Wordwings by Sydelle Pearl

Author:Sydelle Pearl
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Guernica Editions
Published: 2017-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

24 February 1941

THE CHILDREN GATHER around me inside of Orphans Home, the orphanage at Chlodna 33 run by Janusz Korczak, Mr. Doctor.

I am telling them the story of “Thumbelina,” about a woman who wishes for a child so much that she goes to a witch for help. The witch gives her a grain of barley to plant in a flowerpot. A beautiful flower with red and yellow petals grows out of the pot, and when the woman kisses them, they open up to reveal a tiny child — this is Thumbelina.

My favorite part is when Thumbelina thinks she must marry an ugly mole and live deep underground, never to see the flowers, the birds, or the sun. But there is hope for her! Earlier in the story, she has saved the life of a swallow who was frozen in a hole in the ground, and now he offers to help her.

I have memorized the words.

“Now that the cold winter is coming,” the swallow told her, “I shall fly far, far away to the warm countries. Won’t you come along with me? You can ride on my back. Just tie yourself on with your sash, and away we will fly, far from the ugly mole and his dark hole — far, far away, over the mountains to the warm countries where the sun shines so much fairer than here, to where it is always summer and there are always flowers. Please fly away with me, dear little Thumbelina, you who saved my life when I lay frozen in a dark hole in the earth.”

Thumbelina ends up marrying the king of the flowers and receives a wedding gift of silver fly wings from one of the flowers.

The children clap when I am finished and pretend to fly like Thumbelina with her silver wings. Mr. Doctor asks me how I know the story so well. I tell him that I have a book of Hans Christian Andersen stories, and I have read it so many times that I know the stories by heart.

Mr. Doctor asks me to write down the story for him so that he can tell it to the children at night before they go to sleep. He offers me three sheets of lined paper and a pen. I accept the paper but tell him I already have a pen. One child shyly tells me that her name is Anna and that she will write down the story in her diary. The children talk about keeping their diaries. Mr. Doctor is also keeping one. Paulina, one of the children, wants to see it. Everyone is curious. Mr. Doctor has us follow him to his small office. He picks up a notebook from under the charts on his desk and shows it to us. The children go to their beds and take their own diaries out from underneath their pillows or mattresses. Everything is surprisingly clean. Their diaries are bunches of paper bound together with tape or string.

They want to know if I am keeping a diary.

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