moaned.
The Things stood over them. They appeared to be looking down at them, except that they had no eyes with which to see. Mr Murry continued to kneel by Meg, massaging her.
— He’s killed us,bringing us here, Meg thought. — I’ll never see Charles Wallace again, or mother, or the twins…
Calvin rose to his feet. He bowed to the beasts as though they could see him. He said, ‘How do you do, sir — ma’am —?’
‘Who are you?’ the tallest of the beasts said. His voice was neither hostile nor welcoming, and it came not from the mouthlike indentation in the furry face, but from the waving tentacles.
— They’ll eat us, Meg thought wildly. — They’re making me hurt. My toes — my fingers — I hurt…
Calvin answered the beast’s question.’We’re — we’re from Earth. I’m not sure how we got here. We’ve had an accident. Meg — this girl — is paralysed. She can’t move. She’s terribly cold. We think that’s why she can’t move.’
One of them came up to Meg and squatted down on its huge haunches beside her, and she felt utter loathing and revulsion when it reached out a tentacle to touch her face.
But with the tentacle came the same delicate fragrance that moved across her with the breeze, and she felt a soft, tingling warmth go all through her that momentarily assuaged her pain. She felt suddenly sleepy.
— I must look as strange to it as it looks to me, she thought drowsily, and then realized with a shock that of course the beast couldn’t see her at all. Nevertheless a reassuring sense of safety flowed through her with the warmth which continued to seep deep into her as the beast touched her. Then it picked her up, cradling her in two of its four arms.
Mr Murry stood up quickly. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Taking the child.’
11
‘No!’ Mr Murry said sharply. ‘Please put her down.’
A sense of amusement seemed to emanate from the beasts. The tallest, who seemed to be the spokesman, said, ‘We frighten you?’
‘What are you going to do with us?’ Mr Murry asked.
The beast said, ‘I’m sorry, we communicate better with the other one.’ He turned towards Calvin. ‘Who are you?’
‘I’m Calvin O’Keefe.’
‘What’s that?’
‘I’m a boy. A — a young man.’
‘You, too, are afraid?’
‘I’m — not sure.’
‘Tell me,’ the beast said. ‘What do you suppose you’d do if three of
‘Shoot you, I guess,’ Calvin admitted.
‘Then isn’t that what we should do with you?’
Calvin’s freckles seemed to deepen, but he answered quietly.’I’d really rather you didn’t. I mean, the Earth’s my home, and I’d rather be there than anywhere in the world — I mean, the universe — and I can’t wait to get back, but we make some awful bloopers there.’
The smallest beast, the one holding Meg, said, ‘And perhaps they aren’t used to visitors from other planets.’
‘Used to it!’ Calvin exclaimed.’We’ve never had any, as far as I know.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know.’
The middle beast said anxiously, ‘You aren’t from a dark planet, are you?’
‘No.’ Calvin shook his head firmly, though the beast couldn’t see him. ‘We’re — we’re shadowed. But we’re fighting the shadow.’
The beast holding Meg questioned, ‘You three are fighting?’
‘Yes,’ Calvin answered. ‘Now that we know about it.’
The tall one turned back to Mr Murry, speaking sternly. ‘You. The oldest. Man. From where have you come? Now.’
Mr Murry answered steadily. ‘From a planet called Camazotz.’ There was a mutter from the three beasts. ‘We do not belong there,’ Mr Murry said, slowly and distinctly. ‘We were strangers there as we are here. I was a prisoner there, and these children rescued me. My youngest son, my baby, is still there, trapped in the dark mind of IT.’
Meg tried to twist round in the beast’s arms to glare at her father and Calvin. Why were they being so frank? Weren’t they aware of the danger? But again her anger dissolved as the gentle warmth from the tentacles flowed through her. She realized that she could move her fingers and toes with comparative freedom, that the pain was no longer so acute.
‘We must take this child back with us,’ the beast holding her said.
Meg shouted at her father. ‘Don’t leave me the way you left Charles!’ With this burst of terror a spasm of pain wracked her body and she gasped.
‘Stop fighting,’ the beast told her. ‘You make it worse. Relax.’
‘That’s what IT said,’ Meg cried.’Father! Calvin! Help!’
The beast turned towards Calvin and Mr Murry. ‘This child is in danger.You must trust us.’
‘We have no alternative,’ Mr Murry said. ‘Can you save her?’
‘I think so.’
‘May I stay with her?’
‘No. But you will not be far away. We feel that you are hungry, tired, that you would like to bathe and rest. And this little — what is the word?’ the beast cocked its tentacles at Calvin.
‘Girl,’ Calvin said.
‘This little girl needs prompt and special care. The coldness of the — what is it you call it?’
‘The Black Thing.’
‘The Black Thing. Yes.The Black Thing burns unless it is counteracted properly.’ The three beasts stood round Meg, and it seemed that they were feeling into her with their softly waving tentacles. The movement of the tentacles was as rhythmic and flowing as the dance of an undersea plant, and lying there, cradled in the four strange arms, Meg, despite herself, felt a sense of security that was deeper than anything she had known since the days when she lay in her mother’s arms in the old rocking chair and was sung to sleep. With her father’s help she had been able to resist IT. Now she could hold out no longer. She leaned her head against the beast’s chest, and realized that the grey body was covered with the softest, most delicate fur imaginable, and the fur had the same beautiful odour as the air.
— I hope I don’t smell awful to it, she thought. But then she knew with a deep sense of comfort that even if she did smell awful the beasts would forgive her. As the tall figure cradled her she could feel the frigid stiffness of her body relaxing against it. This bliss could not come to her from a thing like IT. IT could only give pain, never relieve it. The beasts must be good. They had to be good. She sighed deeply, like a very small child, and suddenly she was asleep.
When she came to herself again there was in the back of her mind a memory of pain, of agonizing pain. But the pain was over now and her body was lapped in comfort. She was lying on something wonderfully soft in an enclosed chamber. It was dark. All she could see were occasional tall moving shadows which she realized were beasts walking about. She had been stripped of her clothes, and something warm and pungent was gently being
