“There are no secrets in this house” (p. 26) Edna tells the little girl she takes in, she even asks him to repeat this too, adding that “where there are secrets, there is shame – and we don’t need shame in this life.” All families hide secrets, large or small, that in some cases poison or even destroy the lives of their members, while some of these secrets are indeed burdened with shame (I recommend reading Zeed’s Bandits in this regard). And in the house of John and Edna Kinsell, contrary to the words of a kind woman, there is a very difficult secret (but without shame): their son, an only child, drowned in a well on a farm. The reason is this leaflet about Claire Keegan’s novel Three Fires (Metaihmio 2023, as translated into other languages ​​by the original title Foster, 2010). The excellent movie The Silent Girl (2022) by Colm Bareada that we saw this year was based on this novel. The film is not, as they say, a film adaptation of the book, but a new work, which, nevertheless, essentially remains true to the myth and spirit of the novel. Several scenes with great awakening power were added that are not in the book, such as the scene with the cookie that Kinsella silently leaves on the table.

The nameless girl who tells us her story in hindsight grows neglected in a large, poor family, with a rustic and rude father and a submissive mother, whose new pregnancy will force her parents to send him to his cousin Edna. in the summer of 1981 (see p. 36) to lighten some of the burden. The girl will find there what she lacked: care, affection, kindness, upbringing. However, the house in which he stayed is not safe, the deceased son still lives there. The girl sleeps in her son’s room, and Edna, who kept his clothes in the closet, dresses the girl in them. Maybe she wants to see her lost child in the girl’s face.

But the wonderful John Kinsella will react sharply and all three will go together to buy new clothes. Kinsella does not see the girl as a replacement for her dead son and therefore at first does not accept her warmly, gradually his love will grow, and he will love the little girl for himself. The fruits of Kinsell’s love for this girl will be seen quickly: no more bedwetting. But secrets cannot remain hidden forever: a vile neighbor will reveal to a girl the secret of a dead child. Then, after being exposed, Kinsella will take the girl on a night hike. They will reach the edge of the sea. In the depths of the dark horizon, two lights are visible. Returning from a night walk where they sit down to rest, they now see a third light in the distance. After the death of the boy, there were two lights, and now there are three again.

All families hide secrets, big or small, that in many cases poison the lives of their members.

Come back

The girl’s mother gave birth and sends a letter with a request to return the child, since schools are about to start. On the day of the return, while the two Kinsells are out of the house on business, the girl goes to draw water from the well, and it seems that a hand is pulling her down. He runs away, only catching a cold. In two days, Kinsella will hand over the girl to her real parents and prepare to return home. After saying goodbye, they get into the car and drive off. Everything goes smoothly until, when the car pulls up to the farm gate, the girl starts running towards them, at the same speed she ran when she played this game with John, only now it’s not a game, she has something serious to do and say. She will throw herself into his arms: “I fell on him and rose into the air into his arms. For a long time he hugs me tightly. I hear my heartbeat, my rapid breathing […]. With my eyes closed I feel him, I feel warmth through his good clothes” (p. 89). The natural father approaches, cane in hand, menacingly. The girl sees what John doesn’t and wants to break out of his arms and reassure the woman who cared about her so much that she will never say anything but “something even deeper inside”. [της]” (p. 90) stubbornly holds it in Kinsella’s arms. “My dad,” she warns him and calls, this is the last word of the novel: “My dad”!

love

The little girl knows how to keep secrets: she will never say that she almost drowned in the well, where Kinsell’s little son also drowned. Secrets are diverse in their content and diverse in action. The girl will keep the secret of love. Because he was loved, now he can return the love: he will keep the secret and for the first time will call Kinsella “my dad”, which he really is! If in the film the ending is perhaps more ambiguous, then in the novel the verbs “I warn him, I call him” leave no doubt to whom the gentle appeal is addressed. Literature allows us to ask childish questions: “And then? What happened next; “Whatever happens (the girl will definitely stay there, in the house of her real parents), his life has changed because he was loved and loved. I don’t worry about the quiet girl anymore!