BETHSFIELD– BETHSSTONE.LOVE

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

One day she became seriously ill and had to spend a long time stuck in an enormous, dirty hospital that badly needed repairs. Everything in the hospital was falling apart. The paint was peeling off the walls. The elevators shuddered and screeched. The skinny little girl with a pair of glasses didn’t have anyone there to laugh or play with, but not being afraid 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.If she had her way she would tighten all the screws, stickback 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 has made herself a bag from an old pair of corduroy pants. It was a very fine bag, with several compartments, and a special place for her own purse.

Lilibeth, or rather Beth, as we should now call her ( 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. Furthermore how to develop the pictures in lots of different kinds of tanks 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 made Chris a camera strap on her sewing machine. They started exploring old disused factories, scrambling up slag heaps and climbing to the top of very high factory chimneys. 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 even afford to pay for a wedding reception. Beth made 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's turn signals fell off and Beth immediately produced five screws and a screwdriver from a compartment in her bag and put it back together.

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 to friends. There were also four writing implements – a fountain pen, a biro, a felt tip and the pencil which they used to sign their marriage certificate with. There was also a seven meter long piece of string, just in case of any emergency.

They were very happy and often moved from house to house. Whenever something interesting was happening somewhere in 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 tv stations. 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 also liked sleeping in a tent and singing songs with a guitar around a campfire.

Beth was always ready for the unexpected. In the second compartment of her bag she kept a torch, nine-volt battery, sewing kit (in case Chris’s rucksack got torn), an inch tape, three paperclips, four cotton buds 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 seriously 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 have 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 also 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 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 themselves in the grove next to the stone would surely think 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 and unexpected situation.

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



Authors, Elżbieta i Krzysztof Kusz, Translation Derek Monroe