Meet the Austins by Madeleine L'Engle Page B

move!”
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    Downstairs in the study the little ones had TV on, louder than Mother likes us to have it. I yelled and yelled and stamped and stamped for about five minutes before I could attract their attention.
Finally Suzy came up to see what the matter was, and I told her, and told her to go tell Mother, quickly.
    Well, she went back downstairs, and she says she meant to tell Mother right away, but she stopped off for a moment to look at TV and she got caught up in an exciting part of the story and just stayed there. And Mother didn’t come and didn’t come and finally I realized that Suzy couldn’t have told her. So I began stamping and yelling again. It was the most awful feeling, being stuck to the radiator and not able to move. And I kept feeling more and more like the boy at the dike. I yelled at John again but he just laughed nastily.
    Finally Mother came, and I was furious with John and furious with Suzy, and furious with Maggy and Rob, too, because they’d had the TV on so loud and been making so much noise, and I was furious with Mother for not having heard me and come sooner. I took my fingers away and the water came spouting out and Mother said, “Hold it again, Vic, while I phone Mr. Calahan,” and she hurried off to her room and I heard her talking to Mr. Calahan, the plumber. Then she came back and said, “All right, Vic. Mr. Calahan will be over as soon as he can get here. Rescue us for a few minutes more, will you? Mr. Calahan says that if I get a potato and ram it up against the two little points where the water’s coming out, it’ll be a lot easier to hold the potato than the radiator itself. I’ll go get a potato and then take over for you.”
    â€œJohn’s a beast,” I said. “He knew what was happening and he wouldn’t call you for me.”
    â€œJohn’s sick in bed,” Mother said, “and I told him not to get out.”

    â€œHe did get out. He went to the bathroom and threw up.”
    Mother looked at me quizzically. “Did you think I wanted him to throw up all over the bed? Now, hold it, Vic, and I’ll be right back.”
    â€œAnd Suzy’s a beast, too!” I shouted after her. “I told her to tell you right away and she didn’t. Everybody just left me here to stew in … in radiator juice.”
    Mother laughed. “Just keep calm, honey,” she said, and disappeared.
    It didn’t take her long to come back with the potato. I left her holding it on to the radiator and I went to the door of John’s room and hissed, “Beast.”
    The phone rang, the house phone, and Mother called, “Answer it, please, Vicky.”
    It was for me, anyhow, Nanny, to ask me something about the Social Studies homework. She couldn’t seem to understand what I was telling her about the assignment, so I said, “I’ll get my bike and come over and show you.”
    â€œIs that okay?” Nanny asked.
    â€œWhy not? It won’t take me long.”
    â€œBut it’s almost dark.”
    â€œI have a light on my bike and I’ll go by the back road.”
    I knew perfectly well that it wasn’t all right. John is sometimes allowed to ride on the main road, but none of the rest of us is. We can ride on the back road, but there’re usually two of us, and it’s never been after dark. But I didn’t push thinking about whether or not Mother’d say yes if I asked her if I could ride over to Nanny’s alone on the back road after the sun had gone down.

    I went out to the garage, leaving all the warmth and comfort of the house behind me. As I shut the door I shut out not only the light and the sounds of the little ones watching television but my anger, too. Only now it was too late to turn back. I put on my jacket and pulled the hood over my head. It had turned very cold; I was sure it was below zero, and even with knee socks and my strong school shoes the cement