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CHILD'S PLAY
By Alice Munro
STORY 77
it was our free time, or Rest Time, we and collected our dishes, I kept my ever seen. She could just twist them
got our chocolate bars or licorice whips head bowed, I never looked in her di- round your neck and strangle you. She
or sponge toffee from the Tuck Shop rection, and yet I knew when her eyes could. Wouldn't it be awful to be in a
and went to lie on our bunks and en- rested on me, when she recognized me, tent with her at night?"
joy them. when she smiled her sagging little smile I said that it would be.
Charlene kept saying, "Imagine. or made that odd chuckle in her throat. ~ Awful.
Imagine. She's here. I can't believe it. "She's seen you," said Charlene.
Do you think she followed you?" "Don't look. Don't look. I'll get -lhere was a change, that last
"Probably," I said. between you and her. Move. Keep weekend, a whole different feeling in
"Do you think I can always hide you moving." the camp. Nothing drastic. The
like that?" "Is she coming this way?" meals were announced by the dining-
When we were in the Tuck Shop "No. She's just standing there. She's room gong at the regular times, and
line I had ducked my head and made just looking at you." the food served did not improve or
Charlene get between me and the Spe- "Smiling?" deteriorate. Rest time arrived, game
cials as they were being herded by. I had "Sort of." time and swimming time. The Tuck
taken one peek and recognized Vema "I can't look at her. I'd be sick." Shop operated as usual and we were
from behind. Her drooping snaky head. How much did she persecute me in drawn together as always for the
"We should think of some way to the remaining day and a half? Charlene Chat. But there was an air of growing
disguise you." and I used that word constantly, restlessness and inattention. You
From what I had said, Charlene though in fact Vema never got near us. could detect it even in the Coun-
seemed to have got the idea that Ver- Persecute. It had an adult, legal sound. selors, who might not have the same
na had actively harassed me. And I We were always on the lookout, as if reprimands or words of encourage-
believed that was true, except that the we were being stalked, or 1 was. We ment on the tip of their tongues and
harassment had been more subtle, tried to keep track of Vema's where- would look at you for a second as if
more secret, than I had been able to de- abouts, and Charlene reported on her recalling what it was they usually
scribe. Now I let Charlene think as attitude or expression. I did risk look- said. And all this seemed to have be-
she liked because it was more excit- ing at her a couple of times, when gun with the arrival of the Specials.
ing that way. Charlene had said, "Okay. She won't Their presence had changed the
Vema did not spot me immediate- notice now." camp. There had been a real camp
ly, because of the elaborate dodges At those times Verna appeared before, with all its rules and depriva-
Charlene and I kept making, and per- slightly cast down, or sullen, or bewil- tions and enjoyments set up, as in-
haps because she was rather dazed, as dered,as if, like most of the Specials, evitable as school or any part of a
most of the Specials appeared to be, she had been set adrift and did not child's life, and then it had begun to
trying to figure out what they were do- completely understand where she was crumple at the edges, to reveal itself
ing here. They were soon taken off to or what she was doing there. Some of as something provisional. Playacting.
their own swimming class, at the far them had caused a commotion by wan- Was it because we could look at the
end of the beach. dering away into the pine and cedar Specials and think that if they could be
At the supper table they were and poplar woods on the bluff behind campers, then.there was no such thing
marched in while we sang. the beach, or along the sandy road that as real campers? Partly it was that. But
"The more we get together, together, led to the highway. After that a meet- it was partly that the time was coming
together, ing was called, and we were all asked to very soon when all this would be over,
The more we get together, watch out for our new friends, who the routines would be broken up and
The happier we'll be. " were not so familiar with the place as we would be fetched by our parents to
They were then deliberately sepa- we were. Charlene poked me in the resume our old lives, and the Coun-
rated, and distributed among the rest of ribs at that. She of course was not aware selors would go back to being ordinary
us. They all wore nametags. Across of any change, any falling away of con- people, not even teachers. We were
from me there was one named Mary fidence or even a diminishing of phys- living in a stage set about to be dis-
Ellen something, not from my town. ical size in this Vema, and she contin- mantled, and with it all the friend-
But 1had hardly time to be glad of that ually reported on her sly and evil ships, enmities, rivalries that had flour-
when I saw Vema at the next table, expression, her look of menace. And ished in the last two weeks. Who could
taller than those around her but thank maybe she was right-maybe Vema believe it had been only two weeks?
God facing the same way I was so she saw in Charlene, this new friend or Nobody knew how to speak of this,
could not see me during the meal. bodyguard of mine, this stranger, some but a lassitude spread among us, a bored
She was the tallest of them, and yet sign of how everything was changed ill-temper, and even the weather re-
not so tall, not so notable a presence, and uncertain here, and that made her flected this feeling. It was probably not
as I remembered her. The reason was scowl, though I didn't see it. true that every day during the past two
probably that I had had a growing spurt "You never told me about her weeks had been hot and sunny, but
during the last year, while she had per- hands," said Charlene. most of us would certainly go away
haps stopped her growing altogether. "What about them?" with that impression. And now, on
After the meal, when we stood up "She's got the longest fingers I have Sunday morning, there was a change.
everybody who was supposed to do the good-bye. If we said good-bye. I have SHE'LL LOVE IT!
VermontTeddyBear.com
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STORY 79
a notion that both sets of parents ar- Now I was a graduate student in an- but went back to the earlier one as a
rived at around the same time and that thropology. I had decided never to get sort of hobby project when I had time.
we scrambled into separate cars and married, though I did not rule out hav- I have collaborated on a couple of
gave ourselves over-what else could ing lovers. I wore my hair long and books since then, as was duly expect-
we dol-to our old lives. Charlene's straight-my friends and I were antic- ed of me, but that book I did on my
parents would certainly have had a car ipating the style of the hippies. My own is the only one that got me a
not so shabby and noisy and unreli- memories of childhood were much small flurry of attention in the out-
able as the one my parents now owned, more distant and faded and unimpor- side world (arid needless to say some
but even if that had not been so we tant than they seem today. disapproval from colleagues). It is out
would never have thought of making I could have written to Charlene, of print now. It was called Imbeciles
the two sets of relatives acquainted in care of her parents, whose Guelph and Idols-a title I would never get
with each other. Everybody, and we address had been published in the pa- away with today and that even then
ourselves, would have been in a hurry per. But I didn't do so. I would have made my publishers nervous, though
to get off, to leave behind the pockets thought it the height of hypocrisy to it was admitted to be catchy.
of uproar about lost property or who congratulate any woman on What I was trying to explore was the
had or had not met their relatives or the occasion of her marriage. attitude of people in various cultures-
boarded the bus.
By chance, years later,' I saw her
wedding picture. This was at a time
B ut she wrote to me, perhaps fif-
teen years later. She wrote in care of
one does not dare say the word primitive
to describe such cultures-the attitude
towards people who are mentally or
when wedding pictures were still pub- my publishers. physically unique. The words deficient,
lished in the newspapers, not just in "My old pal Marlene," she wrote. handicapped, retarded, being of course
small towns but in the city papers as "How excited and happy I was to see also consigned to the dustbin and prob-
well. I saw it in a Toronto paper I was your name in Maclean's magazine. And ably for good reason-not simply be-
looking through while I waited for a how dazzled I am to think you have cause such words may indicate a supe-
friend in a cafe on Bloor Street. written a book. I have not picked it up rior attitude and habitual unkindness
The wedding had taken place in yet because we have been away on hol- but because they are not truly descrip-
Guelph. The groom was a native of idays but I mean to do so--and read it tive. Those words push aside a good
Toronto and a graduate of Osgoode too--as soon as I can. I was just going deal that is remarkable, even awe-
Hall. He was quite tall-c-or else Char- through the magazines that had accu- some-another word to go by the
lene had turned out to be quite short. mulated in our absence and there I boards-or at any rate peculiarly pow-
She barely came up to his shoulder, saw the striking picture of you and the erful, in such people. And what was in-
even with her hair done up in the interesting review. And I thought that teresting was to discover a certain
dense, polished helmet-style of the I must write and congratulate you. amount of veneration as well as perse-
day. The hair made her face seem "Perhaps you are married but use cution, and the ascribing-not entire-
squashed and insignificant, but I got your maiden name to write under? Per- ly inaccurately-of quite a range of abil-
the impression her eyes were outlined haps you have a family? Do write and ities, seen as sacred, magical, dangerous,
heavily, Cleopatra fashion, her lips tell me all about yourself. Sadly, I am or valuable. I did the best I could with
pale. This sounds grotesque, but it was childless, but I keep busy with volun- historical as well as contemporary re-
certainly the look admired at the time. teer work, gardening and sailing with search and took into account poetry
All that reminded me of her child- Kit (my husband). There always seems and fiction and of course religious cus-
self was the little humorous bump of to be plenty to do. I am presently serv-' tom. Naturally I was criticized in my
her chin. ing on the Library Board and will twist profession for being too literary and for
She-the bride, it said-had grad- their arms if they have not already or- getting all my information out of books,
uated from St. Hilda's College, in dered your book. but I could not run around the world
Toronto. "Congratulations again. I must say then. I had not been able to get a grant.
So she must have been here in I was surprised but not entirely be- Of course I could see a connection,
Toronto, going to St. Hilda's, while I cause I always suspected you might do a connection that I thought it just pos-
was in thesame city, going to Uni- something special." sible Charlene might get to see, too. It's
versity College. We had been walk- I did not get in touch with her at strange how distant and unimportant
ing around perhaps at the same time that time either. There seemed to be that seemed, only a starting point. As
and on some of the same streets or no point to it. At first I took no notice anything in childhood appeared to me
paths on the campus. And never met. of the word "special" right at the end then. Because of the journey I had
I did not think that she would have but it gave me a small jolt when I made since, the achievement of adult-
seen me and avoided speaking to me. thought of it later. However, I told hood. Safety.
I would not have avoided speaking to myself, and still believe, that she meant Maiden name, Charlene had writ-
her. Of course I would have consid- nothing by it. ten. That was an expression I had not
ered myself a more serious student, The book that she referred to was heard for quite a while. It is next door
once I discovered she was going to St. one that had grown out of a thesis I to maiden lady, which sounds so chaste
Hilda's. My friends and I regarded St. had been discouraged from writing. I and sad. And remarkably inappropriate
Hilda's as a Ladies College. went ahead and wrote another thesis in my case. Even when I looked at
STORY 83
to drive himself to Toronto I could ter about up to our armpits, and we just what was-amazingly-demand-
drive him. seemed to be lifted and tossed at the ed of us, as if this was the absolute high
"We can take care of his trans- same moment that we heard point, the culmination, in our lives,
portation if necessary." Pauline's cry. We may have cried out of our being ourselves.
He looked around and did not see as many others did, first in fear and The whole business probably took
what he wanted, unclipped a pen from then in delight as we regained our no more than two minutes. Three? Or
his pocket, and then decided that the footing and that wave washed on a minute and a half?
blank side of the note would do to ahead of us. The waves that followed It seems too much to say that the
write on. proved to be not as strong, so that we discouraging clouds cleared up just at
"If you'll just make sure I've got the could hold ourselves against them. that time, but at some point-perhaps
name. Charlotte-" At the moment we tumbled, Verna at the trespass of the motorboats, or
" T "Charlene." had pitched towards us. When we came when Pauline screamed, or when the
up, with our faces streaming, arms flail- first wave hit, or when the rubber ob-
"as I not tempted, during all ing, she was spread out under the sur- ject under our palms ceased to have a
this palaver? Not once? Not swayed face of the water. There was a tumult will of its own-the sun burst out, and
by longing, by a magic-lantern show, of screaming and shouting all around, more parents popped up on the beach,
the promise of pardon? No. Not real- and this increased as the lesser waves ar- and there were calls to all of us to stop
ly. It's not for me. What's done is rived and people who had somehow horsing around and come out of the
done, what's done remains. Flocks missed the first attack pretended to be water. Swimming was over. Over for
of angels, tears of blood, knocked over by the second. Verna's the summer, for those who lived out of
notwithstanding. head did not break the surface, though reach of the lake or municipal swim-