Hey Little Songbird-A Hadestown Story

Way Down Hadestown II/ Chant II

Eurydice quickly forgot how long she had been in Hadestown.
Each day seemed to bleed into the next: awake from the crack of dawn to the wee hours of the morning and toiling on the factory floor, assembling radios, telephones, and automobiles and taking her turn shoveling coal into the furnace. It was noisy on the factory floor but all the different noises made by the machines, the shuffling of the workers moving about, and the shouting of the foremen all blended together into the dull roar. Eurydice became so used to the noise and dim light of the factory that she always got a headache when she left. She seemed to have become like the machines, mechanically going to and from her job and going through the motions of her work.
When she caught her reflection in some chrome plating, she noticed that her face had become gaunt and hollow. The skinniness of her frame made her belly look more pronounced. Sometimes she would put her hand across her belly and remember her old life before as one would remember a dream they had just woken up from.
I'm Free, she reminded herself.

One evening as Eurydice was leaving work and walking towards the lodging house where she was staying, she could not tell what day of the week it was or if it was days or months after her arrival, she encountered three women who were sitting in a balcony above the street she walked through.
"Poor child," hissed a thin, gaunt, shallow faced old lady with threads of silver in her chestnut colored hair. She was holding a large ball of red yarn in her lap.
Eurydice was not sure if the old lady was addressing her or the baby in her belly; she was already beginning to show. Hearing her voice startled Eurydice a little bit. She had forgotten the last time she had spoken to a living soul.
"I'm not poor," she replied, "I've been set free."
"Free," scoffed another old lady, who held a set of knitting needles in her hands, "Free to spend the rest of your life among the machines and work yourself to death."
The second old lady was stocky with rusty auburn hair and skin the color of café au lait. She appeared to be working on knitting a pair of red socks.
"I don't understand," Eurydice pouted, "This place was supposed to be paradise."
"You sell your soul, you get your due," sneered a third old woman, who wielded a massive a pair of scissors. She was vastly obese with ebony hair and skin.
"That's all life promises you!" The three ladies said in unison.
With her arms shielding her belly, Eurydice continued on her way back to the lodging house. She tried to think about what she was going to do. How was she going to protect and care for her baby? But all her brain could concentrate on was getting to bed and a getting a few hours of sleep before she went back to work.

The only thing Eurydice had to look forward to was Wall Day, specifically when work on the wall was finished and everyone snuck off to the Crack in the Wall. Eurydice would listen to music and watch movies and vaguely remember her old life, which seemed as real as the films that flickered across the cavern walls. Sometimes a song which played on Persephone's victrola would seem familiar and make a tear roll down her cheek.
One evening, Persephone called her over to the bar.
"Can I help you, ma'am?" Eurydice asked her.
Persephone walked out from behind the bar and put a hand on the younger woman's shoulder.
"We need to talk, cookie," she said, "I know your little secret."
"How?" Eurydice asked.
"It's starting to become noticeable."
Both of them looked down at Eurydice's stomach.
"Poor kid, is that why you ran away here?"
Eurydice nodded her head yes. Persephone gestured for her to sit down on one of the bar stools.
"When I was your age, I thought running away would solve my problems too. But trust a sadder-but-wiser gal, it never does. You and Orpheus should have talked out your problems instead of just avoiding them. If the two of you love each other as much as you say you do, then you'd be able work things out."
"I believe we could have worked things out."
"A love like that is worth more than all the wealth in Hadestown."
"I guess it is."
"You know, Hades and I were a lot like you and Orpheus once upon a time. I can remember the day we first met as if it was yesterday. It's hard to believe, but he was a poor boy then, working as a grave digger.