About this user
The houses in the outskirts were all exactly alike, small square boxes painted gray. Each had a small, rectangular plot of lawn in front, with a straight line of dull-looking flowers edging the path to the door. Meg had a
feeling that if she could count the flowers there would be exactly the same number for each house. In front of all the houses children were playing.
"Look!" Charles Wallace said suddenly. "They're skipping and bouncing in rhythm! Everyone's doing it at exactly the same moment."
This was so. As the skipping rope hit the pavement, so did the ball. As the rope curved over the head of the
jumping child, the child with the ball caught the ball. Down came the ropes. Down came the balls. Over and over again. Up. Down. All in rhythm. All identical. Like the houses. Like the paths. Like the flowers.
Then the doors of all the houses opened simultaneously, and out came women like a row of paper dolls. The print of their dresses was different, but they all gave the appearance of being the same. Each woman stood on the steps of her house. Each clapped. Each child with the ball caught
the ball. Each child with the skipping rope folded the rope.
Then Charles Wallace saw a bell, and this he rang. They could hear the
bell buzzing in the house, and the sound of it echoed down the street. After a moment the mother figure opened the door. All up and down the street other doors opened, but
only a crack, and eyes peered toward the three children and the woman looking fearfully out the door at them.
"What do you want?" she asked. "It isn't paper time yet; we've had milk time; we've had this month's Puller Prush
Person; and I've given my Decency Donations regularly.
All my papers are in order."
"I think your little boy dropped his ball," Charles Wallace said, holding it out.
The woman pushed the ball away. "Oh, no! The children in our section never drop balls! They're all perfectly trained. We haven't had an Aberration for three years."
All up and down the block, heads nodded in agreement.
Age
28
Country
United States
Occupation
retired
dimglow1
uploaded