from the age of 7-19, may wildes and her family joined a cult (the heavenly grey doves) soon after emigrating to scotland from jamaica. it was here where she was indoctrinated into the ideology of prophecies and angelology, and told that any one of the underage members could be the Angel Seraphim - one who would eventually part from the community alongside their family and the promise of infinite wealth and comfort.
several young girls were selected as ‘possibilities’, or as the mother dove liked to call them, her archangels. may wildes was selected and nicknamed ‘ophelia’ .
since selection, ophelia went through rigorous training, all in attempts to win mother dove’s favour . they were informed that the results would be revealed once every participant turned 18, and so years were spent mastering numerous fields such as language, music, sport, and academia (many parts of history were blanked out ‘for their own safety’)
by the time ophelia turned 18 she was fluent in seven additional languages (french, german, spanish, italian, arabic, and latin), grade 8 in piano, black belt in karate and jiu-jitsu, an accomplished ballet dancer, and achieved top grades in her academic subjects . she was told by mother dove that she was by far her favourite, and that she was confident ophelia’s efforts would gain her enough favour to put her in good stead, maybe even win .
and yet one by one each member turned 18 and no mention of a winner. mother dove assured them that she was merely waiting for ‘the right time’ and these things couldn’t be rushed.
a year passed and ophelia grew restless. if she were truly mother dove’s favourite, why was she taking so long to announce it? every three months she would have a private audience with her angels, still everyday ophelia’s agitation grew. desperate to know why, ophelia decided to listen in on one of her fellow angels. she persuaded the guard outside the office that a member had been sick and needed attention, and once he left she pressed her ear to the door .
mother dove had repeated everything she said to ophelia, about ‘being her favourite’ with ‘a lot of potential’, she realised her leader had been lying to her - to all of them.
ophelia was caught outside the door by the returning guard, brought to mother dove, and forced to disclose what she had heard. since she had spied and acted ‘unforgivably sinful’ she was informed that by tomorrow she would have her angel status stripped, and henceforth banished from the community for her crimes.
the ‘clipping’ ritual was traumatising in itself. it involved being dressed in white with a pair of feathered angel wings, meant to be crafted by the victim from scratch, and forced to walk from the topmost part of the house to the bottom whilst the members of the house shrieked names associated with the devil at them. they are then led outside to a bonfire, where blood relatives and/or close friends tear the wings off their back as they kneel, and throw the feathers into the flames. mother dove then concludes the ritual by declaring the member’s crime and their punishment . the clipped is then left outside as everyone filters away. to interact with the clipped is now considered a serious crime and is punishable by isolation or exile.
