Marigold's Tale by Maggie Allder

Author:Maggie Allder [Allder, Maggie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary Fiction
Published: 2023-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

Marigold was desperately upset that Duncan and Alana were going back to Shetland. The four bairns had become almost inseparable in a matter of days. When they weren’t out and about on the island, they were in the Kullander’s place or at mine. Duncan and Alana seemed to be the leaders of the group although Andy was the oldest. They had both spent time at school on Shetland; they knew about popular music and a bit about Scottish politics. Andy would normally have started school in Lerwick before the other two, but his uncertain health had kept him at home. Of the four, he was the most immersed in island culture. He could talk to Olaf in dialect with a fluency few of the other bairns could match, even using some of the archaisms that were dying out. Who needs words for ‘invaders,’ or ‘fire-lighting flints’ nowadays? They treated Marigold almost as if she were a mascot. They seemed to love showing her new things, explaining, describing, telling her stories, teaching her words. Without realising it, I saw, they were giving the wee lassie an accelerated education on island life. Under their tuition, Marigold flourished. Her speech started to change. Her confidence grew.

“I’ll miss you!” she told the others. The four of them were sitting around the range in my bothy waiting for a batch of chocolate brownies to finish baking. These were to be supplies for Alana and Duncan to take to Shetland the next day.

“We’ll be back in May,” Alana pointed out.

“And in June, for the long holiday,” added Duncan.

“Will you join us next year?” Alana asked Andy.

“I’m not sure… I’d rather stay here and study at home. I wonder what’d happen if I had an episode and I was away from Mam and Paps…”

“Aja…” Duncan was sympathetic. “But you wander all over En-Somi and nothing ever seems to happen.”

“But you don’t understand…” Andy sounded unhappy.

Marigold chipped in. “I’d rather you stayed ’ere,” she told her friend. “If you goes too, I’ll be on my own!”

“You know what, Marigold?” It was Duncan speaking again. “You ought to go to school here, in Hus. How old are you? Nine? Ten? So, then you could come to the Shetlands to school, too, in a couple of years. And if Andy could make it, all four of us’d be there for a few years. It would be such a laugh!”

Marigold looked uncertain. “You don’t go to school nowhere!” she pointed out to Andy. “Why should I? Mum and Dad say school’s dreadful. Like borstal… Any’ow, what’s borstal?”

“I did go to the village school here in Hus,” explained Andy. “I loved it. But now I do my lessons online and I have a tutor in Aberdeen who teaches a small group of us – a girl in Foula and a boy in Rum who has some sort of disability…”

“I think a borstal is a sort of prison,” suggested Alana. “The village school isn’t like that. Sigrid’s nice – a bit strict, but friendly too.

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