Laura Schlitz: A Drowned Maiden's Hair

Maud’s teeth were chattering. She wondered what would happen if Mrs. Lambert found out she couldn’t love Maud, after all. She didn’t know if she could survive the heartbreak of being sent back again.

“You don’t believe me.” Mrs. Lambert spoke lightly, calmly. “You don’t trust me. I understand that. If you like, I’ll keep telling you I want you till you get used to the idea. I’ll tell you tomorrow. Or, if you don’t believe me tomorrow, I’ll tell you the next day. Only, it’s nasty here, Maud, and persuading you would be ever so much easier if we were in the same house. Why don’t you come home with me now?”

Muffet raised her hands. An aggrieved noise burst from her, and the darting movement of her fingers expressed indignation and impatience.

“Anna says you want to come,” Mrs. Lambert translated. “She says you want to come very badly, and she wants to know why you haven’t said yes yet.”

Maud turned back to look at Muffet, whose eyes were fierce and shining. You come home with us. Maud read the command and went limp with relief. Why, she would be with Muffet! Muffet loved her, even if she wasn’t good. Muffet could be trusted, no matter what.

Maud gulped, “Yes,” and burst into tears.

Her response brought about a small stampede. The two women surged forward to comfort her. Muffet got there first; her crutch clattered against the linoleum as she squeezed Maud in a bear hug and thumped her on the back. As soon as Muffet let go, Mrs. Lambert whisked her around, stroking her dirty hair and murmuring babyish endearments that Maud ought to have hated, but didn’t. Once Mrs. Lambert released her, Muffet reclaimed her, sweeping her up so that her toes left the floor. When Maud regained her footing, her face was shiny with tears and flushed with emotion.

“I want to,” she assured the two women. She wiped her eyes on the back of her wrists, sniffed twice, and drew herself erect. “Let’s go home.”

THE END

LAURA AMY SCHLITZ is a librarian at the Park School in Baltimore. She is the author of a biography for young people, The Hero Schliemann: The Dreamer Who Dug for Troy; a picture-book retelling, The Bearskinner: A Tale of the Brothers Grimm; and a book in verse, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village. About the inspiration for the main character in A Drowned Maiden’s Hair, she says, “Maud first appeared to me when I was halfway between sleep and waking. From the first, she was alive to me — I saw her vividly — but I didn’t know how to begin her story until I remembered the outhouse of the Quaker meetinghouse I went to as a child. That outhouse was a terrible place — to be resorted to only in the direst emergency. Once I’d imprisoned Maud in the outhouse, her story began.” Laura Amy Schlitz lives in Maryland.