IN THE forest evening was already beginning to fall, and they walked in silence. Charles and Fortinbras gambolled on ahead. Calvin walked with Meg, his fingers barely touching her arm in a protective gesture.
This has been the most impossible, the most confusing afternoon of my life, she thought, – yet I don’t feel confused or upset any more; I only feel happy. Why?
‘Maybe we weren’t meant to meet before this,’ Calvin said. ‘I mean, I knew who you were in school and everything, but I didn’t know you. But I’m glad we’ve met now, Meg. We’re going to be friends, you know.’
‘I’m glad, too,’ Meg whispered, and they were silent again.
When they got back to the house Mrs Murry was still in the lab. She was watching a pale blue fluid move slowly through a tube from a beaker to a retort. Over a Bunsen burner bubbled a big, earthenware dish of stew. ‘Don’t tell Sandy and Dennys I’m cooking out here,’ she said. ‘They’re always suspicious that a few chemicals may get in with the meat, but I had an experiment I wanted to stay with.’
‘This is Calvin O’Keefe, Mother,’ Meg said. ‘Is there enough for him, too? It smells super.’
‘Hello, Calvin,’ Mrs Murry shook hands with him. ‘Nice to meet you. We aren’t having anything but stew tonight, but it’s a good thick one.’
‘Sounds wonderful to me,’ Calvin said. ‘May I use your phone so my mother’ll know where I am?’
‘Of course. Show him where it is, will you, please, Meg? I won’t ask you to use the one out here, if you don’t mind. I’d like to finish up this experiment.’
Meg led the way into the house. Charles Wallace and Fortinbras had gone off. Out of doors she could hear Sandy and Dennys hammering at the fort they were building up in one of the maples. ‘This way.’ Meg went through the kitchen and into the living-room.
‘I don’t know why I call her when I don’t come home,’ Calvin said, his voice bitter. ‘She wouldn’t notice.’ He sighed and dialled. ‘Ma?’ he said. ‘Oh, Hinky. Tell Ma I won’t be home till late. Now don’t forget. I don’t want to be locked out again.’ He hung up, looked at Meg. ‘Do you know how lucky you are?’
She smiled rather wryly. ‘Not most of the time.’
‘A mother like that! A house like this! Gee, your mother’s gorgeous! You should see my mother. She had all her upper teeth out and Pop got her a plate but she won’t wear it, and most days she doesn’t even comb her hair. Not that it makes much difference when she does.’ He clenched his fists. ‘But I love her. That’s the funny part of it. I love them all, and they don’t give a hoot about me. Maybe that’s why I call when I’m not going to be home. Because I care. Nobody else does. You don’t know how lucky you are to be loved.’
Meg said in a startled way, ‘I guess I never thought of that. I guess I just took it for granted.’
Calvin looked sombre; then his enormous smile lit up his face again. ‘Things are going to happen, Meg! Good things! I feel it!’ He began wandering, still slowly, round the pleasant, if shabby, living-room. He stopped before a picture on the piano of a small group of men standing together on a beach. ‘Who’s this?’
‘Oh, a bunch of scientists.’
‘Where?’
Meg went over to the picture. ‘Cape Canaveral. This one’s father.’
‘Which?’
‘Here.’
‘The one with glasses?’
‘Yup. The one who needs a haircut.’ Meg giggled, forgetting her worries in her pleasure at showing Calvin the picture. ‘His hair’s sort of the same colour as mine, and he keeps forgetting to have it cut. Mother usually ends up doing it for him – she bought clippers and stuff – because he won’t take the time to go to the barber.’
Calvin studied the picture. ‘I like him,’ he announced judiciously. ‘Looks kind of like Charles Wallace, doesn’t he?’
Meg laughed again. ‘When Charles was a baby he looked exactly like father. It was really funny.’
Calvin continued to look at the picture. ‘He’s not handsome or anything. But I like him.’
Meg was indignant. ‘He is too handsome.’
Calvin shook his head. ‘Nah. He’s tall and skinny like me.’
‘Well, I think you’re handsome,’ Meg said. ‘Father’s eyes are kind of like yours, too. You know. Really blue. Only you don’t notice his as much because of the glasses.’
‘Where is he now?’
Meg stiffened. But she didn’t have to answer because the door from lab to kitchen slammed, and Mrs Murry came in, carrying a dish of stew. ‘Now,’ she called, ‘I’ll finish this up properly on the stove. Have you done your homework, Meg?’
‘Not quite,’ Meg said, going back into the kitchen.
‘Then I’m sure Calvin won’t mind if you finish before dinner.’
‘Sure, go ahead.’ Calvin fished in his pocket and pulled out a wad of folded paper. ‘As a matter of fact I have some junk of mine to finish up. Math. That’s the one thing I have a hard time keeping up in. I’m okay on anything to do with words, but I don’t do as well with numbers.’
Mrs Murry smiled. ‘Why don’t you get Meg to help you?’
‘But, see, I’m several grades above Meg.’
‘Try asking her to help you with your math, anyhow,’ Mrs Murry suggested.
‘Well, sure,’ Calvin said. ‘Here. But it’s pretty complicated.’
Meg smoothed out the paper and studied it. ‘Do they care how you do it?’ she asked. ‘I mean, can you work it out your own way?’
‘Well, sure, as long as I understand and get the answers right.’
‘Well, we have to do it their way. Now look, Calvin, don’t you see how much easier it would be if you did it this way?’ Her pencil flew over the paper.
‘Hey!’ Calvin said. ‘Hey! I think I get it. Show me once more on another one.’
Again Meg’s pencil was busy. ‘All you have to remember is that every ordinary fraction can be converted into an infinite periodic decimal fraction. See? So 3/7 is 0.428571.’
‘This is the craziest family.’ Calvin grinned at her. ‘I suppose I should stop being surprised by now, but you’re supposed to be dumb in school, always being called up on the carpet.’
‘Oh, I am.’
‘The trouble with Meg and math,’ Mrs Murry said briskly, ‘is that Meg and her father used to play with numbers and Meg learned far too many short cuts. So when they want her to do problems the long way round at school she gets sullen and stubborn and sets up a fine mental block for herself.’
‘Are there any more morons like Meg and Charles around?’ Calvin asked. ‘If so, I should meet more of them.’
‘It might also help if Meg’s handwriting were legible,’ Mrs Murry said. ‘With a good deal of difficulty I can usually decipher it, but I doubt very much if her teachers can, or are willing to take the time. I’m planning on giving her a typewriter for Christmas. That may be a help.’
‘If I get anything right nobody’ll believe it’s me,’ Meg said.
‘What’s a megaparsec?’ Calvin asked.
‘One of father’s nicknames for me,’ Meg said. ‘It’s also 3.26 million light years.’
‘What’s E = mc2?’
‘Einstein’s equation.’
‘What’s E stand for?’
‘Energy.’
‘m?’
‘Mass.’
‘c2?’
‘The square of the velocity of light in centimetres per second.’
‘By what countries is Peru bounded?’