The Green Door, by Carol Pemberton

An original short story extract set in the twentieth century.

The doors closed with a hiss and a thump, and Lucy was on the platform and her mother was on the train. For a moment they looked at each other through the glass, her mother’s mouth a round O, her hand flat against the window as if she could push it open, and then the train pulled away into the tunnel and took her mother’s face with it.

Lucy stood very still. The platform at Châtelet was full of people, and every one of them was going somewhere quickly. Their legs went past her like the trunks of trees in a wind. Somebody’s briefcase knocked her shoulder. Somebody said a word in French that sounded cross, and she did not know what it meant, and that was worse than if she had.

She knew six French words. She went through them. Bonjour. Merci. Oui. Non. Croissant. Au revoir. None of them was any use. None of them meant I have lost my mother and I am nine and I am from Ipswich.

The air down here was warm and stale and smelled of hot rubber and cigarettes. A poster on the curved wall showed a woman laughing beside a bottle of mineral water, and Lucy stared at her and thought how stupid she was, laughing, with all her teeth showing, when nobody had any idea where anybody was.

Her mother had told her what to do if they were ever separated. She had told her on the ferry, and again at the hotel, and Lucy had said yes, yes, I know, the way you do when someone keeps telling you something you will never need. Now she could not remember a word of it. Stay where you are. Was that it? Or find a policeman? Or go back to the hotel? She did not know the name of the hotel. It had a green door. That was all.

A train came in, and it was not her mother’s train, and another came, and it was not. Each time the doors opened her heart leapt up like a fish, and each time it fell back. Her eyes stung. She would not cry. If she cried, people would look, and if people looked, it would be true.

Then, through the crowd, running the wrong way down the platform with her handbag swinging and her hair coming loose, came her mother.

Lucy did not run. She found that she could not move at all. She simply stood where she had been told to stand, after all, and waited to be found.

How does the writer show Lucy’s thoughts and feelings when she is separated from her mother?

You should consider:

what the writer says about Lucy
the writer’s use of language to show her thoughts and feelings

You must refer to the text to support your answer, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.

The Green Door, by Carol Pemberton

An original short story extract set in the twentieth century.

The doors closed with a hiss and a thump, and Lucy was on the platform and her mother was on the train. For a moment they looked at each other through the glass, her mother’s mouth a round O, her hand flat against the window as if she could push it open, and then the train pulled away into the tunnel and took her mother’s face with it.

Lucy stood very still. The platform at Châtelet was full of people, and every one of them was going somewhere quickly. Their legs went past her like the trunks of trees in a wind. Somebody’s briefcase knocked her shoulder. Somebody said a word in French that sounded cross, and she did not know what it meant, and that was worse than if she had.

She knew six French words. She went through them. Bonjour. Merci. Oui. Non. Croissant. Au revoir. None of them was any use. None of them meant I have lost my mother and I am nine and I am from Ipswich.

The air down here was warm and stale and smelled of hot rubber and cigarettes. A poster on the curved wall showed a woman laughing beside a bottle of mineral water, and Lucy stared at her and thought how stupid she was, laughing, with all her teeth showing, when nobody had any idea where anybody was.

Her mother had told her what to do if they were ever separated. She had told her on the ferry, and again at the hotel, and Lucy had said yes, yes, I know, the way you do when someone keeps telling you something you will never need. Now she could not remember a word of it. Stay where you are. Was that it? Or find a policeman? Or go back to the hotel? She did not know the name of the hotel. It had a green door. That was all.

A train came in, and it was not her mother’s train, and another came, and it was not. Each time the doors opened her heart leapt up like a fish, and each time it fell back. Her eyes stung. She would not cry. If she cried, people would look, and if people looked, it would be true.

Then, through the crowd, running the wrong way down the platform with her handbag swinging and her hair coming loose, came her mother.

Lucy did not run. She found that she could not move at all. She simply stood where she had been told to stand, after all, and waited to be found.

How does the writer show Lucy’s thoughts and feelings when she is separated from her mother?

You should consider:

what the writer says about Lucy
the writer’s use of language to show her thoughts and feelings

You must refer to the text to support your answer, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.

1 Component 1: 20th Century Literature Reading Study and Creative Prose Writing

Question 16

Markscheme

1 Component 1: 20th Century Literature Reading Study and Creative Prose Writing

Question 16

Markscheme

1 Component 1: 20th Century Literature Reading Study and Creative Prose Writing

Question 16

1 Component 1: 20th Century Literature Reading Study and Creative Prose Writing Questions

1 Component 1: 20th Century Literature Reading Study and Creative Prose Writing

Question 16

1 Component 1: 20th Century Literature Reading Study and Creative Prose Writing Questions