The sun threw gravestone shadows on the grass. The bird had stopped singing and it felt so quiet in there, you could almost hear the dead whisper.
I thought of Agatha screaming, running over the road and grabbing my ankles. I remembered a snowflake falling and landing on her long black eyelashes, and how she smiled so her pale blue eyes sparkled. I remembered the way she said “Majestic!” And how she taught me to play chess, and how she let me cut her hair and how she said she wanted to be called Randolph, and how she said she was good and true. And how she slept all by herself in the den and how she laughed when I suggested eating oranges. And how she said she would never forget me. Ever.
“It’s all mossed over,” Agnes said, tugging my arm. I blinked. I looked down. We had reached the yew tree and right under it stood an old gravestone. A bunch of faded meadow flowers lay on the ground next to it. Was this the gravestone? I shuddered. The yew branches made a shushing sound in the wind.
I sunk to my knees and pulled the moss away. It fell off in my hands showing the writing carved into the stone underneath. “That’s it!” Agnes cried. “Oh! It is! It’s hers!”
She fell to her knees beside me. In a trembling voice she read out the inscription:
AGATHA FORSYTH, NÉE BLACK
BORN 21ST JUNE, 1802
DIED 31ST DECEMBER, 1879
DEARLY BELOVED WIFE OF
HECTOR FORSYTH, SCHOOLMASTER
MUCH-LOVED MOTHER OF
AGNES & SAUL
Agnes gasped. I watched her fumble in a bag she’d brought. Then she scooped up a handful of soft earth and planted a primrose beside the grave. In the tree above us the blackbird started singing again. With a lump in my throat I read out the very last words, carved in stone at the bottom:
ALIVE IN OUR HEARTS FOREVER
AFTERWORD
The character of Agatha Black is inspired by a real girl: Marjory Fleming. Marjory was born on the 15th January, 1803 in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland. At the tender age of six she went off to Edinburgh town where she had lessons from her beloved and very patient cousin, Isabella Keith. To help with her writing, Isabella suggested that the young “all thunderstorms and sunshine” Marjory keep a journal. Between 1810 and 1811, aged seven and eight, Marjory filled three slim notebooks with her own individual observations and poems, covering subjects as varied as literature, love, history and religion.
Marjory Fleming’s aunt had a pet monkey called Pug who lived with them in the house in Charlotte Square, Edinburgh. He was clearly a popular attraction and Marjory wrote of him, “the monkey gets as many visitors as I or my cousins.”
After returning to Kirkcaldy, Marjory wrote in a letter to Isabella, on 1st September 1811, “we are surrounded by the measles on every side.” On 19th December 1811 Marjory died, shortly before her ninth birthday.
Half a century later, Mark Twain, on reading her letters, journals and poems, referred to her as a “wonder child.”
Marjory Fleming is buried in Abbotshall Churchyard in Kirkcaldy. The original and very modest gravestone, simply inscribed “M F 1811”, can still be seen. Next to the gravestone is a statue of a young girl writing, erected in 1930, dedicated to her as the “Youngest Immortal”.
Marjory Fleming’s original diaries are kept in the National Library of Scotland. I am indebted to a beautiful published volume, Marjory’s Book: The complete journals, letters and poems of a young girl, edited by Barbara Mclean (Mercat Press).
Janis Mackay
Edinburgh, December 2012
Copyright
Kelpies is an imprint of Floris Books
First published in 2013 by Floris Books
© 2013 Janis Mackay
Janis Mackay has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988 to be identified as the Author of this work
Cover illustration by Nicola L. Robinson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without the prior permission of Floris Books, 15 Harrison Gardens, Edinburgh www.florisbooks.co.uk
British Library CIP data available
ISBN 978–086315–973–2