Chapter 50
Maple & Dylan
Okay, I have a public announcement to make, guys. Dylan Dope and Maybe Maple are doing another YouTube Live tonight at six o’clock, mountain time. Do NOT miss it! #findElla
Maple: Hey, everyone, happy Wednesday, and welcome to the second episode of our Maple and Dylan show! Thank you so much for all your comments, our thousands of new subscribers, and all your interest in this story. We have been blown away by your support.
Dylan: But we know you’re not here for the gratitude. Well, maybe you are. But we have got something much more exciting for today’s show. And hopefully we’ll get a bit closer to working out what might have happened to Ella.
Maple: That’s right. All of you putting Ella’s story on your socials has paid off, because someone very close to the Hart family has been in touch.
Dylan: And more than that, she has agreed to be interviewed on this show.
Maple: So please welcome Maisie, Ella’s personal dance tutor.
Maisie: Hey guys. I’m not actually Ella’s dance tutor anymore. I mean, of course I’m not now, with her not being around. But what I mean is I left before Ella did. In the February of 2024, so maybe ten months before.
Dylan: Do you mind me asking why? I mean, was it your choice or Ella’s?
Maple: Or Selena’s maybe?
Maisie: It was Ella’s. Selena wasn’t happy about it actually. She wanted the lessons to continue, but Ella was adamant that she didn’t want to be a dancer anymore.
Maple: And this happened less than a year before Ella was supposedly accepted into the Royal Ballet School?
Maisie: Yeah, I was pretty surprised when I heard that. I mean, Ella was a talented dancer, and she’d practiced ballet from when she was tiny, so with some intense training, I guess it’s possible that she could have passed their auditions. But she was not in the right headspace when I last saw her.
Maple: Had something happened to put her off dancing?
Maisie: Umm. You know, it’s funny. I never signed an NDA or anything, but I guess there’s an understanding when you work in someone’s home, isn’t there? Like some level of discretion?
Dylan: We get that this is difficult for you, Maisie, and we really appreciate you coming on to the show. But nobody has heard from Ella in a year and a half. Anything that might help us find her is a good thing to share.
Maisie: Yeah, you’re right, sorry. And I want to help. Ella was always so sweet-natured. At least, she was until the argument.
Maple: You mean the fight between Ella and her mom?
Maisie: No. I mean, that might have happened, but I’d left by then. I’m talking about an argument between Selena and Bodi around Christmas 2023.
Dylan: Oh? What happened?
Maisie: Ella and I had been in the dance studio in the basement, but we came upstairs to grab a drink.
All her siblings were out, at a rehearsal for a nativity show, I think, and we heard them fighting.
I mean, not physically, but they were really going at each other.
All screaming and swearing and throwing their phones around.
Dylan: Was that normal for them?
Maisie: Not at all. They were always so smiley and affectionate whenever I saw them together.
Maple: Maybe that was an act for you, and they thought you were downstairs, out of the way.
Maisie: Maybe, but Ella seemed as shocked as me.
Selena and Bodi were too mad to even notice I was there, but I could tell that Ella wasn’t comfortable with it, so I left pretty quickly.
I figured I’d be back the next day, like usual, but she messaged to say she was sick.
And then it was Christmas break. I started back in January, but Ella was like a different person by then.
Quiet and self-critical. And maybe six weeks later, she quit altogether.
Maple: Did you ever ask her what was wrong?
Maisie: Of course. I’d been teaching Ella for three years by then, and I loved her, so I hated seeing her sad. But every time I asked, she said the same thing. She had some stuff to work through, but she’d be fine.
Dylan: And she never told you what that stuff was?
Maisie: Nope. And then I was gone. When I heard that she was moving to London, well, I was surprised, like I said. But I was also relieved, I suppose. And happy for her. I wanted to believe it was true. That she was getting a fresh start.
Maple: And how do you feel now?
Maisie: Like maybe I should have trusted my instincts more.