Bela’s Song
Story by Allison Quaid. Illustrations by Tanya Matiikiv.
Eva the mouse poked her pink nose out of her burrow beneath the great maple tree at the heart of a forest. Nudged awake by the warm rays of sun hitting the entrance of her home, she scurried into the underbrush with a song.
“La-da-dee, what a beautiful place this is to be, where bugs below and doves above all join voices together in songs of love.” The trees swayed to the tune, stirred by the morning breeze.
A loud sob and the crash of a large creature running through the trees cut the melody short as animals scrambled for hiding places. Eva darted into a shrub and peered between the branches. A pair of yellow rubber boots halted a few inches from Eva’s hiding place. Whiskers trembling, Eva peered up through the foliage and saw a small girl with curly blond locks and tear-stained cheeks. The girl rubbed at her eyes and fought back shuddering gasps.
“Bella! Come here, you miserable little cretin!” boomed a man’s voice through the trees.
Poor girl, thought Eva, as the child began to tremble.
Bella’s boots turned toward the pond, running away from the sound of the man’s voice. Eva dashed after her, her tiny paws barely making a sound on the fat, decaying leaves strewn across the forest floor.
When Eva reached the pond, Bella was sitting on a rock, gasping for breath. A red welt throbbed on the right side of her face. Eva saw large tears shaped like boats floating in Bella’s eyes. They spilled onto her face when she blinked.
Eva looked around for something to cheer the girl up. A fallen walnut, the thick shell cracked in half to expose the soft flesh of the nut, caught her eye. She picked it up in her teeth, shell and all, and dragged it carefully to the girl, dropping it beside her hand. Bella’s eyes flew open in panic at the sight of the mouse, but her expression softened when she saw the food. She gave the mouse a sweet, close-lipped smile and dug the soft nut from the shell.
“Do you like it?” asked Eva when the girl popped the nut in her mouth and chewed with care.
Bella nodded.
“I thought you might be hungry.”
Bella moved to push a curl behind her ear and brushed the wound on her cheek. She moaned in pain and began to cry anew.
The mouse scampered to a nearby calendula bush, broke off a leaf, split it open with her tiny paw, and put in Bella’s hand.
“Rub it on that nasty spot, dear. It will soothe it.”
Bella stroked the leaf across her cheek, and a weak smile lifted her features as she settled back on the rock.
“Do you sing?” asked the mouse.
Bella shook her head and opened her mouth. Eva gasped when the girl stuck out her tongue. It was blue and hung with glittering ice crystals—frozen solid from tip to root.
“Oh my, you poor little thing,” said Eva. When Bella’s face fell in sorrow, Eva smiled and put her delicate paw atop the girl’s finger with a gentle pat. “Never mind. You can hum along while I sing,” said Eva. “My favorite one starts like this … La-da-dee. You try.”
Bella pressed her lips together, but no sound came out. Her neck reddened with her effort.
“La-da-dee,” repeated Eva, over and over, waiting for Bella to join in.
Still no sound came out, and now Bella’s ears were red.
“Just give it one more go,” said the mouse, hopping onto the girl’s shoulder. She placed her warm paw on Bella’s ear as she leaned in to whisper, “Sing from your heart.”
“Mmm … mmm,” said Bella, her eyes widening in delight.
“There you go; you’ve got it!” exclaimed Eva, and then she continued, “La-da-dee …”
“Hmm … mm … mmm,” hummed Bella, a little louder now.
“La-da-dee,” responded the sparrows.
Bella searched for the birds in the trees, a wide grin on her face.
“What a beautiful place this is to be,” Eva sang.
Bella matched the tune, and Eva completed the song.
“Again?” said Eva.
Bella nodded so hard that Eva had to grab tight to her dress to keep from falling off her shoulder. Bella looked to the mouse with an apology in her eyes, but Eva just laughed and struck up the tune again. They sang and hummed until an angry voice yelled, “Bella, get home now or there’ll be no supper for you!”
The forest went quiet.
“Don’t worry,” said Eva when Bella placed her gently onto the ground and turned a nervous glance toward the voice. “Come back tomorrow, and we’ll sing some more.”
Bella nodded and ran up the hill to the wooden cabin where she lived with her father the apple farmer; her mother long gone, having left to work in a distant village.
Bella returned the next day to the pond, and the two new friends sang, hummed, and laughed the afternoon away. Again and again she returned, her humming growing louder. Eva taught her new ditties, and other animals joined in. The squirrels tapped chestnuts together, the deer drummed their hooves on tree trunks, and the owls hooted. With each new harmony, Bella giggled and hummed with more gusto. Each day, before heading for home, she opened her mouth wide and studied her reflection in the pool. She examined her blue, ice-coated tongue, and at first, she was not able to move it all. But with each new hummed tune, she forced it up and down a little further until she could wiggle it around with imprecise, jerky movements, like a hinge that needed oil.
Some days, new marks appeared on Bella’s tender skin. A bruise above her brow. A scratch on her cheek. Purple marks in the shape of a closed hand on her arm. Eva saw each one and took note of them in her heart, and on those days, she sang louder and with a wider smile to coax Bella into the tune.
One afternoon, as the sun began its descent to hide behind the horizon, the birds’ harmonies went quiet, and the squirrels gave high, chittering calls of warning. Eva stopped singing and sniffed the air, standing up on her back legs, ears twitching.
“Run, Bella, run!” said Eva suddenly. Without another word, she darted toward her maple tree, looking over her shoulder to make sure the girl was coming.
Bewildered and frightened, Bella raced after the mouse, scanning the forest for the unseen danger. A bush rustled up ahead. A bobcat leapt from the bush’s depths and landed with deadly poise in front of Eva. The mouse squealed and tried to shift direction, her paws skidding over the leaves and damp soil, but the large cat swatted her with a lazy, spotted paw and sent her reeling. Bella screamed, but only a squeaky noise came out and it was soon lost in the clamor of the fleeing creatures.
Dazed, Eva rose on shaky limbs, but the bobcat was on her in an instant, trapping her in his furry paws. Bella ran at the cat, whose full attention was so fixed on the mouse between his paws that he did not seem to register the girl’s presence at all She wriggled her tongue, wrestling it into submission and breaking apart the ice that held it captive.
“S-s-s …. STOP!”
Eva, her tiny head poking between the bobcat’s claws, stopped squirming and gaped in amazement. The bobcat’s ears spun round and he looked up at the furious girl.
Bella picked up a rock and threw it at the cat’s hindquarters, making him hiss and rear up, releasing Eva.
“Shoo,” said Bella, eyes wide in amazement at the raspy sound of her own voice. “Leave her be!”
The bobcat crouched and growled low in his throat. Bella made herself big and growled, too. The cat took an uncertain step back. Bella sucked in a deep breath and bellowed, “LEAVE!”
The cat turned around with his tail between his legs and sprinted through the forest, leaving Eva and Bella alone.
“Your tongue!” said Eva, scampering to Bella’s side. “You can speak!”
Bella’s thawed tongue lumbered back and forth along the smooth sides of her teeth. She burst into tears, the glistening droplets spilling over a wide smile. Eva climbed up Bella’s dress and settled on her shoulder, rubbing her soft head against Bella’s face.
“You saved me, Bella. You saved me with your voice! Thank you.”
Bella took the mouse in her hands and hugged her close, wetting her ears with her tears.
“I think this calls for a song, don’t you?” said Eva through a laugh. The mouse sang, “La-da-dee.”
Bella stuttered, “La…la…d-da…dee.” Her mouth wide with astonishment, she cleared her throat. “La-da-dee, what a beautiful place this is to be.” The words started out raspy and tuneless, but the final notes smoothed out and took shape. Bella laughed.
A buck emerged from his thicket and clopped his feet on the ground in joy. The blue birds flapped their wings, and Eva clapped her tiny paws. Bella hugged Eva and skipped around the forest. The friends sang at the tops of their lungs.
“Where bugs below and doves above all join voices together in songs of love,” Bella intoned as she twirled, her rusty voice lurching from highs to lows. But she sang again and again, until the melody rose and fell like gentle slopes in a lush meadow.
Sparrows popped out of their houses to hear just a snippet of her beautiful voice as she danced past their trees.
“You’ve got it! You sound beautiful, Bella,” said Eva.
“I don’t want to stop,” said Bella, skipping and twirling her way through the forest.
Bella laughed with her and did a pirouette. But when her feet touched down, she froze, as if her feet had been rooted into the soil. Eva followed Bella’s gaze to the young girl’s log cabin.
“Do you have to go?” said Eva, tentative as she gazed into Bella’s face. She wished her burrow were big enough for Bella to crawl down inside.
Bella nodded and placed Eva gently on the ground.
“I’ll come see you tomorrow,” said Bella.
“I’ll be waiting,” said Eva.
Eva hunkered down in the grass and quietly followed Bella as she walked back home. Eva smiled when she heard Bella’s hummed tune carried across the grass. As Bella approached the house, she threw back her shoulders and took a deep breath at the door. Eva turned to go home, but a threatening voice inside made her squeak in fright and crouch down again.
“Where were you?” said Bella’s father. “Playing in the forest?”
Eva’s small heart pattered wildly, and she ran up the drainpipe on the side of the house to peer inside the open window to get a closer look.
Inside the dirt-smeared home, Bella was crouched in a corner, flinching away from a tall man with black hair who bore down on her with a threatening fist. Eva wanted to rush in and help, but she was tiny and no match for a full-grown man.
“I asked if you were in the forest again, girl,” the man said.
Bella shook her head, still humming the forest’s melody.
“Don’t lie to me, girl! You’re always running off these days. Always late. Never doing your chores. Stop that stupid humming!”
Bella plugged her ears and sang out, “La-da-dee, what a beautiful place this is to be.”
The man’s face twisted in horror at the sound of her voice. “How are you doing that?” he said. “Stop that right now!” and he doubled-over as if someone had punched him in the chest.
This gave enough time for Eva to push open the front door with her tiny but powerful paws. “Bella – quick – get out of here!”
Bella ran out to the house.
“Stop! Come back here,” he howled after her.
But Bella was already out of the house.
“Bella, this way!” said Eva, leading her into the forest down a tight, dense path.
Bella crawled on her hands and knees, the thicket hiding her from sight as her father crashed through the brambles, cursing each time a thorn stung his skin. He slashed at the branches with his hands, but Bella and Eva burst from the thicket while he was still stuck in the center. The friends ran for the pool, their frightened feet leading them down familiar paths. At the pool, Bella stopped, clutching her side, and rested on a rock.
“Thank you,” she said breathlessly to Eva.
“You don’t ever have to go back there, Bella,” said Eva. “I’ll take care of you. We’ll make you a big, soft nest, and you can sleep by my tree, and the bucks will protect you in the night.”
Bella’s eyes lit with hope, and a smile had just begun to form on her face when heavy footfalls made her shrink in fright. Her father loomed into view on the far side of the pond, face red, body covered in tiny cuts.
“That’s it, girl,” he said, spit flying from his mouth, “You’re never leaving the house again, you hear me? You’ll wash and you’ll collect apples, and you’ll eat what I give you, and I’ll hear no more singing out of you!”
Bella’s throat threatened to close with terror, as she stood frozen on the rock as her father came closer, but Eva jumped onto her knee.
“Your voice saved me, Bella,” said Eva, staring into her friend’s eyes. “Now you have to use it to save yourself.”
Bella faced turned towards Eva and her father.
The terror of facing him made her tremble, and she tried to sing, but her tongue froze in her mouth and stuck to the top of her mouth. Tears streamed down her face as she reddened with effort.
He stepped closer to her and now was only a few feet away.
“Sing, Bella!” said Eva. “Sing from your heart.”
Bella closed her eyes and her tongue loosened. “La-da-dee!” clashed out of Bella’s mouth, her voice like the first monsoon rain in a dusty jungle, strong and loud, waking everything up with its crackle.
“What a beautiful place this is to be!” continued Bella, rising from the rock, glaring at him.
Her father stopped in his tracks as the waves of the melody hit his chest. He leaned against a tree to steady himself, for the heart waves are the strongest of all waves, and he couldn’t stand up against them.
As he doubled-over in pain at the foot of the tree, birds swarmed out of the trees and dove at the man, forcing him to cover his head.
“Where bugs below and doves above all join voices together in songs of love!” sang Bella even louder now, with not only Eva, but the entire forest joining in, the squirrels, the trees and the wind.
A huge buck with a grand set of antlers emerged from the trees and stomped his hooves, lowering his head in a threat as he circled Bella’s father. More bucks emerged and formed a ring of sharp horns and deadly hooves. Bella’s father cowered, hunching over as the song waves made him shrink and shrink until he was no larger than an ant.
“Bella, make them go away, or you’ll be sorry,” he yelled, but his voice didn’t reach her or anyone. Bella raised her voice and sang a verse of her own making. “With friends all around, there’s a force…” She held the note, and it filled the forest, echoing off the trees. The birds joined in perfect harmony, and from the ground at the man’s feet, fat vines pushed out of the soil.
“Of love!” Bella finished, a smile forming. The vines shot up like a wall around her father.
Bella walked toward her father. The vines parted just enough so that Bella could peek inside. Her father, small as a baby, was curled on the ground, arms over his head.
“You will never touch me again,” she said.
“What will happen to him?” Eva asked, pointing at Bella’s father with her tiny paw.
“He will be set free when he learns to sing from his heart,” said Bella, and she turned around to thank her forest friends for their help.
