The Pearls Scene One

Winter, Toronto, 1945

The moon hangs pale against the indigo sky, a pearl amongst diamonds. The trees are frozen in ice. Below them, a tiny girl gazes up in wonder at the dazzling streetlight shining through the branches dipped in silver. Her blonde curls are stuffed under her brown wool toque; her mouth and nose are beaded and damp behind her muffled woolen scarf. She has been zipped firmly into her snowsuit and snow boots by her dark haired, dark eyed, red lipsticked mother, wearing a smooth brown seal fur coat. Over the child's snowboots are strapped double bladed skates, her first Christmas present. Her handsome blonde blue eyed father, wearing a rough wool dress coat and a brown fedora, props her up gently under her arms, and pushes the toddler along the bumpy ice road. Leaning securely back in his arms, the little girl remembers.