The Books: “Emily Climbs” (L.M. Montgomery)

Daily Book Excerpt: YA/Children’s books:

Emily Climbs (Emily Novels) – by L.M. Montgomery Excerpt 2!!

The chapter “In the Watches of the Night” is one of my favorite chapters in any Lucy Maud book ever. It’s deep, wide, terrifying, romantic – it’s like all of Jane Eyre compressed into one chapter. Lucy Maud starts the chapter by telling us where we are going to go:

Some of us can recall the exact time in which we reached certain milestones on life’s road – the wonderful hour when we passed from childhood to girlhood – the enchanged, beautiful – or perhaps the shattering and horrible – hour when girlhood was suddenly womanhood – the chilling hour when we faced the fact that youth was definitely behind us – the peaceful, sorrowful hour of the realisation of age. Emily Starr never forgot the night when she passed the first milestone, and left childhood behind her forever.

And so she then takes us thru what happened – step by step by step. It is completely specific – there is nothing generalized about this. We all may have these moments – but each of us will have a completely different story to tell. This is Emily’s story. And Lucy Maud just made all of this stuff up in her head. It’s amazing. The chapter begins on a hot July night. It’s a weeknight – and Emily and Aunt Elizabeth and Aunt Laura are sitting in church at a prayer meeting. Emily is bored out of her mind. So to entertain herself, she starts looking around at the congregation, and basically people-watching. We hear her thoughts. She sees into people’s souls – she can SEE the wife that despises her husband – she can SEE people’s struggles, and silent worries. Her thoughts about the congregation go on for many pages. They are very entertaining. Oftentimes mean. She is merciless toward others (when they deserve it). Lucy Maud lets it go on for so long to really give the sense of Emily LOSING herself in this activity. And she does. Oh and I forgot – after prayer meeting, Emily was going to go and have a sleepover at Ilse’s house. This is very important later. So – the prayer meeting ends. Everyone is secretly relieved – because nobody really likes the minister. They all start to jostle out of the church. Emily is still half-in her people-watching reverie – and forgets to bring her hymn book with her. She is outside the church – there’s a big crowd – Elizabeth and Laura have gone off without her (knowing that she will be going home with Ilse) – but Emily can’t find Ilse for a second in the throng – and before she forgets – she runs back inside to get her hymn book. Slipped inside the hymn book is a little piece of paper on which she had put down a couple of notes about her people-watching – notes that she would not anybody else to see. This is why the hymn book is so essential. Emily goes to the pew – the church is now empty – and the caretaker is putting out the lamps. Emily grabs her hymn book … but her scrap of paper is not in it. Panic. Emily gets down on her hands and knees to look for it on the floor (which means – if anyone had looked into the church it would have looked empty) … and in that fateful moment – the caretaker goes to the front door of the church, walks out, and locks the door behind him. Locking Emily into the dark church. It takes a while for Emily to realize her predicament … and by that time, the thunder that had been growling all night – breaks out into a full storm. Emily is irrationally terrified of thunderstorms. So now begins her long night of utter terror. She stands at the door screaming (even though everyone has left): she screams for Elizabeth, Ilse, Laura … and then, desperately, for Teddy.

Nobody hears of course. Ilse would assume that she decided not to sleep over and went home. Elizabeth and Laura would assume she was with Ilse. She would not be missed. For a while, she basically falls apart. She sits on the steps up to the church gallery, shivering, wincing, terrified. Finally, she pulls herself together. Finds her backbone. And also – the writer in her comes to life. Wouldn’t this be interesting to write about someday?? She decides to go back into the main church, sit in a pew, and just wait it out. But as she goes to put her hand on the stair railing – she doesn’t touch wood – she touches something hairy. This is the worst moment of the chapter. The horror that goes thru Emily … then in a flash of lightning she sees a dog walk by. A dog. A dog somehow got locked in the church too. It takes a while for Emily to recover her equilibrium after touching him in the dark. She doesn’t know whose dog it is – but he seems friendly – so she makes her way, in the dark, into the church and sits in a pew. Only a couple seconds go by before Emily just gets the sense that she is not alone. She knows that somebody else is in that church with her (besides the dog). And in a flash of lightning – he is revealed. (Terrifying moment). He is known as “Mad Mr. Morrison”. He was once a normal man – but he lost his wife – and never recovered. He is now insane – and homeless – and is constantly “looking for his wife”. As a matter of fact, he will go up to random women, and start stroking their hair, caressing them, thinking that she is his dead wife. He is known to be harmless – he would never HURT anybody – but still, he’s kind of a creepy person and you do not want to be locked in a church with the dude. So Emily sees him in the flash of lightning – he is standing right in front of her – hands outstretched to touch her. Emily screams and runs. But there is nowhere for her to go. Then follows an agonizing hour? Couple of hours? With Emily hiding in between pews – as Mad Mr. Morrison searches for her. She has to keep moving – because he will catch up with her. This goes on forever. The way Lucy Maud describes Emily’s terror is palpable. Emily has no critical mind left – or rationality. She is just a cringing little bundle of terror, trying to survive into the next second, without Mad Mr. Morrison getting her – in that dark empty church.

And then … from the outside of the church … she hears a voice calling, “Emily? Emily?”

It is Teddy. Teddy. Who heard her cry out for him. Only … he was a couple of miles away. That’s what’s weird about it. He heard her cry his name … and knew that he had to go to the church … and so he left his house without his mother knowing, and came to ‘save’ Emily. It is all quite peculiar.

So Emily hears the voice – and screams – HELP HELP TEDDY TEDDY – she is out of her mind. Out. Of. Her. Mind. It’s wrenching to read – because by now we love Emily. It’s horrible to think of her so terrified and helpless.

Emily runs to the door, screaming out to Teddy about Mad Mr. Morrison being in there with her. Teddy shouts back that the key to let her out is hanging on the inside wall – if she can’t find it he will break a window. In a flash of lightning – Emily sees the key, grabs it, opens the door – and falls out into Teddy’s arms – just as poor Mad Mr. Morrison lunges at her from within the church. Teddy holds Emily – and scolds Mad Mr. Morrison about frightening Emily. Mad Mr. Morrison suddenly looks broken, desolate – and says, “I only wanted to find my beautiful Annie.” And something in Teddy’s heart has compassion for this poor man – it’s heartbreaking – so Teddy says, “You’ll find her someday.” Emily, meanwhile, is still screaming, and sobbing, and shivering, and thrashing about in Teddy’s arms. The terror she went thru has dissolved her self-control.

Teddy leads her over to the graveyard. By this point – the main thunder and lightning storm has passed … and the moon has tentatively come out … leaving the world a moonlit wonderland. They sit on one of the big slabs in the moonlight, and Emily cries in Teddy’s arms. Teddy holds her. They talk about the weirdness of Teddy “hearing” her. Emily keeps saying, “But you couldn’t have heard me … you were too far away …” And Teddy sticks to his guns. “I don’t care. I HEARD you.” There doesn’t seem to be much else to say. Emily is slowly starting to calm down … and suddenly … she becomes completely aware of Teddy’s arms around her … of Teddy beside her … the whole night trembles with romntic possibility. Teddy holds her … looks down at her … and says, “You are the sweetest girl, Emily” and leans in to kiss her. Emily has never been kissed – although someone at school TRIED to kiss her and she slapped him upside the head. Teddy had heard about that – but he somehow has a feeling that he won’t get slapped.

But in that moment … before their lips meet (DAMMIT) – suddenly Mrs. Kent – Teddy’s insanely jealous mother – appears in the graveyard. She had heard her son leave the house – and she followed. Mrs. Kent hovers about her son – and considers anything that is a threat to their relationship – a threat. For example – he had a kitten he loved. Mrs. Kent drowned it. So, uhm. This is not a well woman. So to see Teddy making out with Emily in a graveyard … this is a tragedy. A betrayal. Teddy is 15 years old at this point, 16 … he should be allowed to have his own little romances if he wants – but not in Mrs. Kent’s world. And from this night on – Mrs. Kent despises Emily. Emily is the threat. Emily is the one she needs to destroy.

Anyhoo – that’s where I’ll start the excerpt. With what happens at the very end of the chapter – when Mrs. Kent shows up.

Emily ends up having a shining moment here. Truth-teller. But of course – this truth-telling is the main reason why Mrs. Kent looks upon her as the most dangerous threat of all.

Excerpt from Emily Climbs (Emily Novels) – by L.M. Montgomery

“So you are trying to steal my son from me,” she said. “He is all I have and you are trying to steal him.”

“Oh, Mother, for goodness’ sake, be sensible!” muttered Teddy.

“He – he tells me to be sensible,” Mrs. Kent echoed tragically to the moon. “Sensible!”

“Yes, sensible,” said Teddy angrily. “There’s nothing to make such a fuss about. Emily was locked in the church by accident and Mad Mr. Morrison was there, too, and nearly frightened her to death. I came to let her out and we were sitting here for a few minutes until she got over her fright and was able to walk home. That’s all.”

“How did you know she was here?” demanded Mrs. Kent.

How indeed! This was a hard question to answer. The truth sounded like a silly, stupid invention. Nevertheless, Teddy told it.

“She called me,” he said bluntly.

“And you heard her – a mile away. Do you expect me to believe that?” said Mrs. Kent, laughing wildly.

Emily had by this time recovered her poise. At no time in her life was Emily Byrd Starr disconcerted for long. She drew herself up proudly and in the dim light, in spite of her Starr features, she looked much as Elizabeth Murray must have looked over thirty years before.

“Whether you believe it or not it is true, Mrs. Kent,” she said haughtily. “I am not stealing your son – I do not want him – he can go.”

“I’m going to take you home first, Emily,” said Teddy. He folded his arms and threw back his head and tried to look as stately as Emily. He felt that he was a dismal failure at it, but it imposed on Mrs. Kent. She began to cry.

“Go – go,” she said. “Go to her – desert me.”

Emily was thoroughly angry now. If this irrational woman persisted in making a scene, very well: a scene she should have.

“I won’t let him take me home,” she said, freezingly. “Teddy, go to your mother.”

“Oh, you command him, do you? He must do as you tell him, must he?” cried Mrs. Kent, who now seemed to lose all control of herself. Her tiny form was shaken with violent sobs. She wrung her hands.

“He shall choose for himself,” she cried. “He shall go with you – or come with me. Choose, Teddy, fo ryourself. You shall not do her bidding. Choose!”

She was fiercely dramatic again, as she lifted her hand and pointed it at poor Teddy.

Teddy was feeling as miserable and impotently angry as any male creature does when two women are quarreling about him in his presence. He wished himself a thousand miles away. What a mess to be in – and to be made ridiculous like this before Emily! Why on earth couldn’t his mother behave like other boys’ mothers? Why must she be so intense and exacting? He knew Blair Water gossip said she was “a little touched”. He did not believe that. But – but – well, in short here was a mess. You came back to that every time. What on earth was he to do? If he took Emily home he knew his mother would cry and pray for days. On the other hand to desert Emily after her dreadful experience in the church, and leave her to traverse that lonely road alone was unthinkable. But Emily now dominated the situation. She was very angry, with the icy anger of old Hugh Murray that did not dissipate itself in idle bluster, but went straight to the point.

“You are a foolish, selfish woman,” she said, “and you will make your son hate you.”

“Selfish! You call me selfish,” sobbed Mrs. Kent. “I live only for Teddy – he is all I have to live for.”

“You are selfish.” Emily was standing straight: her eyes had gone black: her voice was cutting: “the Murray look” was on her face, and in the pale moonlight it was a rather fearsome thing. She wondered, as she spoke, how she knew certain things. But she did know them. “You think you love him – it is only yourself you love. You are determined to spoil his life. You won’t let him go to Shrewsbury because it will hurt you to let him go away from you. You have let your jealousy of everything he cares for eat your heart out, and master you. You won’t bear a little pain for his sake. You are not a mother at all. Teddy has a great talent – everyone says so. You ought to be proud of him – you ought to give him his chance. But you won’t – and some day he will hate you for it – yes, he will.”

“Oh, no, no,” moaned Mrs. Kent. She held up her hands as if to ward off a blow and shrank back against Teddy. “Oh, you are cruel – cruel. You don’t know what I’ve suffered – you don’t know what ache is always at my heart. He is all I have – all. I have nothing else – not even a memory. You don’t understand. I can’t – I can’t give him up.”

“If you let your jealousy ruin his life you will lose him,” said Emily inexorably. She had always been afraid of Mrs. Kent. Now she was suddenly no longer afraid of her – she knew she would never be afraid of her again. “You hate everything he cares for – you hate his friends and his dog and his drawing. You know you do. But you can’t keep him that way, Mrs. Kent. And you will find it out when it is too late. Good-night, Teddy. Thank you again for coming to my rescue. Good-night, Mrs. Kent.”

Emily’s good-night was very final. She turned and stalked across the green without another glance, holding her head high. Down the wet road she marched – at first very angry – then, as anger ebbed, very tired – oh, horribly tired. She discovered that she was fairly shaking with weariness. The emotions of the night had exhausted her, and now – what to do? She did not like the idea of going home to New Moon. Emily felt that she could never face outraged Aunt Elizabeth if the various scandalous doings of this night should be discovered. She turned in at the gate of Dr. Burnley’s house. His doors were never locked. Emily slipped into the front hall as the dawn began to whiten in the sky and curled up on the lounge behind the staircase. There was no use in waking Ilse. She would tell her the whole story in the morning and bind her to secrecy – all, at least, except one thing Teddy had said, and the episode of Mrs. Kent. One was too beautiful, and the other too disagreeable to be talked about. Of course, Mrs. Kent wasn’t like other women and there was no use in feeling too badly about it. Nevertheless, she had wrecked and spoiled a frail, beautiful something – she had blotched with absurdity a moment that should have been eternally lovely. And she had, of course, made poor Teddy feel like an ass. That, in the last analysis, was what Emily really could not forgive.