The Lesson

The Fourth Visit, 5

And now it had been such a long time, such a very long time, and the mother must be arriving, might already have arrived — couldn’t possibly not be nearly to arrive.

— Shall we wait outside for her? asked Loring.

— All right, said Stan.

They went out to the steps and sat with the door shut and locked behind them.

— It is a nice thing, Loring said, to lock your door behind you when you sit on the stoop. Then, when it happens that the mood strikes you to rush off somewhere, you are totally prepared for it. Also, you have the complete freedom of your surroundings. If the door isn’t locked, then you, positioned in front of it, are in some sense defending the door. If it is locked, however, then you are a sort of sortie, sent out of the gates to some unknown end. Do you know to what purpose you have been sent out?

— To do the Knight’s Tour? asked Stan.

— Have you gotten it yet?

— I think so, said Stan, but I’m not sure.

— We can check it next time on the board, with you crossing off squares.

Then, a girl named Valerie showed up. She was like that, apparently. She would just show up and then she would be somewhere.

— Hello, said Valerie. I came to get Stan.

Stan looked at her a bit distrustfully.

— I’m your sister’s friend. Don’t you remember me?

Stan shook his head.

— Well, said Valerie, in that case, it will have to be kidnapping. Ms. Wesley, if you don’t mind I’m going to have to kidnap this boy.

— Don’t let her, shrieked Stan, suddenly seeming like he was actually afraid.

His face had become red. Afraid, really! And I believe he was, after all a five-year-old may cry about anything at all.

For some reason, Loring decided to continue the joke. Perhaps it was because she was tired, perhaps because he hadn’t touched her arm when she gave him the invisible request.

— Oh, take him away, she said. For all I care. But be sure to stuff something in his mouth or he’ll call for help.

Stan began to cry. It was just too much for him. He wasn’t at all prepared to be taken away by someone he didn’t know.

— But you know me, Valerie kept saying. You know me. You know me.

As is obvious, this is a pretty worthless thing to say if the other person doesn’t believe it.

Finally, the two of them walked Stan the whole way home. It was exhausting for Loring, for she was very old, and not given to sudden exertion. They had to stop many times, and by the end she felt the thinness of her old bones. As soon as she got out of sight of the house, she collapsed on a short wall, actually collapsed. Her body gave out. She fell onto her hands and hip and the stone cut her fingers in places.