Ballet Shoes

During the summer, Sylvia receives a letter from Madame Fidolia asking her and the Fossil sisters to tea. They arrive to find the other pupils from the academy, as well as their parents and teachers. All are dressed nicely, and Madame asks for their attention. She tells the story of a young Russian girl, Olga, whose family moved to England after the Russian Revolution. Olga fell ill and was about to lose her bed at the hospital when some of Madame’s friends told her the story. Madame connected the girl with her friend, “the head surgeon to a great children’s hospital. […] [T]hey kept her in the hospital and then they sent her away to the country for nearly six months more, and she came back completely well” (76). Now, Olga works as a nurse at the same hospital, which is in a deep financial crisis. She has turned to Madame once again for help. Madame asks the students, teachers, and parents of the academy if they can help the hospital.

When the group answers that they want to help, Madame tells them her plan: They’ve “been lent a theater at the end of July, and she intend[s] to give a performance of The Blue Bird” (77), featuring students old and new. She asks the students to put in the extra hours for the show and asks the parents to help make costumes. There are two children’s roles, Tyltyl and Mytyl, which Madame announces Pauline and Petrova will play. Later, Madame tells Petrova that she has high expectations for her performance since they’re raising money for a fellow Russian. Petrova doesn’t say it, but she doesn’t feel Russian at all since that she was raised in Britain.

To prepare for the part, Petrova must devote many hours to practice, but Dr. Jakes coaches her, and she pushes through. The rehearsals are intense, and mistakes aren’t well tolerated. All three girls, along with the adults helping them, are exhausted to the point that they want to give up until they spot something in the subway station at Gloucester: A train bears a poster for The Blue Bird, and on it are two familiar names—Pauline and Petrova Fossil, starring as Tyltyl and Mytyl.

On the day of the show, Pauline and Petrova both wake up with stage fright. They tell Nana, who decides that the best remedy to settle their nerves is breakfast in bed. This helps them feel better, and they get dressed. The sisters decide to make their vow once again. Even though it isn’t one of their birthdays, it’s a special day that calls for the vow.

It’s a Sunday, which means that it’s the day when Petrova goes with Mr. Simpson to his garage. He surprises her with “a suit of jeans, just like the garage men wear only, of course, her size” (94). She changes into them and is so delighted that she forgets about being nervous for the show. All too soon, she’s called home for lunch.

After lunch, Mr. Simpson drives the sisters to the theater. Pauline and Petrova both push through their nerves and give strong performances, as does Posy, who is a dancer in the play. Even during the scene that Petrova found the most difficult to rehearse, “[s]omehow when she and Pauline [are] left alone on the stage, it all look[s] so dark and the gravestones so real that she almost [makes] herself believe the ghosts [will] come” (97); she delivers her line convincingly.

After the curtain call, Madame Fidolia tells the audience that the show raised £1,000 for the hospital. The three sisters are proud of their performances and happy to have helped the hospital. Sylvia has one final surprise for the sisters: She has rented a cottage in Sussex for them to stay in for the month of August.

After a restful vacation, the Fossil sisters head back to school. This semester, Pauline finds it difficult to sit in on the older class and watch the students after having had so much attention as Tyltyl that summer. She makes no effort to hide how much she hates the class and is asked to see Madame Moulin, the French teacher.

Madame Moulin tells her that she clearly needs something more challenging and tells her that she’ll help translate a play. Pauline can’t hold in her frustration anymore and cries, telling Madame Moulin that it isn’t fair that she isn’t 12 yet. Madame then tells her that when she was younger, she watched an old woman with a wooden leg take on the part of L’Aiglon in the play L’Aiglon by Edmond Rostand. Though she was certain, just as Pauline is now, that she had nothing left to learn, Madame Moulin was blown away by the performance. She tells Pauline, “Never forget that an actress can always learn until her last hour” (104). When Pauline leaves, she feels better about the situation.

The next year, Pauline’s time finally arrives: She’ll be 12 at the end of December, old enough to get a license. Miss Jay, one of the teachers, tells her to wear a pretty frock and hair ribbon the next day because she’ll meet a manager. Pauline and the others are frantic because even her nicest dress is too faded and patched to wear to meet the manager.

The sisters and Nana put their heads together for a solution. They eventually decide that they’ll sell their three necklaces from Gum and purchase a frock that the three of them can use for special occasions like this. On their way out, they run into Mr. Simpson. When they tell him what they’re doing, he gets “a piece of paper and a fountain pen. He [writes] a lot” (112). He then offers to buy the necklaces for the time being, under the arrangement that Pauline will buy them back from him over time with the money she makes from acting. He gives them the contract to sign, and all three sisters gladly sign it.