Chapter II
"I can't believe that you're going to change schools this September, girls!" Lily exclaimed excitedly "It seems that we all are going to be adults in less than a year's time!"
March was outside the window of Hester's small bedroom in the old House of Dreams and with it came the constant rain hitting the glass of the window with an enormous speed. Lily came back home for a week for Easter break and so she spent most of the rainy days with her "pretty girlies" and all of them couldn't be more overjoyed that she could spend so much time with them even though she had her upcoming exams in Queen's just in two months time.
Hester in March that year was more melancholy than ever before and she herself didn't quite realise why. Her smiles were somewhat distant and her eyes not really "there" and if she could she would spend all that rainy month playing her cello or a violin in her own cosy room. But she shared this melancholy state of her mind with Vance.
It has been three months since Hester's brother and Vance's brother went overseas and started their training in England in the royal air force. Gilly was exchanging letters with his family on very regular basis because he knew that if he wouldn't do that his mother would make sure that he would know about her disapproval of such behaviour. Gilly sounded as cheerful as always, even through those letters, and he was saying in every letter that he "enjoys England's countryide and the views" but he was mostly excited about the time when he would be going to the front which he and Marshall were both told about and that July would be the month of their sending to the front. Because of that information and the knowledge that July will come in a blink of an eye Hester knew that that was the reason for the most part of her melancholy although she thought that she could get over her fears about Gilly's future, she now knew she could not.
March was also the month of more war news which for Hester and her family seemed never-ending and they all dreaded each day to wait and listen to the radio together during breakfast and hear of all the terrible things that were happening in the world. The German air raid on Scapa Flow caused the first fears for Britain of being bombed and caused Shirley Blythe to start writing long and detailed letters to both Gilly and Marshall telling them about his own experience as a member of the RAF twenty years earlier, he wrote to them so often as if he could shield them from pain and horror by his own words of advice. Also the news that Britain and France officially agreed that neither will seek a separate peace with Germany only caused Hester and her entire family to feel in their bones that the war will continue longer than they all originally thought it would.
But because it was a week off school and all of Hester's girls decided not to revise during that period of time, she had her mind occupied with different and more jolly thoughts and sights. For example that very afternoon with all of her friends sitting on her bed, their all feet fighting their own fights with each other and the sound of rain tumbling against the window was a perfect excuse for all the fears and doubts of Hester's to drift off somewhere far away for a little while.
"We still have quite a few years to really become adults, Lily." Marion replied to Lily with her angelic smile upon her fair face.
"We might never be adults at all." Lily said thoughtfully and then smiled again "I hope that this will be the case for all of us." and all the other girls smiled back at her too, wishing for the same thing as she.
"I do hope that the final exams will go smoothly." Vance said worriedly, her blue eyes focused on her feet.
"Vance, you are so very smart, you'll be fine." Hester touched her friend's shoulder gently and smiled at her in Hester's old and kind way "You must be more positive, in those upcoming times especially." she looked deeply into her friend's eyes meaningfully.
Lily, Marion and Vance looked at Hester at the same time and all grinned at each other with a blink of hope and a droplet of bravery in their young eyes. "Did you all decide whether or not you want to go to a university?" Lily asked all of them suddenly knowing that to change a topic would be a good decision in that situation.
"I don't know at all." Marion said quietly "I think that I would just like to be a teacher in our school here in Glen." she grinned at the thought.
"You would be a wonderful and a patient teacher, I'm sure." Hester squeezed Marion's hand with a soft smile on her face.
"I agree." Lily smiled at her younger sister "And you, Hes?" Lily turned her head to her black-haired friend sitting opposite to her "Are you going to go to Juilliard and become a famous composer?" she winked at her knowingly and Hester chuckled at Lily's expressions so alike to her uncle Jem's.
"I don't know as well, Lily." she said honestly "I would love to go and study more about music, it's my greatest passion." her eyes started twinkling as she looked at her cello standing patiently in the corner of her room "But I always wanted to become a teacher, like my Miss Posy, and teach about this passion to others."
"That wouldn't stop you from going to Juilliard though." Lily raised her eyebrow in a funny way and Hester smiled at her again.
"It wouldn't, that's true." she replied "But I don't even know if I want to go there yet. I still have two more years to decide."
"That's true as well." Lily sighed again and then looked lightly at Vance "And you, dear Vance, do you think of going to a university?" she asked her.
Vance's cheeks blushed a little "Oh, well…" she started "I don't think my parents would have enough money to send me even if I wanted to." she said shyly but not wistfully.
"But do you want to go, Vance?" Lily asked her softly.
"I think I would like to but I wouldn't want to leave my family for so long either so I don't know." she answered and everyone knew in that moment that Vance wasn't exactly comfortable talking about that topic for a while yet.
"I'm still so annoyed that you won't be going to Queen's though." Lily crossed her arms, pretending to be angry at them although the corner of her lips was overcome with a smile "We would be all together in the same school again!"
"But we just prefer to stay near our parents." Hester smiled at Lily kindly "Besides I will be going to the Music School in the Upper Glen and this is much more useful for me than going to Queen's."
"Fair enough." Lily said and then she uncrossed her arms and smiled at all the girls again and then focused her eyes on Hester "So… show us what you'll be bringing to this Music School of yours Hester." and then she turned her head towards the cello lying on the floor.
"Well, I was supposed to play for you today, I know." Hester pretended to be annoyed that she has to play her cello for her friends but the smile on her face betrayed her as she stood up from the bed and took her cello and her bow in her hands.
Lily, Marion and Vance sat up straight and looked with interest and excitement at Hester who was sitting down in her chair and was putting notes in front of her, looking like a true professional musician. It was those small moments that counted the most, and they all knew it and felt it.
19th May 1940
Dear Phillip,
Thank you so very much for your birthday wishes and the wonderful recording of Bach's you sent me. I already listened to it twice but you probably guessed that.
I can't quite believe that I am truly sixteen years old. I remember when both of us and the girls talked about being sixteen just soon after we all became friends. We all thought it would take such a long time to turn sixteen but it really didn't. You are already sixteen for three months now! I thought I would feel so adult-like and mature but I don't. I feel quite the same and this makes me nervous, how do you know that you get more mature with age? Do you know what I'm taking about Phillip or am I just blabbing nonsense? I sometimes think I do but then I know that if nobody else understands me, you will.
Are you following the war news as frequently as we do? Sometimes I wish I could just decide not to listen to this radio of ours and hear what it's going to tell us about the world so unknown to me and its horrors within it but I can't help it, I have to listen all of this because I know that the news concern our Gilly and so my family.
Germany invaded France, Belgium, Luxemburg and Netherlands this month and I can't even imagine how those poor people living in those countries feel in this moment because of that. So so many things have happened and are still happening it terrfifies me, I can't even get my head around it all. Do we all still live in the same old world or am I just dreaming? I used to be so thankful for my imagination but now I regret I have any. I always used to think about my dreams and the future I would like to have just a few minutes before I would go to sleep but now I can't do it, there's no bright future I see for me with this terrible war going on. But let's stop here, I know that I shouldn't think about it all that much and also that I shouldn't stress myself even more than I do already.
You're right, I am in the middle of my exams and so are Marion and Vance and of course Lily too, although Lily has different kind of exams than us because she's at Queen's. I'm glad to hear that you're dealing just fine with all of your exams and I wish I was too but I'm not. I revised lots and lots but I still feel like I should be revising more and more. Dad says that he has never seen a person who would revise more for her exams than myself and Mum says that all of the ambitions for learning she never had I have and they're both probably right but what can I do, Phillip? I can't just not revise, I would go entirely crazy if I didn't! How do you do it that you don't get as nervous as I do, Phillip?
There might be another reason for me being more nervous than I should be, to be honest. As you know, Selwyn will turn eighteen next month and this means that he will be able to enlist to the army just like Gilly did…
Our parents are very worried whenever they look at him, both Selwyn and I can see that but Selwyn stays silent and is in one of his old dreamy moods when he goes to the Rainbow Valley with a pen and a piece of paper and starts writing poetry under one of the trees there for the whole evening. I know that that's when he thinks whether or not he should enlist.
I know that John and Walt will enlist in July because they talk about it all the time as that's also when Walt turns eighteen, he's the youngest of their trio. They don't put any pressure on Selwyn consciously but they really are and everyone apart from them knows that. Selwyn is in the middle of his own indecision and I wish I could help him carry this burden, but I know I can't, and this is making me feel even more nervous.
Thankfully in two weeks time all of my exams will be over and at least this burden of mine, which doesn't seem meaningful at all compared to the one concerning Selwyn, will not be "touchable" for me anymore.
Phillip, I'm sending you jar full of jam which my Grandma Anne made with Auntie Una two days ago because I know that you'll love it as much as I do.
I have to go back to my studies now, my friend.
Thank you for writing to me so often.
Always Yours,
Hester
There is nothing better than the sun shining right down on the Earth and the wind dancing with the leaves on the trees enveloped in the peace May carries wherever and whenever it comes.
Everyone in Glen and Four Winds felt it and appriecieted it. It being the feeling of peace on that day, the last day of May in 1940. It could be felt especially in the calm Rainbow Valley which was fulfilled with the magic of spring. Lily, Marion and Vance sat along John, Cornelia, Walt and Selwyn under the shade of the White Lady and enjoyed each other's company by talking and also trying their best not to focus on the war news.
Lily was almost finished with her exams at Queen's and so was allowed to come for a weekend to the Island and visit her family. She was even more overjoyjed because she could also spend some more time talking to John who still had a very tender place in her young heart although it ached when John's heart ached as he watched how Walt's hand was squeezing Cornelia's.
Both Lily and Marion were making the most of their time with their older brother Walt too and so on that day they both were looking up to his face, just to catch the glimpse of it and his tender, funny smile because they knew that in a blink of an eye he would be going overseas to join Gil and Marshall in war.
Selwyn was writing in his notebook and his gaze was immensely focused on what his hand was doing. However his face wasn't gloomy or very full of thoughts as a small grin was making its way to the corner of his pink lips at the sound of a violin sounding from a distance. It was the only thing that could stop him from writing and allow him to lift his head and look at the almost dancing figure of his sister with a violin in her hand.
Everyone turned their heads towards Hester and they listened to the music she played and they knew that she wasn't aware of them or their looks and they were all glad she wasn't aware of those facts because the music she played wouldn't sound half as uplifting as it did.
"A mind of a musician is very much different from a mind of any other person." Selwyn said quietly, his eyes following the black-haired young lass in a white dress reflecting the rays of the sun shining onto it "Everyone who can play an instrument hears music very differently to all the people who don't."
"Yes." Lily added just as quietly, all the eyes including her own being still focused on Hester "And it's fascinating to watch as well." she smiled radiantly.
"I swear Hester has played this sequence before." John said suddenly "But quicker this time I think."
"It's her own composition." Marion explained, her angel-like eyes follwoing her friend's moves as if she indeed was dancing with the wind "She is composing a song for around ten violins she said."
"And so she plays different notes for a different violinist each time." Lily smiled with pride over Hester "I can only hope to hear the whole composition one day."
"I'm sure we all will." Vance and Selwyn said at the same time and both blushed when their eyes met and then smiled at each other in their own way, the kindred spirits way.
"I would never think that I could enjoy classical music so much." Walt said suddenly with his arm around his sweetheart who kissed him softly on the cheek.
"Neither would I." Cornelia agreed with him with dancing eyes "But nobody can resist something as extraordinary as this right here."
And all of their gazes were focused on playing Hester once more. It was amazing to see them all so focused, thought Anne Blythe who was watching them at that time through the window of Ingleside. She herself knew how all of their hearts ached just as much as her own when they were all listening to the war news each day and so she was rejoicing in the blissful picture they were representing in that moment. So peaceful and youthful and carefree like they all should be.
Anne chuckled at the sight of them because even though the three boys were almost eighteen and Lily seventeen and other girls sixteen, in that moment they looked as if they were all six years old at most, watching something extremely interesting and even fascinating. Her eyes then wandered off to her granddaughter in the distance who held a violin in her left hand and a bow in her right hand and who played with a focused but calm expression upon her young spotless face.
Anne smiled softly at her and her talent which was so different to all the talents every other of her grandchildren had. No, she didn't consider Hester nor any of her other grandchildren her favourite, but she did have a very special place in her heart for that black-haired, gifted and sheepish girl.
"I hope all of them will never be touched by grief or sorrow and that this war won't affect them in the way it affected their parents and my own self too." she whispered and a cold wave passed through her body and she shivered for she knew that everything she said would happen, in one way or another, one day.