by Maja Ardal
ELSA knocks on ESTELLE’s door.
ESTELLE
Who is it?
ELSA
It’s Elsa. I’ve come to visit.
The door opens to reveal ESTELLE.
(narrating) She’s standing in the dark. She has her nightie on!
(to ESTELLE) Are you not feeling well?
ESTELLE
There’s nothing to wear.
ELSA
(narrating) She looks just like the Little Match Girl!
(to ESTELLE) I have a new story for you.
ELSA steps inside.
She lets me in and right away I wish she hadn’t. (peering through the darkness) The air is thick with sick and pee and old things…
(to ESTELLE) Where’s your mummy?
ESTELLE nervously puts her finger to her lips.
ESTELLE
Shhh!
ELSA
(narrating as ESTELLE takes her hand) She takes me down the dark hall into the kitchen. It’s dark in here too.
(to ESTELLE) Is your mummy not home?
ESTELLE
Ssshh! (points to a corner)
ELSA
(looking through the darkness) There’s a lumpy grey blanket on a skinny bed beside the stove.
ESTELLE
Mummy. Can Elsa stay a wee while?
ELSA
(narrating) A hand comes out of the blanket
And I see her mummy’s face
Her witch-black hair is tangled on a pillow
Like claws of winter trees
And she’s staring at the ceiling like she never heard
Like she’s dead with her eyes open
MUMMY coughs and croaks a deep, wet, rumbly sound.
ESTELLE
(to ELSA) She says it’s all right.
MUMMY
(wheezing and choking) Get me mah fags, Estelle, get me ma fags.
ESTELLE
Your cigarettes are beside you, Mummy.
MUMMY
(with a terrible wheeze) Light me one.
ESTELLE gets a cigarette and a box of matches, lighting the cigarette. She puts the lit cigarette in MUMMY’s mouth. MUMMY coughs and gags like there is a whole bucket of spit inside her.
ELSA takes a breath.
ELSA
(narrating) The smoke smells better than the sick and pee.
It reminds me of my daddy blowing smoke rings with his Camels.
(to ESTELLE) Can I tell you the story now?
(narrating) BANG!! The door slams into the wall!
DENNIS
(snarls) What’s she doing here?
ELSA
(narrating) Her big brother Dennis. He looks like that growly big dog in the meadows that tried to bite me.
DENNIS
You want to see what I got?
ELSA
(frightened) What you got?
DENNIS
Treasure.
ELSA
I’ve never seen real treasure.
DENNIS pulls something out of his pocket and holds it high.
DENNIS
A chicken foot! I watched the butcher chop it off. See, it can still walk.
He demonstrates, making three fingers walk like chicken claws.
ELSA
(narrating) He makes it walk on the kitchen table and it looks alive again… a foot with no body… no head… (backing away from the walking foot) a living foot… walking at me.
ESTELLE
Mummy, can Elsa stay for supper?
ELSA
(narrating) My tummy jumps!
(to ESTELLE) My mamma says I have to go home now!
ELSA turns and runs.
Down the hall and down the stairwell, breathing in and out, in and out, down, down, stone steps, past the scrubbing lady—I don’t care what she’s yelling now—her sudsy carbolic smells like Heaven, washing out the pee
and death breath.
Freezes.
I don’t look up, but I can feel Estelle Munro standing, looking through the iron railings down at me, sending sadness all through the back of me (runs up to her door) as
I bang on my ground-floor door.
Starts to knock desperately.
Mamma! Mamma! Mamma! Opnadu!! [Open!!]
(narrating) Mamma opens the door and lets out smells of fish and onions.
MAMMA pulls ELSA forcefully inside.
MAMMA
Hvar varstu, Elsa? [Where were you, Elsa?]
ELSA panting, can’t answer.
Og hvad ertu ad gera I thessum kjol? [Why are you wearing this dress?]
ELSA
I had to wear my good dress, Mamma. I was visiting.
MAMMA
Kondu ad borda. [Come and eat.]
ELSA
(narrating) My daddy is at the table blowing smoke rings! (inhales) Ahh!
(to MAMMA) Oh Mamma, can Estelle come to our house for supper?
MAMMA
Thad er ekki nog. [There’s not enough.]
ELSA
(pleading) But Mamma, I’ll share my helping with her.
MAMMA
Ekki nuna. [Not now.]
ELSA
But Mamma, in Estelle’s house there’s not enough to eat. They all have to share a chicken foot.
(narrating) They both look at me. Daddy’s smiling. Then Mamma puts fish and mashed potato on my plate. (breathes it in) My tummy rumbles, and I think—maybe it was a dream! (tucks in her napkin) Maybe I didn’t go into the Little Match Girl’s house and see the Witch Mamma and the
Troll Boy.
Starts to shovel in the food. She is hungry.
Tomorrow I’ll ask Mamma to give Estelle my old dress that I got too fat for, and then I’ll tell her the story of how the Little Match Girl dies, (starts to fly around) and God takes her and turns her into an angel!
September, 1954, The Meadows
ELSA and ESTELLE skipping joyfully.
ELSA
Estelle and I skip hand in hand
We skip to the beginning of being big
ESTELLE
(happily) To reading and writing
and knowing the meaning of things
BOTH
To the first day of school!
They stop suddenly and gaze up at the giant stone structure.
ELSA
(narrating) There it is! Bruntsfield School! Big, red, stone building like a castle, with a fence made of iron spikes all around. Big boys and girls gathered in groups, all yelling and laughing and knowing each other. Mamma takes my hand.
MAMMA
Kondu, Elsa.
ELSA
She walks me up through the noise and chatter of girls with skipping ropes and yo-yos, girls in circles of secret whispers.
Clang, clang! My heart jumps. Everybody runs!
MISS CAMPBELL
(prim and commanding) Two straight lines! No talking! First-year girls come to the front. I am Miss Campbell and you will be my class. You will always enter through the door marked “GIRLS.” On the other side of that wall is the door marked “BOYS.” You learn together, you play apart. Now form two straight lines.
MAMMA
Do vee komm in too? I am the mother of Elsa.
ELSA
(narrating) All the other mummies are just waving to their girls and turning away, but my mamma pushes up to Miss Campbell, holding my hand tight in hers.
MAMMA
I am Svana, this is my dottir [daughter] Elssa, and vee yust komm to Skott-land.
MISS CAMPBELL
ELSA
(watching, fascinated) A girl with a long golden horsetail and a ribbon on top holds up a big bunch of red flowers to Miss Campbell.
MISS CAMPBELL
Oh, a bouquet! (inhales) How lovely. And you are—?
JUNE
June MacReady. (She tosses her horsetail.) I’m adopted.
ELSA
(narrating) A big girl with a scrunched-up face runs and takes June MacReady’s hand.
FRANCES
Can I be your friend, June?
JUNE
What’s your name?
FRANCES
Frances Green. I’m tall for my age.
MISS CAMPBELL
Follow me!
ELSA
(narrating) I follow the queen and her court into the castle of learning, and as a little hand slips into mine I turn and see the Match Girl, and I am filled with love, for loyalty is everything. Together we will learn the language of our rulers until we conquer the Royal Scottish Castle of The Tall and the Adopted!
ELSA learns Scottish country dancing. During this dance she travels from age five to eight, becoming increasingly Scottish in accent and confident in manner.
She sings while she dances. She goes through the Scottish country dance as if she has a partner and there are several others dancing with her.
Hark when the night is falling
Hear, hear the pipes are calling
Loudly and proudly calling
Down through the glen
There where the hills are sleeping
Now feel the blood a-leaping
High as the spirits of the
Old highland men
Towering in gallant fame
Scotland my mountain hame
High may your proud standards gloriously wave
Land of my high endeavour
Land of the shining river
Land of my heart forever
Scotland the brave
Bruntsfield Public School classroom, 1957
ELSA is eight years old.
MISS CAMPBELL
Good morning class, and welcome back from your
summer holidays.
CHILDREN
Good morning, Miss Campbell.
MISS CAMPBELL
Now children, you have all reached a turning point in
your education. To be eight years old is to be diligent and responsible. In the span of three years you have developed from a ragged band of ignorant infants into a civilized class of upstanding pupils—(scans the classroom) well, except for a few—Jamie MacDonald! Pay attention! And of course (sighs) Estelle Munro. Where is she today?
ESTELLE
Here, Miss.
MISS CAMPBELL
Sit up straight so you can be seen, child! Yes, where was I? June?
JUNE
In the span of three years we have evolved into a civilized group of upstanding pupils, Miss Campbell.
MISS CAMPBELL
(gushing) Thank you, June MacReady. Today, class, we are going to hear how well you have done your homework over the summer. Hands up anyone who did not prepare
a speech about “The Massacre of Glencoe”? Good. Who will begin?
ELSA
Oh, me! Please Miss, please Miss!
MISS CAMPBELL
Elsa Paul will begin.
In front of the class ELSA recounts this tale with melodramatic relish, ranging from horror to grief.
ELSA
In the olden days in the highland valley of Glencoe, the Campbell Clan went to visit the MacDonald Clan, and they were invited to stay the night because there was a blizzard. But during the night the Campbell Clan got out of bed and sneaked over to the MacDonald Clan beds while they were sleeping. The men and women and children were sleeping. Then the Campbells stabbed them and chopped them up! They burned the homes! And the mothers who didn’t get massacred ran screaming into the winter night with their babies, (starts to weep) all covered with the blood of their dead husbands and sons, and they died of cold and starvation in the mountains of Glencoe!
MISS CAMPBELL
Your little presentation, Elsa Paul, was not entirely worthy of historical accuracy. It was tainted with exaggeration and coloured with the gaudy coat of fancy. The MacDonalds were not innocent victims. (casts her eye towards JAMIE MacDonald) They were thieves and robbers. They stole cows.
ELSA
But Miss Campbell, if someone invites you to sleep the night you shouldn’t massacre them.
MISS CAMPBELL
Impertinence!
ELSA
Pardon?
MISS CAMPBELL
Your flights of fancy and lack of good conduct are surely because you are of foreign stock. This also explains why you missed out the most important fact of all. The date!
ELSA
1957, Miss.
MISS CAMPBELL
That is the year we are in, girl!
ELSA
(narrating) Oh why do I not remember! I want to be so good so Miss Campbell will love me and put me in the desk at the front of the class next to June MacReady.
MISS CAMPBELL
(waves ELSA back to her seat) Sit! (She sweeps her gaze around the class.) Now somebody tell our little foreigner what year Glencoe occurred.
ELSA
(narrating) I slide into my back-row desk beside Jamie MacDonald.
ELSA observes JAMIE as if for the first time.
Jamie MacDonald has one squashed ear
It’s smaller than the other
Too small to be a real ear
Like a baby potato that never grew right
And gets left to go bad at the bottom of the sack
My desk is at the squashed-ear side of Jamie MacDonald
Jamie MacDonald has short yellow hair
So short you can see the skin on his head
It’s pink and nice, under the fluff
But his nose runs green and his knees are grey
From getting into trouble
Jamie MacDonald drinks beer at home
He’s allowed. He told me
He says he’s never cried, even when he’s hit
He says nothing hurts. Ever
MISS CAMPBELL
The year, children! What was the year?
ELSA
(narrating) And all of a sudden it comes back to me. You know, like when you don’t try to remember you remember? I remember! (desperately waving her hand to MISS CAMPBELL) Oh! Oh! Please, Miss! Pick me! I know!
She swings her long pointer around the room
And aims it—at Jamie MacDonald
His tongue is licking the green worm coming out of his nose
His eyes are crossed looking at it
He didn’t hear cause of his ear
But nobody knows except me
I don’t want Jamie to get the strap
It’s not his fault he was dreaming
And I can’t tell Miss Campbell that he didn’t hear
Cause then I’ll get the strap for “impertinence”
So I hide my mouth behind my hand so Miss Campbell won’t see…
(into JAMIE’s ear) Wake up, Jamie MacDonald!
“1692” slithers out of me
and
In the round black hole in the potato ear
And drowns in the bit of his head
Where the beer is
And he keeps sucking the long green worm
Like it’s the best tasting thing in the world
MISS CAMPBELL
Jamie MacDonald! Stand up now!
ELSA
(narrating) Miss Campbell marches down the rows of
desks and grabs his ear, but can’t get a grip because it’s
the potato. So she pulls him by his yellow hair right to the front so the whole class can see. Everybody’s looking
down at their desks trying to be invisible except me. And then she speaks in the special voice that makes the milk
in my tummy go sour.
MISS CAMPBELL
What happens to children who don’t pay attention?
ELSA
(narrating) He looks at her like he just woke up and doesn’t want to. Then she lets go of his hair…
MISS CAMPBELL
(wiping her hand on her skirt) Oh you pitiful lot, you MacDonalds. Looking at you makes it so, so clear why you let yourselves get massacred.
ELSA
(narrating) She opens the terrible drawer that hides the leather strap, and Jamie MacDonald wipes the green worm onto his hand and down his sleeve. He holds his slimy hand out without being told and looks at me sideways with eyes all narrow, his lips pulled back showing the gap in his little brown teeth like he’s going to bite—or laugh.
MISS CAMPBELL raises the strap.
I look away. I’m not as brave as him. And I don’t want to watch Miss Campbell massacre the last of the MacDonalds just cause he was dreaming!
School playground
ELSA is nine years old.
GIRLS
(chanting) The bell, the bell, the old school bell
Estelle Munro is scared to tell
She has no knickers just as well
She peed them and they made a smell!
FRANCES
She peed them and they made a smell!
ELSA hovers in the background behind the girls.
ELSA
(narrating) Estelle Munro is standing, knees a-knocking, hands protecting the hem of her skirt. I see the backs of girls. They form a fortress. No, a prison.
Estelle Munro is inside
Her back against the iron-spike railings
They’re going to pull her skirt up
To see if it’s true she has no knickers on
Someone told
Someone said