by Kit Pearson
Maud swam back. “Come on, Doodle, it’s easy! How about if I hold you?”
Polly looked at their eager faces and tried to be brave. Then she gazed down at the clear greenish water. Tiny fish were swarming in it—what if they bit her? She turned her back on Maud and Gregor and splashed to the shore.
At Sunday dinner Maud put down her knife and fork and made a plea. “Noni, do you think I could stay at school next weekend? The boarders are going to Sooke for a picnic—I’ll be the only one to miss it.”
“Next weekend? But on Saturday we’re celebrating Polly’s birthday!”
“Oh, Polly, I’m sorry—I completely forgot!” Polly watched Maud struggle to conceal her disappointment.
It was one thing for Polly to forget her own birthday. It was quite another for Maud to! And Polly could tell that she would rather stay at school. “You don’t have to come,” she mumbled.
“Of course she’ll come!” said Noni. “You are a weekly boarder, Maud, not a full-time one. I know there are events at the school on weekends, but your family is more important.”
“Yes, Noni,” said Maud, but she looked what Daddy used to call “Maudish.”
“Polly, you haven’t touched your pork! Eat up now—we need to put some meat on your bones,” said Aunt Jean.
For many days Polly had got away with not eating meat, but now she felt too glum to resist. She put a bit of crackling into her mouth—it was delicious. I’ll tell them I’m a vegetarian later, she decided.
Maud was travelling back to Victoria with Bill Forest, a friend of Gregor’s, who was attending university there. “You watch him, Maud,” teased Gregor. “He’s likely to load you up with cigarettes for your chums.”
“Gregor!” scolded his mother.
“Smoking is against the rules,” said Maud primly.
Polly sat in their room and watched Maud pack. Mrs. Hooper had given her a lot of good things for her tuck box: cookies and apples and a lemon cake.
“What’s a tuck box?” asked Polly. She didn’t care what it was, but she had to squeeze every bit of Maud she could out of this last hour.
“It’s a box I keep in the dining room cupboard,” explained Maud. “Every Thursday before we go to bed we’re allowed to share what’s in our boxes. Last week I didn’t have anything, so I’m glad to have this cake! Ann’s mother sent her one, but it crumbled in the mail. Did I tell you that Ann’s from Portland? She’s the first American I’ve ever met.”
“Maud, I really wouldn’t mind if you stayed next weekend,”
Polly lied.
“That’s all right, Doodle. I wouldn’t miss your birthday party for anything!” Maud sounded sincere, and Polly felt better. But then Maud added, “After next weekend, though, I’m going to try to convince Noni to let me be a full-time boarder. I’ll get Miss Guppy to write her a letter. I’m the only one who doesn’t stay, and I miss too much. I’m sure Noni will realize that when the Guppy writes.”
“But Maud—”
Maud looked at her. “I know you want me here, Doodle. But you’re just going to have to accept it. Anyway, you seem fine. You’re talking to them now, and you’re eating more, even meat! How about the rules—are you keeping them? I am. And I never think about Daddy. Do you?”
“Sometimes.” Always, Polly added to herself. “Oh, Maud, how I can help thinking about Daddy, when—”
“Polly! You promised! You can’t think about him at all, do you understand?”
Polly nodded, but pain stabbed her insides.
“Once you start school tomorrow it will be easier,” Maud told her. “You’ll have new friends to think about instead, just like I do. What’s rule number four?”
“Be brave,” whispered Polly.
“Right. Just be brave and you’ll be fine!”
How could Maud find everything so easy? Just as Polly had begun to feel a little bit safe, everything was scary again.
CHAPTER SIX
POLLY GOES TO SCHOOL
Polly couldn’t eat more than a few spoonfuls of her porridge. “Poor mite, you’re nervous about school, aren’t you?” said Mrs. Hooper. “Don’t you worry. My grandsons, George and Percy, go there and they like it fine. The new teacher isn’t at all strict, they tell me.”
All Polly could think of was Alice. “I couldn’t eat my breakfast,” she told Noni as she brought up her tea. “Do you think I should stay home from school another week?”
Noni felt her forehead. “Do you feel sick?” she asked.
Polly couldn’t lie to those clear grey eyes. “Not really …” she mumbled. “I guess I’m just scared.”
“Of course you are, hen! It’s a whole new experience for you, on top of everything else. But I think you’re ready for school now. You’ve had a good long rest and you’re looking much better. I guarantee that once you get used to it you’ll like it. And that nice Alice Mackenzie said she’d take care of you. Will you be brave and try? I tell you what—if you find it too much after today, then we’ll talk about keeping you home longer.”
Be brave … Noni and Maud kept saying this, but how could Polly be brave when she felt like throwing up the little she had eaten? All she could do was nod and get ready to go.
Mrs. Hooper had ironed a freshly washed pink dress for her. Polly put on her new oxfords, picked up her lunch bucket, and went over to the rectory to meet Uncle Rand, who was going to take her in his car this first morning.
The three-mile drive went far too quickly for Polly; it seemed more like three inches. Uncle Rand kissed her goodbye. “I’ll pick you up after school. Have a good day!”
Polly stood alone at the side of the road. A noisy group of children milled around the schoolyard. A woman came out and rang a handbell. Polly waited until everyone had gone in, then forced herself to walk across the field and enter the building.
“Are you Polly?” a friendly-looking boy asked her in the hall. “Come on, I’ll show you where our classroom is.”
Our classroom? How could she possibly be in the same room as this big boy?
Polly quickly found out that there was only one classroom. She stood in the doorway and quickly counted twenty-two children of all ages. As they gradually noticed her, they all stopped talking and stared.
A nervous young woman who said she was Miss Hunter showed Polly where to hang her coat and lunch bucket.
“Now, let’s see where we can put you …” she murmured. Polly had never seen a teacher look so anxious.
“Dorothy, you go and sit with Alice, and Polly can sit with Biddy,” said Miss Hunter.
Alice … Polly watched the red-haired girl from church glower at the teacher.
“But Miss Hunter, you know I need to sit by myself! I can’t concentrate unless I do.”
“I’m sorry, Alice, but there aren’t enough desks.” Miss Hunter’s voice came out in a strained bleat.
Alice looked around. Each desk had two students except hers. “All right,” she said angrily, “but I don’t want Dorothy. I want Hana.”
“Very well. Hana, you move beside Alice, and Dorothy can sit where you were.”
The girl who had to join Alice looked terrified, and the one who moved to her place looked relieved. Polly waited until they were settled, then slid in beside Biddy.
“Hi, Polly!” said Biddy as the room’s noisy din resumed. She was fair-haired, and freckled all over, even on her ears and fingers. Polly remembered her smiling in church.
Polly tried to smile back. But she wondered what her grade five class in Winnipeg was doing. Did Audrey miss her? Did she already have a new best friend?
Be brave, don’t cry … Polly looked around at the walls covered in maps and lists of numbers and spelling words. What if Maud was right and she was too far behind?
“Order, now,” called Miss Hunter.
No one listened. Desk lids slammed and chairs scraped as everyone continued to chatter. Two of the boys were tossing erasers at each other, and Alice was beating a ruler on the edge of her desk in time
to singing, “'Hail, hail, the gang’s all here!'” at the top of her voice.
“Order!” shouted Miss Hunter, rapping her pointer hard on the floor. The students stopped talking, although Alice kept singing softly under her breath. Miss Hunter’s face was flushed. Polly realized that her new teacher, who seemed hardly older than the oldest girls, was even more frightened than she was.
Everyone stood and sang “God Save the King” in thin voices, then bowed their heads while Miss Hunter recited the Lord’s Prayer. A few students mumbled along with her.
“This morning I’d like to welcome Polly Brown to our school,” said Miss Hunter after they had sat down. She smiled at Polly. “Polly’s father has recently passed away. She and her older sister have moved to the island from Winnipeg to live with their grandmother, Mrs. Whitfield. We’re very sorry about your father’s death, Polly, but we hope you will be happy here.”
“How did he die?” asked Alice.
“That is an inappropriate question, Alice,” said Miss Hunter. “Now, Polly, let me introduce you to your new classmates.”
Polly tried to match names to faces she had seen in church or in the store. She noticed Mrs. Hooper’s grandsons: George was older than she was, and Percy younger. The friendly boy who had welcomed her was Chester. At the desk on one side of her sat two little girls called Margaret and Doris. Luke and Seiji were on the other side. “Luke’s my younger brother,” whispered Biddy. At least Alice was in the far back corner.
Miss Hunter divided them into two groups. The older ones were told to copy the spelling words into their notebooks while she took the younger ones to the back of the room and listened to them read. But she kept having to leave them to quiet down the older children.
“Wallace and Fred, if you don’t behave, you’ll have to stay after school!” she warned.
Peace prevailed for a short time, but then the whispering and giggling started again. Finally it was time for recess. Miss Hunter looked relieved as she picked up the bell.
Everyone dashed into the field. The older boys began a game of football and the older girls surrounded Polly so closely she felt suffocated. Behind her, the little ones were playing on the swings and teeter-totter.
“So, Polly, tell us how your father died,” said Alice, while the others stared at her.
“He drowned,” said Polly.
“Oh, no!” gasped Biddy. The other girls—except for Alice—looked sympathetic as well. They waited for her to say more.
Polly remembered Maud’s advice on the train. She hung her head and whispered, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Where’s your sister?” asked Dorothy.
“She’s a boarder at St. Winifred’s. It’s a girls school in Victoria.”
“We know about St. Winifred’s, dummy,” said Alice. “I’ll be going there next year. My mother is making my grandfather pay for it so she can get rid of me.”
“Polly, do you want to come and swing?” asked Biddy.
“Wait!” ordered Alice. Biddy obeyed her. “Polly, we know that your mother is dead too. What happened to her?”
“She died in a car accident,” whispered Polly.
“How old were you? Who took care of you after she died?” asked Hana.
“I was two. My other grandmother took care of me. But she died a few years ago.”
“Oh, you poor thing!” said Biddy.
“She’s not a poor thing,” said Alice. “She was only two, so she probably can’t even remember her mother. Lots of people’s grandparents die, and my father is dead as well.” She glared at Polly. “Don’t think you’re going to get a lot of sympathy just because you’re an orphan.”
“Can we go now?” asked Biddy.
Alice shrugged. “If you want.”
Polly followed Biddy to the swings. “I’m so glad there’s finally another girl in grade five!” said Biddy. “Alice and her special group have always left me out, and I get so tired of playing with the younger girls. Will you eat lunch with me?”
Polly gratefully nodded yes.
As the morning went on, Polly’s fog of confusion began to clear a little. She bent her head over long columns of numbers to add up, relieved that they were easy. She took her turn reading aloud and Miss Hunter praised her as much as Noni had.
At lunch, she and Biddy took their buckets far away from the older girls and perched on the school woodpile. Biddy flitted from one subject to another and all Polly had to do was listen. She munched on her cold pork sandwich, not even noticing that she was eating meat.
“We live really close to you,” Biddy was saying. “Only a bit down the road—you know that red house across from the meadow? I’ve been watching you and your sister since you arrived and I wanted to ask you over, but my mum said to let you get settled first. Your sister has the longest braids I’ve ever seen! My dog, Bramble, had six pups! Would you like to come to my house after school and meet them?”
Biddy was already assuming they were friends! “I guess so,” Polly finally answered. As long as you don’t ask too many questions, she added to herself.
Finally the long day ended. Uncle Rand was waiting outside the field. “How was it?” he asked her.
Alice glanced at Polly disdainfully as she and Milly walked past the car. Polly watched Biddy and her brother Luke speed away on their bikes. Biddy had asked her to walk over to her house later.
“It wasn’t too bad,” said Polly slowly. “There were some good things and some bad things.”
“That sounds like anything else in life,” said Uncle Rand.
Biddy seemed the only calm person in her chaotic family. Besides her and Luke there were twin toddlers, William and Fanny, and a baby called Shirley. Mrs. Taylor dangled the baby from her side and darted after the twins in between plucking a chicken. Polly gulped; the pile of feathers on the floor was evidence of how recently the chicken had been alive.
“Hello, there, Polly!” Biddy’s mother said cheerfully. “Welcome to our busy household! You’ll have to forage for something to eat yourselves, girls.”
Biddy found some leftover cake and took Polly out to the barn. The puppies were a warm heap of fur, whimpering in the straw as they competed for Bramble’s milk. Biddy put one in Polly’s arms; it smelled like skunk. Its tiny mouth opened as it squeaked for its mother and she put it back.
Polly had wanted a dog for as long as she could remember. Grannie had been allergic to them, however, and then times had got so hard that Daddy couldn’t afford one. Her desire for one of these squirmy pups was so strong that she felt sick.
“I wish we could keep one, but my parents are going to sell them because they need the extra money,” said Biddy. “They’re purebred border terriers,” she added proudly. “My uncle owns their father.”
Polly stroked Bramble’s whiskery face. She had never seen a dog that looked like this. Bramble’s fur was wiry and brindled. She had a white ring around her tail.
“Polly, maybe your grandmother would buy you one! Then it would grow up near its mother and we could walk them and play with them! Could you ask her?”
Polly’s heart leapt. Noni had wondered what she wanted for her birthday. Did she mean anything? “I’ll ask her!” she said. “Are they very expensive?”
“I don’t know—she could find out from my parents. Oh, I hope you get one!”
“So do I!”
Then Biddy asked, “Do you get along with your grandmother, Polly? I’m a bit afraid of her! Mum really admires her, though. She calls her the queen of the island!”
“I like her a lot,” said Polly. “She looks scary, but she isn’t at all.”
Biddy led Polly out of the barn. She showed Polly her room, which was the only neat place in the house.
“Oh, look!” cried Polly. On the floor in a cradle lay the biggest baby doll she had ever seen.
“You can pick her up if you want,” said Biddy. “Her name’s Margaret Rose, after the princess.”
“She’s the same size as a real
baby!”
“She can wear Shirley’s newborn clothes. Mother gave me all of them because she says she’s not having any more babies.”
“You’re so lucky to have younger brothers and sisters,” said Polly.
Biddy shrugged. “Shirley cries a lot. And the twins are awful, always getting into my stuff. I prefer Margaret Rose. She never cries or dirties her diapers.”
Polly continued to admire Margaret Rose’s lifelike moulded curls and her blue glass eyes. Biddy pulled out a box and showed Polly all her clothes.
“I have five dolls,” said Polly shyly. “One of them is called Elizabeth, after the other princess. Maybe you could bring Margaret Rose over and we could play with them all.”
“Sure!” Biddy accepted this as easily as she did everything else about Polly. She acted as if they had always been friends, instead of only meeting that day.
“Isn’t Alice awful?” said Biddy as they changed the doll’s dress. “I don’t see why she always has to be the boss, but even Chester is afraid of her, and he’s the oldest. Dorothy and Hana and Milly are like her slaves—they do exactly what she says. Sometimes they’re mean to me, as if they belong to a secret club that I can’t join. But now that you’re here, Polly, we can be our own club!”
Polly glowed.
Biddy stood up. “Do you want to see the fort that Luke and I are making?”
Polly followed her through the field and onto the beach. They played in the driftwood fort until it was time for her to go home.
“How was school, Polly?” asked Noni before dinner.
“It wasn’t too bad,” said Polly again. “Some of the older kids don’t listen to the teacher, though.” She had decided not to say anything about Alice, since Noni was friends with her mother.
Noni sighed. “That poor lass. I know her family—they live on Valencia Island. Mabel is far too young to be a teacher. Well, I know you will listen, Polly. And I’m delighted you have a new friend! Biddy Taylor is a nice bairn—I’ve known her all her life. We buy our milk and cheese and lambs from her father. Would you like to invite her over here tomorrow?”