The Matchstick Girls
“Watch out, or the matchstick girls are going to come and get you!!” that was the big threat that we all used against each other. The matchstick girls were supposedly ghosts of little girls who used to work in the apartment where we all now lived. Bow Quarter, formerly The Bryant and May matchstick factory. The little girls and women who used to work there would get covered in phosphorous, get sick, and often glow an unearthly light green from the chemical that coated every surfaced inside the factory. Of course, this was a long time ago, the 1800s and right up until the early 1900s when white phosphorous was banned. Anyway, “the matchstick girls” were supposed apparitions of girls who used to work in the factory that would come and get naughty girls and boys. Whenever someone broke any code of conduct among us, we would always taunt them that “the matchstick girls” would come and get them.
The poor matchstick girls, victims of a nastier time, and now not remembered for the injustices done to them, but as freaks of nature that would come back to torment little girls and boys. There were people who claimed to see them on occasion, and of course, always at night, but none of us had actually ever seen one of them, that was until the fateful night that I will tell you about. We have no explanation for it, well, we do, but, you won’t like it.
The apartment was split into two sections, one that was low-income units, and one area that was for the more affluent who liked the atmosphere of an apartment in an old factory. Of course, most of the richer kids went to the private school up the road, we went to the public school, and a natural rivalry developed between us. This particular day, my friend had to go uptown for her piano lessons, returning past the private school on her way back home. Just when she got to the apartment, she tripped on the edge of the sidewalk and fell face first into a mud puddle, splashing mud not just on all of her clothes, but also coating her face with it. Some of the kids from the private school with their uniforms were walking just behind her as she fell, the one boy shoved her back down, just as she was standing up, and then ran into the building. My friend was humiliated.
Although getting too old to really be scared of the “matchstick girls,” we still used them to instill fear in each other, whenever someone had stepped outside what was considered decent and fair play. My friends and I decided to get even with the boy who had “kicked her when she was down.” It was near Halloween, and it seemed like a good time for a prank. We decided to dress up as the matchstick girls, and chase him down as he came home from his school club the following week. We dressed up in some ragged clothing, and used some of the glowing gel from those glow bracelets that they wear at concerts to give ourselves that phosphorescent glow. We waited till he came around the corner, then we all silently followed behind him. At first he didn’t notice us, but then another girl who wasn’t part of our group appeared suddenly in front of him. Instinctively, he looked behind himself, and saw the three of us stalking behind him. He turned back around and the girl who had appeared in front of him, started lighting matches, one by one, and throwing them at him. “The sins of the father” she repeated with each throw of the match. He recognized the three of us, and apologized for kicking our friend, he promised that he would never do such a thing again; all the while the girl in front of him continued to light the matches and toss them at him one by one. With each throw of the match she took a step closer to him, the three of us stood and watched dumbfounded, still thinking that someone else had joined in on our prank.
The next match she threw landed on the lapel of his uniform and started burning, with that he panicked and ran. Running in panic he ran into the road right in front of a car that was turning into the apartment building, the BMW went right over him as it turned far too quickly into the parking lot. Turns out it was his father, Jonathan Bryant. The boy died shortly after being brought to hospital. The girl who had been throwing the matches disappeared in the commotion after the accident. Turns out that Jonathan Bryant was the owner of the apartment building, and family to the actual heirs of the former Bryant & May matchstick factory.
We would never forget the 4th girl who had appeared in front of us that night, or what she had said to the boy as she tossed the matches at him. “The sins of the father shall be on the children….” It would haunt us for the rest of our lives.