Suzue Miuchi - Other Works
Honoo no Maria (Maria in Fire)
Jane Evans is an unfortunate 10 year-old girl. Her father died 3 months after she was born,
and 8 years later her mother, who suffered from nervous breakdown, tried to set fire to
their house. Both the baby and the woman were saved, but the woman ran away without leaving any traces.
The little child didn't have a happy childhood. She had to constantly move from one family to another,
she was arrested while stealing food from an orphanage, and she and was then required to live there until
the age of 10. Mrs. Barbara Snowdown is a cold-hearted woman. She has
just adopted the little Jane, claiming she is her aunt. Actually, she is her mother, but
only her secretary knows that. She feels responsible for her daughter's problems, and
she feels it is her duty to provide the girl with future. When Jane was still only a child at the orphanage
a
nun told her that her mother looked like the Virgin Mary. For this reason, the child identifies her mother
with the statues of the Virgin Mary she sees in churches.
Jane and Barbara don't get on very well. Jane acts like a savage, and Barbara cannot open her heart to her.
They always quarrel. Jane hates Barbara, and she even tells her.
One day, a governess is engaged to try to give the child a proper education.
This is Mrs. Therese Marais, a woman so beautiful and kind that Jane considers her as her mother.
The poor Barbara is jealous of their relationship, and after some time she fires the woman and
tries to be kinder with Jane, who is very sad for her teacher's sudden departure.
Things seem to go better, but when the child finds out that it was Barbara who sent Mrs.
Marais away, she escapes from home and runs to Mrs. Marais. Finally Jane realizes that the
woman has a son, and that being with her was simply part of her job.
job. She runs away in the rain, and arrives at a church. Miss Snowdown's secretary finds her
lying in front of the Virgin Mary's statue in a very poor state: in fact, she has pneumonia.
While she is convalescent, the doctors prefers not to let Barbara visit her. Barbara is very worried for the
child,
but she reluctantly accepts. When Jane recovers, she thinks Barbara is not interested in her health. The
woman confesses that
she is her mother and the shocked little girl runs away to the church, to see the statue which looks like
her mother.
A candle in the church accidentally fells down and sets fire to the whole church.
Barbara, differently from the cold statue of the Virgin Mary which is made of simple stone, saves the little
girl.
Finally Jane recognizes her mother: They got lost in the fire, they found each other again in the
fire...
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