Newcomer at School, 1892 painting by Emily Shanks.
"Playmates" is a short ghost story by the British author A.M. Burrage. It is included in Burrage's 1927 anthology Some Ghost Stories and the 1983 anthology Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories.
The story concerns an orphan girl named Monica who is adopted by a scholar named Stephen Everton. They live together in a large English country house. Although she does not go to school and has no contact with other children, Monica somehow learns to play popular games. She insists that there are seven other girls in the house who can usually be found in a room that she inexplicably calls the "schoolroom". Everton believes Monica has invented seven imaginary friends, although he also senses the presence of the unseen children in the house.
Plot[]
The alcoholic poet Sebastian Threlfall has many acquaintances but no real friends. He has an 8 year-old daughter named Monica. Nobody knows if Monica's mother is alive or dead or even who she is. When Threlfall suddenly dies, Monica is adopted by Stephen Everton. Everton is a serious, unmarried middle-aged man who cultivates a Sherlock Holmes-like appearance. He is a historian who writes books aimed at other historians rather than at the general public. He makes some money from those books but does not need it. He is already wealthy thanks to an inheritance. Although he was one of Threlfall's many acquaintances, he did not like or admire Threlfall. He probably adopted Monica in order to put certain theories he had developed about bringing up children into practice. Everton does not send Monica to school. Miss Gribb, Everton's secretary, gives Monica some lessons but most of the girl's education comes from Everton's vast library. Everton allows Monica unrestricted access to his library. He neither recommends any books to her nor forbids her from reading any books. She reads "everything from translations of the Iliad to Hans Andersen, from the Bible to the love-gush of the modern female fictionmongers." Monica rarely cries or laughs. She has no friends and never plays.
When Monica is 12 years-old, she, Everton and Miss Gribb move from London to a large house in the country that Everton has inherited. Monica begins to change in ways that are mostly pleasing to Everton. She smiles, runs and plays. For reasons Everton cannot understand, Monica starts referring to the large empty room next to the library as the "schoolroom" and begins to spend a lot of time there. Miss Gribb tells Everton that Monica has started talking to herself, sometimes holds long conversations with herself and sometimes sounds like she is surrounded by a circle of friends. These conversations usually take place in the "schoolroom".
At night, Everton has the feeling that he is being watched and by more than one pair of eyes. He also feels that whoever are watching him are almost as afraid of him as he is of them, as if they were children. He puts the whole experience down to his nervous imagination.
Monica begins using outdated slang and somehow learns how to play the string game Cat's Cradle. Everton hears Monica apparently talking to herself in the "schoolroom" one day. He goes in to speak to her. Not for the first time, Everton has the feeling of entering a room in which there had been other people who left as soon as he entered it. This time, he has the feeling that those others are still there but are hiding. Everton chastises Monica for talking to herself. She says that she had not been talking to herself. She says she had been talking to her friends that Everton frightened away and playing hunt the thimble with them. Monica says there are seven other girls in the house. She names two of them as Mary Hewitt and Elsie Power. Monica says her seven friends wear old fashioned long white dresses with sashes. She thinks that her friends do not dislike Everton or Miss Gribb but they are very shy. Monica says she was aware of the presence of her friends long before she saw or spoke to them. When Everton leaves, he hears Monica tell her friends they can come out. He hears a different voice respond but assumes it is just Monica pretending to be someone else.
Everton tells Miss Gribb that Monica has invented seven imaginary friends for herself, something that he considers to be quite normal for a child to do. He believes that she just got her imaginary friends old fashioned clothes and way of talking out of books. He also says that the reason he also sensed there were other children in the house was because Monica passed the idea on to him via telepathy. Miss Gribb looks uncomfortable and says she does not believe in telepathy.
The Reverend Parslow, the local vicar, invites Monica to have tea with his daughter Gladys. Although Monica and Gladys do not get on well, politeness dictates that Gladys has to be invited back to Monica's house. Monica takes her into the "schoolroom". Gladys leaves before teatime. Monica says that Gladys did not like her friends. She did not believe in them at first and laughed at Monica. When Gladys saw and heard the other girls, however, she became frightened. Monica adds that her friends may soon reveal themselves to Everton and Miss Gribb. Everton puts the fact that Gladys could see and hear Monica's imaginary friends down to telepathy and auto-suggestion. He thinks that. being closer to Monica's age, Gladys is more open to Monica's suggestions than he is.
The following day, Everton sees the Reverend Parslow. He apologizes for Gladys' sudden departure. He adds that Gladys told him all about the experience. She is not an imaginative child, and he has never known her to lie. Parslow tells Everton that his house was once a girls' school that closed soon after seven girls died during a diphtheria outbreak. Parslow's aunt whom he never knew was a student there. Her name was Mary Hewitt. She was one of the seven girls who died of diphtheria. Her friend, Elsie Power died a few hours after Mary Hewitt did. Very few local people now remember those names. Gladys knows them, however, which was why she was frightened. Parslow considers the seven girls to be angels with whom Monica has the ability to communicate. He worries, however, that she may also develop the ability to communicate with unpleasant and harmful spirits. Parslow thinks that Everton should send Monica away to school. When she is surrounded by other girls her own age, she will likely lose the ability to communicate with spirits.
Everton tells Monica that he is sending her away to school. Monica says that her seven friends told her that she should agree to it if Everton ever made such a suggestion. They want Monica to make more friends like her and do not want her to make more friends like them. Monica therefore agrees to go away to school to please her seven friends.
Stepping into the school room, Everton tells the unseen children not to be afraid of him. Although he still cannot see them, he feels their hands touching his arm.
See also[]
- "The Sweeper", another short story by A.M. Burrage included in Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories