Authors: Kit Pearson
Polly sat on the stairs for a long time, touching her cheek every now and then.
My first kiss!
she thought.
But that was the sort of silly thing Biddy would think. It was just a friendly kiss. Still, as Polly walked back into the crowd, she felt as if she were floating. The kiss was a secret between her and Chester—a thrilling new secret that made her other secrets easier to bear.
July 4, 1933
Dear Daddy,
It’s swell to be out of school! I got almost all A’s, and a B in arithmetic because of Uncle Rand helping me with it. He gave me a whole dollar for working so hard! Last week when I was driving around with Uncle Rand I told him that I didn’t understand any of his sermons. He asked me why, and I said it was because he used such big words and long sentences. He thanked me for telling him and said he would try to make his sermons simpler and write them as if he was preaching only to me.
Much love,
Polly
July 9, 1933
Dear Daddy,
Today I saw whales! A whole lot of them, racing and leaping by the lighthouse. Noni and I were there walking Tarka. They were black and white and enormous. I have never seen anything so amazing in all my life.
Oh, Daddy, I wish you could have been there with me to see them! Love, Polly
July 13, 1933
Dear Daddy,
Yesterday Biddy and Luke and I climbed to the top of Vulture Ridge. It’s the first time I’ve been up there. We could see all the little islands around us and Vancouver Island in the distance. We had to keep Tarka and Bramble on their leashes so they wouldn’t fall off the steep cliff. We sat and ate our sandwiches while turkey vultures floated up from the valley. They have tiny red heads.
When I got home, I tried to paint the different blues of the sea and the hills with the vultures flying above. I didn’t think it worked, but Noni said it was the best painting I have ever done. She said it was because I really looked when I was up there.
I think I want to be a painter when I grow up, Daddy.
Much love,
Polly
September 4, 1933
Dear Daddy,
I feel so bad that I didn’t write to you for the rest of the summer! I promise I haven’t forgotten you, but it was so warm and dry that I was hardly ever inside. Maud was home for the whole time, except for one week when she went to stay with Sadie.
Sadie’s parents think she’s too serious about Gregor, so they wouldn’t let her visit the island. But then Gregor went to see her in Duncan, and her parents liked him so much that they let him stay with them for a week!
Now Gregor calls Sadie his sweetheart. Aunt Jean is so pleased, because she likes Sadie and because Mrs. Cunningham is always boasting about Alec and Cynthia being a couple.
Maud was so strange this summer, Daddy. She read her Bible all the time when we were in our room, and the only time she talked to me was when she was trying to convert me. I told her if she didn’t stop, I’d tell Noni. But she knows I won’t, because I promised not to.
Maud and I both helped a lot with the garden and the cooking. We picked cherries and plums and dug clams and fished, but we still had lots of time to play. Biddy and Luke and I rode our bikes to Shell Bay and made rafts out of driftwood. The sand there is white because it’s made out of crumbled shells. The water is warmer than by our house and I went swimming! I was still afraid, but I tried not to let on and I don’t think they guessed. Tarka also learned to swim! He just copied his mother. He loves fetching sticks. We found an old dugout canoe and the dogs came out with us in it.
It only rained a few days, and then Biddy and Luke and I played in the empty schoolhouse. No one cares if we go into it. Guess what we played—school! Biddy was the strict teacher and Luke and I were the naughty pupils.
In July, Noni gave watercolour lessons to children and Biddy and I were part of the class. Some of the girls were staying with relatives on Kingfisher for the summer and we felt proud that we live here all year round. I did a lot of paintings
besides what I did in the classes and Noni has framed some of them.
A few nights it was so hot that Maud and I slept on the porch. We could hear the otters squealing across the road.
We went on lots of picnics with the family—to the lighthouse or to Walker Island, or to a tiny island called the Boot.
The best part of the summer was the fall fair—they call it that even though it’s in August. I entered three paintings—one of a hummingbird, one of whales, and one of turkey vultures—and they won first-, second-, and third-prize ribbons! Noni won first prize for roses like she always does, and Aunt Jean got second prize for her chocolate cake. Biddy won for the best carrots in the children’s category. She and I and Luke dressed up as the Three Musketeers for the parade.
The only thing I didn’t like about the summer was in July, when Aunt Jean and Uncle Rand had paying guests. Maud and I had to help make beds and clean and cook for them, and they always wanted to use the rowboat.
I am very brown and I’ve grown two inches! Uncle Rand measured me on the kitchen door. My arms and legs are strong from doing so many chores.
Last week Noni told Aunt Jean she was pleased that Uncle Rand’s sermons were easier to understand. He doesn’t use big words or long sentences any more, and sometimes he even makes jokes! He looks straight at me when he tells them. I didn’t tell Noni that he changed because of me, but I felt warm inside.
I talked to Uncle Rand about Maud (she only made me promise not to tell Noni). He said he was glad Maud had found a way to God that suited her, but that he hoped she would learn
to be tolerant of other ways. He agreed with me that I already have Jesus in my heart.
Tomorrow I start school again. I’m looking forward to it because Alice won’t be there!
I’ve been living on Kingfisher Island for a whole year now! It seems more like a hundred years. So much has happened that I can hardly remember my life in Winnipeg.
But I still remember you, Daddy. I still miss you so much, and even though I often forget to write to you, I pray for you every night before I go to sleep. Are you all right? How I wish you could come to see me!
All my love,
Polly
“S
chool this term is going to be much easier without Alice,” said Biddy as they got off their bikes and crossed the field.
It will seem lonely without Chester, though,
Polly thought. She had run into Chester a few times during the summer, but their secret embarrassed them so much that they couldn’t speak.
“Look, Polly—a new girl!” whispered Biddy as they entered the classroom.
Polly followed Biddy’s gaze. A skinny girl with dark hair and bright blue eyes stared boldly back.
“Biddy and Polly, this is Vivien,” Miss Hunter told them. “She’s in grade six, like you. Vivien, you can sit with Dorothy. I want all three of you to help Vivien feel comfortable.”
Miss Hunter turned to cope with the little ones who were at school for the first time. Vivien continued to stare, until Biddy finally said, “Hi,” and the others followed.
Vivien didn’t answer; she just gave a little grunt and sat down beside Dorothy. Dorothy, who was very shy, couldn’t even look at her.
At recess Vivien answered their questions curtly. They found out she was an only child and had moved with her parents to a fruit farm near Fowler Bay. “We used to live in Sidney,” she told them, “but my father lost his job. Now he’s starting over again on the island. His brother owns the farm, and he asked us to come and live with him. Biddy—that’s your name, right?—did you know you have something between your front teeth?”
Biddy giggled nervously. “Oh, that must be bacon from breakfast!”
For the rest of the first day of school Polly and Biddy tried to make Vivien feel comfortable, as Miss Hunter had asked them to. But Vivien didn’t have to be made to feel comfortable. She was so confident it was as if they were the new girls and she had been at the school for years. Even though her clothes were shabby and ill-fitting, she wore them as though they were brand new. She told Polly a better way to tie her shoes and ordered Dorothy to clean up their shared desk. And she asked a lot of snoopy questions.
Polly listened to her quiz Biddy and dreaded her turn. Sure enough, after school Vivien turned to her and asked what her parents did.
“My mother died a long time ago, and my father drowned last year,” Polly muttered. How she hated saying that!
“How did he drown?” Vivien asked.
“Polly doesn’t like to talk about it,” explained Biddy.
“Why not?” asked Vivien.
Polly just shrugged. Was Vivien going to be as bad as Alice?
Vivien came home with Polly and Biddy almost every day. She didn’t have a bike, so she rode on the back of one of theirs. She stayed with them until suppertime, then her father picked her up in his truck.
Vivien always wanted to be the boss. She told them they were too old to play with dolls. She told Polly she should train Tarka not to bark so much and Biddy not to bite her nails. Every day they tried to think of a reason not to have her over, but Vivien assumed she could come, so she did.
After Noni met her parents in church she gave them Polly’s outgrown clothes, because Vivien was a smaller size. Polly thought she wouldn’t like wearing someone else’s clothes, but Vivien held her head high as if she didn’t care, just as Maud had when she’d had to wear second-hand clothes in Winnipeg.
“Are you going to invite Vivien to your birthday party?” Noni asked Polly. Polly didn’t want to, but Vivien had already found out when her birthday was. Polly had no choice but to include her.
The party was so much fun that Polly didn’t mind Vivien being there. Maud was home for the weekend, and she didn’t once talk about religion. Polly liked all her presents, but her favourite was a new box of paints from Noni. As she blew out her eleven candles, she made the usual wish to see Daddy again. This year it didn’t seem quite as desperate. Even though she tried to write to Daddy, it was getting harder and harder to remember to.
I must do better!
she told herself. If—
when—
Daddy came back, he could read the letters and know all about her life on the island.
October 20, 1933
Dear Daddy,
We’re getting on better with Vivien. She’s still bossy, but she’s not mean like Alice. She’s so smart that she helps me with
my arithmetic. And she has good ideas. Last week when we were walking Tarka and Bramble, we went deep into the woods behind the church. We came to a clearing with a rundown shack in it. Vivien said we should fix it up and it could be our secret house! We ran back to Biddy’s room and started making lists of all we would need: lumber, hammers, nails, and many other things.
Since then it has rained every day so we can’t start work. But planning is so much fun! Even in school, when we’re supposed to be studying together, we make lists and drawings and whisper about our house. We’re going to call it Oz because
The Wizard of Oz
is our favourite book. Now we’ll have our own hideout!
Love,
Polly
November 4, 1933
Dear Daddy,
This has been a Melancholy day. (I saw that word in a book.) This morning Noni had a toothache so Aunt Jean and Uncle Rand took her to the dentist’s in Vancouver. I have to stay here alone for two whole days with Mrs. Hooper looking after me.
It was so wet and windy that I couldn’t ride my bike, and Biddy and I got soaked walking home from school. Mrs. Hooper left me a note that she’d gone to visit her daughter. So Tarka and I went over to Biddy’s, but she was helping her mother do the ironing and I was just in the way so I went home.
The house felt so empty! Sometimes Noni leaves me alone in the evenings when she goes out to a musical evening or to play Whist, but the house is always nice and warm and I just go to
sleep. Today it was freezing and the wind made the windows rattle. I sat in the window seat with a blanket around me and waited for Mrs. Hooper to come back and light the stove and cook supper.
I felt so sad. I thought about you and how much I missed you and how hard it is not to tell anyone that you’re still alive. If only I could just tell Biddy! I’m sure she’d keep it a secret. But you wouldn’t want me to and Maud would be so angry.
I thought of everything that has happened and I wondered if I would ever see you again. Oh, Daddy, where are you? Sometimes it seems as if you
are
dead.
Your loving Doodle
Polly and Biddy were in Biddy’s kitchen, tying ribbons around jars of preserves for the church bazaar on Saturday. Biddy’s mother was at the parish hall with Noni and Aunt Jean and the other members of the Women’s Auxiliary, setting up the tables. She’d taken little Shirley with her, but Biddy and Polly were supposed to be looking after the twins.
Tying the slippery ribbons around the rims of the jars was tricky. Fanny kept grabbing the finished ones and yanking off the ribbons. William was playing in the woodbox, throwing pieces of wood around the kitchen for Bramble and Tarka and getting filthy. He ignored Biddy when she told him not to.
“It’s not fair!” complained Biddy. “Luke doesn’t have to help with the bazaar, and he never has to babysit. Fanny, stop that!” She slapped Fanny’s hand and the little girl screamed. Biddy looked close to tears herself.
Polly got up and found two huge carrots. She handed one to each twin. Fanny’s mouth closed on the carrot and William came out of the woodbox and sat on the floor with his.
“Thanks, Polly,” said Biddy. “I shouldn’t have slapped her, but sometimes the twins drive me crazy!” She and Polly carried on tying ribbons and cutting them. The only sound was the twins’ steady munching. Then it stopped.