A Wrinkle in Time Quintet by Madeleine L'Engle Page A

sky and grasses and a small rock.
    “Come
on
,” Meg said impatiently. “Come on, let’s
go!
” She was completely unaware that her voice was trembling like an aspen leaf. She took Charles Wallace and Calvin each by the hand and started down the hill.
     
    Below themthe town was laid out in harsh angular patterns. 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 childrenwere playing. Some were skipping rope, some were bouncing balls. Meg felt vaguely that something was wrong with their play. It seemed exactly like children playing around any housing development at home, and yet there was something different about it. She looked at Calvin, and saw that he, too, was puzzled.
    “Look!” Charles Wallace said suddenly. “They’re skipping and bouncing in rhythm! Everyone’sdoing 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 openedsimultaneously, 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. Each child turned and walked into the house. The doors clicked shut behind them.
    “How canthey do it?” Meg asked wonderingly. “We couldn’t do it that way if we tried. What does it mean?”
    “Let’s go back.” Calvin’s voice was urgent.
    “Back?” Charles Wallace asked. “Where?”
    “I don’t know. Anywhere. Back to the hill. Back to Mrs Whatsit and Mrs Who and Mrs Which. I don’t like this.”
    “But they aren’t there. Do you think they’d come to us if we turned back now?”
    “I don’t like it,” Calvinsaid again.
    “Come
on
.” Impatience made Meg squeak. “You
know
we can’t go back. Mrs Whatsit
said
to go into the town.” She started on down the street, and the two boys followedher. The houses, all identical, continued, as far as the eye could reach.
    Then, all at once, they saw the same thing, and stopped to watch. In front of one of the houses stood a little boy with a ball, and he was bouncingit. But he bounced it rather badly and with no particular rhythm, sometimes dropping it and running after it with awkward, furtive leaps, sometimes throwing it up into the air and trying to catch it. The door of his house opened and out ran one of the mother figures. She looked wildly up and down the street, saw the children and put her hand to her mouth as though to stifle a scream, grabbed thelittle boy and rushed indoors with him. The ball dropped from his fingers and rolled out into the street.
    Charles Wallace ran after it and picked it up, holding it out for Meg and Calvin to see. It seemed like a perfectly ordinary, brown rubber ball.
    “Let’s take it in to him and see what happens,” Charles Wallace suggested.
    Meg pulled at him. “Mrs Whatsit said for us to go on into the town.”

    “Well, we
are
in the town, aren’t we? The outskirts anyhow. I want to know more about this. I have a hunch it may help us later. You go on if you don’t want to come with me.”
    “No,” Calvin said firmly. “We’re going to stay together. Mrs Whatsit said we weren’t to let them separate us. But I’m with you on this. Let’s knock and see what happens.”
    They went up the path to the house, Meg reluctant,eagerto get on into the