Editor’s note: Angel Westen is an eighth-grader at Pagosa Peak Open School (PPOS). According to PPOS’s middle school English language arts advisor, Alison Beach, for the first half of the school year, seventh- and eighth-grade students studied identity in the Medieval Times. Westen’s narrative, the advisor explained, is an exploded moment that she created to take place after the events of “The Midwife’s Apprentice” by Karen Cushman where the protagonist Alyce grows in her identity. Westen references a chapter called “The Devil”. In this chapter, Alyce uses woodworked “shoes” to make tracks that convince the villagers that the devil has come to town in retaliation for the poor treatment she endures.
Alyce was near the town, sitting in the grass and leaning against a tree, thinking about how the midwife and herself were competing over a job. Two whispering villagers walked by the tree Alyce was sitting in. They said that the midwife didn’t want to compete with Alyce for jobs, so the midwife had decided to get rid of Alyce. Alyce tried to come up with a plan. After an hour or two, she finally got it.
Later that evening, she went to a blacksmith and asked if he could make iron shoes in exchange for a hand-sewn coat, since it was getting cold out. The blacksmith gladly accepted the offer and once Alyce shook his hand, she walked out and the blacksmith started forging. Alyce could hear the clinking of the metal as she was walking away.
As the blacksmith did that, Alyce tried finding a way to make a needle. She decided to carve a stick into a needle. She’d never really seen one before but she tried her best nonetheless. She used thin fabric since the needle wasn’t stable to go through thick fabric. It wasn’t ideal, but the blacksmith will be warmer, at least. She started working tirelessly sewing the coat and, the next morning, she went to visit the blacksmith. He was finished with the shoes and they were flawless. Alyce gave the blacksmith the coat she made and walked away.
Alyce took the shoes to the midwife’s home and set up a campfire outside with excess wood and set the shoes hanging from a stick above the campfire with some sticks and a string she found. Once the shoes were hot, she carefully placed tree sap into the shoes to make her plan effective. There was quite a bit of it, so the adherence was strong. She used sturdy sticks to grab the shoes and place them on the doorstep. Alyce then knocked on the door and ran behind a tree to watch. When the midwife opened the door, she wasn’t paying attention and stepped right into the shoes. The hot metal burned her feet thoroughly and when she tried stepping out of them, the tree sap kept her in place. Her feet were very thoroughly damaged.
Since the midwife was no longer competing and being cared for, Alyce got the job and worked hard to keep a roof over her head, and the midwife was very upset. She didn’t want to compete with Alyce, but also didn’t want her to steal the job from right under her nose. Alyce didn’t care what the midwife thought and continued to work happily with no problem.
“She could find another job, I’m sure,” Alyce thought. “I’m not sure she even needs one. I mean I’m not educated on higher ranks, but I assume she can keep the home she has.”
What Alyce did was cruel and likely over the top, but it was worth it.
Views expressed do not necessarily represent those of The SUN.
