The Girls Chill Together Scene (revised)

The air continued to grow warmer as the summer continued to set in. In the earliest days of June, four girls could be seen walking down the Whitby cliff stairs after school, when the sun grinned down on their shining faces. They walked in silence for a while, listening to the lovely  sounds of their feet on cobblestones and brick.
    “Has anyone finished the essay for History yet?” said Suzannah, suddenly.
    “I have.”
    “I expected you would, Adelaide, it being precisely your cup of tea.”
    “I’ve barely started,” mumbled . “I just can’t seem to make the words fit together right. It would be so much easier if we could just..make equations of it all.”
    “Easier for you, perhaps, bloody difficult for the rest of us,” said Suzannah.
    “I think that words are a bit of a waste of time, really, you can’t make much with them except noise,” said Janet.
    “Well, that’s a bit dark, isn’t it, love?”
    “I don’t mean to be dark, but there isn’t much you can get out of pretty sentences.”
    “I don’t think you’re quite right about that,” said Adelaide. “You can’t put feelings in numbers, really.”
    Janet shrugged. “Perhaps it’s better that way.”
    Adelaide opened her mouth to argue, but closed it after Suzannah elbowed her.
Once again their steps were the only sounds they heard, until Adelaide spoke again. “You know what bothers me terribly?”
“What?”
“Frederick?” asked Suzannah. The girls laughed. 
“Well, yes,” said Adelaide, “all the time. But that’s not what I meant.”
“What is it then?” said Suzannah, looking her friend in the face.
“It’s that women make up half the bloody population but can’t vote. It’s just so awful.”
“Well, yes, it’s all horrid, but things could be worse,” said Janet.
“My father says that this is how things are supposed to be, but I don’t think he’s right. He’s never been a woman, after all,” said Winnie. “And I think my mum sides with me, even though she doesn’t say so.”
“I wish I could go to London and meet the real suffragettes, but Mummy says I’m too young to go alone and she couldn't go with me,” continued Adelaide.
“Oh, that would be such fun! I wish I could go with you,” cried Suzannah. “Perhaps when we are older.”
“But London is so terribly far away!” said Winnie. “How would you ever get there?”
“It would take a long time, to be sure,” puzzled Adelaide. “But if we saved enough money and rode the right trains, I believe we could do it. It would take a few days, I think.”
“I’d like to vote someday,” said Winnie, softly. 
“Me too! And not have to wear corsets when we grow up!” Suzannah declared, spinning in circles and flailing her arms wildly. “And not have to sew things all the time!”
“And not have to get married!” added Adelaide, skipping down the stairs after her.
“But I rather like sewing…”“Oh Winnie, you can sew as much as you like. We just don’t want to have to sew things! I like it too, but I’m so dreadfully bad at it,” Adelaide said, stopping to console her friend. By then they had reached Janet’s house, and said goodbye, but not before Suzannah invited them all over to her house for tea and studying the next day, for it was Friday. They continued talking until they reached Suzannah’s house, then Adelaide’s, until finally Winnie was left to walk alone.

PeachesMalone

VT

18 years old

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