BETHSFIELD– BETHSSTONE.LOVE

A long, long time ago, when photos were taken using big cameras with shutters and developed in baths of silver salts, there lived a little girl called Lilibeth. She had red hair and liked stamping her feet. She was very naughty.

One day she became seriously ill and had to spend a long time shut up in an enormous, dirty hospital that badly needed renovating. Everything in the hospital was falling to pieces. The paint was peeling off the walls. The lifts shuddered and screeched. The skinny little girl with the glasses didn’t have anyone there to laugh or fool around with, but not being scared of anything she would often sneak out of her hospital room at night. She liked to walk along the dark corridors dreaming of all the things she would repair if only she had some tools - she would tighten all the screws, stick back all the tiles that were falling off the walls, and refresh all the paintwork.

After a few years had gone by and Lilibeth had grown into a beautiful young girl, the doctors managed to make her better. She was allowed to go back home and to start going to school again. She turned into a clever and well-behaved young lady.

She wanted to make up for all the time she had lost – she was a diligent student, and after school she sewed herself a bag from an old pair of corduroy trousers. It was a very fine bag, with several compartments, and a special place for Lilibeth’s purse.

Lilibeth, or rather Beth, as we should now call her (as she had already grown into quite a big girl), was also interested in photography. She enrolled in a school where they taught you how a camera is put together, how to get all the buttons and dials in exactly the right place so that the picture comes out in focus and with the right amount of light, and how to develop the pictures in lots of different kinds of bath in a place called a darkroom.

During the lessons where she was learning about all these mysterious things she met a boy called Chris. Chris always had a smile on his face and wore a rucksack, in which he kept a map. Chris dreamt of travelling the world.

From that day on, Beth and Chris went everywhere together. Beth sewed Chris a strap for his camera on her sewing machine. They started exploring old disused factories, scrambling up slag heaps and climbing to the top of very high factory chimnies. At some point, and nobody is quite sure when, they fell in love with each other and decided to get married, even though they couldn’t afford to pay for a wedding reception. Beth sewed herself a wedding dress and their friends helped them prepare for the wedding.

Beth never went anywhere without her bag, where she kept various treasures which often came in very handy. For instance, when they were on their way to their wedding, one of the car indicators fell off, and Beth immediaytely produced five screws and a screwdriver from a compartment in her bag and fastened it back on the car.

Beth’s bag was kept clean and tidy. There was never any rubbish in it, but there were seven pieces of chewing gum, which could be used to stick tiles back onto a wall, or they could also be offered round to friends. There were also four writing implements – a fountain pen, a biro, a felt tip a,d the pencil they had signed their marriage certificate with. There was also a seven-metre-long piece of string, just in case of emergencies. They were very happy and often moved house.

Whenever something interesting was happening somewher ein the world, Chris would look and see where it was on his map and then they would set off together straight away to investigate. They would take photos or make films, and then they would send off all the material they had gathered to the newspapers and the television. Chris even learned to fly so that they could get to the places where interesting things were happening even more quickly. On their travels they met many interesting people who they always invited to come and visit them at home.They liked sleeping in a tent and singing songs with a guitar around a campfire.

Beth was always ready for the unexpected. In the second commpartment of her bag she kept a torch, a nine-volt battery, a sewing kit (in case Chris’s rucksack got torn), an inchtape, three paperclips, four cottonbuds and a penknife, which was always needed when they were camping.

Unfortunately, Beth and Chris didn’t have any children of their own, so they lived from day to day. In the bag that was full of so many different things Beth also had a small pocket for her purse, where she would put coins and pound notes.

One day, when they were a long way away from home, Beth became very seriouly ill and from that day on she had to stay in bed all the time.In fact, the whole world fell ill with Beth, and people were no longer able to visit each other, or to sing together with a guitar around a campfire. Instead, they sent Beth letters and cards telling her stories about their lives and the adventures they had had. Chris read all the correspondence out to Beth as she lay in bed, and showed her which part of the world the letter or card had come from by pointing to places on the map he had taken out of his rucksack.

The most important thing was that neither of them ever lost their sense of humour, even for a moment. Even though confined to bed, Beth was always doing odd jobs. She mended all their extension leads and sewed on the sewing machine. When her strength failed her she decided that she would use all the money she had collected in her purse to buy a big piece of land. She managed to buy some land by internet, but she was never able to go and see it because she was getting weaker and weaker. To avoid thinking about her illness, she and Chris even started devising plans about how they would use the land and what they would build on it. They even thought of a nice name for it – BETHSFIELD.

Sadly, Beth never got to see her land.

But Chris took his map and set off straight away, just as he had been used to doing with Beth, except this time he was on his own. He went to BETHSFIELD. He buried his wife’s beloved bag under a huge stone surrounded by three weeping willows. He remembered precisely the numbers of different objects Beth used to carry around with her in the bag. He remembered them in a special sequence that gave some coordinates on the map in degrees, minutes and seconds: 51*07'47”N i 19*33'41”E.

Beth and Chris’s friends planted flowers and trees around the stone under which Beth’s bag was buried. A beautiful fairytale grove of trees grew up around the stone. The fruit from the trees was used to make delicious puddings, jams, wines and liqueurs. A special place in the grove was chosen for campfires, so that people could sing with a guitar there, like Beth used to do.

To this very day, friends still go to visit the place, and as they sit around the campfire they often see Chris’s plane wagging its wings as it flies over their heads, as a sign that he has not forgotten Lilibeth..

The years are passing by, and the world is still changing. The trees are getting bigger and bigger, and the swings hanging from their branches are getting higher and higher. Every child who by some miracle finds themself in the grove next to the stone thinks of something they would like to put in Beth’s bag, buried in the ground beneath their feet. The sort of thing that would be useful for them in a difficult, unexpected situation.

And how about you? What would you put in the bag ??

authors Elżbieta i Krzysztof Kusz , translation Guy Laycock