Ann-Marie MacDonald - Fall on Your Knees

“Come here, Lily.”

Frances opens her nightgown and guides Lily’s mouth to drink.

Shortly before dawn, Lily kneels before the open hope chest for the second time that night. She reaches deep down and withdraws a soft bundle wrapped in white tissue-paper. She lifts out a beautiful flowing dress of pale green silk. Then picks up the notebook that has fallen from its folds. Holy Angels Convent School.

Ten minutes later, the shed door opens and Lily walks in. It is not necessary to search, for there it is. Daddy’s project. Finished. They are still mounted on the lasts. Two bright red boots. The small one, perched on its built-up sole, smiles out at her as does its big brother. Lily removes the new boots from their iron feet. She pulls them on, harnessing with care the left boot for its first taste of the bit. She wraps her ankles in the money Frances gave her, pulls tight the candy-cane laces and stands up. Calf leather. They enfold her feet like a second skin, no need to break them in. They go nicely with her beautiful new green silk dress — a little big for her, to be sure, and missing a sash as you can see from the empty belt loops, but lovely all the same. With her notebook under her arm, Lily leaves the shed.

The air is cool and moist with a hint of salt. The night is turning grey. It’s the best time to see this town — the collieries, the tracks, the coal carts and company houses look best in the pewter dawn, likewise the ocean and the rocky shore. Farewell . Lily feels refreshed. As though she could walk for ever. Farewell to Nova Scotia . She closes the door behind her, and heads for the Shore Road. She looks back once. And keeps walking.

Dear Diary,

No, I will not use that form of address. That is a relic of childhood. This book will serve as a record of my progress as a singer. I will record only relevant facts which will prove useful as my training progresses. No gush. Let other girls record their crushes and their dresses, their tresses and trousseaux. I am here to work. I will note scientifically everything I learn as in a lab book. I will be objective and unflinchingly self-critical. I will not be distracted by the bustle of this city. And in this, my record book, I will not allow emotion to colour my perceptions.

1:12 am — I am burning. I have to live, I have to sing, I want to transform myself into a thousand different characters and carry their life with me onto the stage where it’s so bright and so dark at the same time, just knowing there are three thousand people out there longing to be swept away by the passion that’s about to flood out from scarlet curtains, to this I consecrate my body and my soul, I can give no more than all of myself, I feel my heart is a throbbing engine and my voice is the valve, like a wailing train, it has to sing or blow up, there’s too much fuel, too much fire, and what am I to do with this voice if I can’t let it out, it’s not just singing. I am here as a speck, but I don’t feel scared or about to be blown away, I feel like all New York is a warm embrace just waiting to enfold me. I am in love. But not with a person. I am passionately in love with my life.

Friday March 1, 1918 — My voice teacher is someone I will simply call Herr Blutwurst. He is rude and, if my first lesson is any indication, utterly devoid of qualifications. I can only conclude he is a fraud. I will give him to week’s end. He is a dry stick of a person. I feel dust in my throat just thinking about him. I was perfectly polite. He looked me over as though he were buying a horse. He has a horrible accent. He ordered me to “zing zomesink.” I did, and he got an expression on his face as though he’d just et a bad oyster. Why did it ever even occur to this man to enter any field remotely connected to music since he obviously hates music? He said, after I had sung my Quanto affetto , “Vee haf a lot off verk to do.” I should have said, “Ich weiss das, Käsekopf, das ist warum Ich hier bin .” He wants me to cry but I won’t, my daddy just finished killing a lot of his countrymen.

My first advantage: I have everything. My second advantage: this is just another island. My third advantage: I am bigger than it all.

March 2 — I took a walk in Central Park. I didn’t cry in front of Herr Kaiser. I didn’t sing in front of Herr Kaiser because he hates singers who sing, he claims to be Hungarian but I know he’s Fritzy, why hasn’t he been arrested, there’s supposed to be a war on.

Monday March 4 — I ate the most delicious thing today. A pretzel. It’s a baked thing tied in a knot. You eat it with mustard. Sounds unremarkable but is brilliant. Wrote pointless surprise theory exam for Kaiser.

Tuesday — Could someone please tell me what the point of “hissing” is? We have progressed, dear Diary! I am now forbidden, not only to sing, but to make any vocal sound whatsoever!

Wednesday — Museum of Natural History with Giles and fossilized lady friend Miss Morriss. Tea, then took me to see six girls doing modern dance in bedsheets swishing knives around. Maybe I should be a dancer. Take that back about Miss Morriss, they’re both so nice and I’m so bored.

Thursday — Kaiser crept up behind me and put his skeleton hands around my lower back ribs and said, “For the purposes of these lessons I must ask you to loosen or discard your corset.” Filthy bodechean .

Fri. March 8 — Wearing my hair loose like Lady Godiva to feel less naked with no corset. Excellent feeling, though strange, like I’m always ready for bed or swimming. Came all the way to Island of Manhattan just to shed outmoded undergarment.

Sat. — Got perfect on stupid fake theory exam. Killed him to admit that. “You have virtually perfect pitch, Miss Piper.” There’s no “virtually” about it and he knows it. Asked him when I could sing again. He said, “As far as I can tell, Miss Piper, you have never sung in your life.”

Sun. — Giles asked if I wanted to come sightseeing. No. Thank you. Monday, March 11 , Eighth Ave elevated train, squashed like sardine — “That which does not kill me, only makes me stronger.”

tues. — My lower back is always aching. I have not cried, I’m past that, I’m numb, but I have almost fainted. “Nein,” he says. “Start again. Inhale, ja, und ….” And then I “hiss”.

Wed. — Oh joy! Today I got to make a sound! With my mouth closed. I have no idea what he’s talking about most of the time and it isn’t the language barrier: “Think that you must hold a boiled egg in the back of your throat.” With or without the shell? Halfway through the lesson, as I was making a feeble little humming sound with my mouth closed, with my tongue in the “n” position, while I was trying “to put a smile into the sound,” he said, “That’s it.” Apparently he has found the true placement of my voice. On the rear shelf of a disused library.

? — I wonder if anyone has ever committed suicide out of sheer boredom? Today I was permitted to open my mouth ever so slightly and release the faintest of “ee’s”. Then he told me to put an “ae” inside the “ee”. “Ah” and “oo” come after but he wouldn’t let me finish — he informed me that I had run out of air. I said I had plenty of air left and he told me that perhaps I had air enough to sustain life, but not the note. I have to learn to sing “on the breath,” he said. Give me strength!

Giles just called me for supper. Everything she cooks is white or light brown. Except the boiled greens, which are grey. She said, in this voice that reminds me of dust on a doily, “Before you know it you’ll have lots of friends and it will seem like a different city.” I don’t want friends, I didn’t come here to make friends. She’s nice, though. Why can’t I just be grateful that there’s at least someone who speaks kindly to me. Sometimes, though, she gives me a bit of the creeps. She’ll look at me like she knows something and then she’ll say something completely innocuous. This whole apartment reeks of lavender, there are lace curtains and praying hands everywhere. It’s all like a fading photograph except for me. I keep seeing myself whirling around, breaking everything without even touching it, it makes me want to talk louder, breathe deeper, commit carnal acts!