Free The Road Through the Wall by Shirley Jackson Page B

“Is it nice?”
    â€œVery bad taste,” he said. “No modesty.”
    â€œI remember when they built it,” Virginia said. “Do you, Harriet?”
    Harriet shook her head, continuing her steady faint pull on Virginia’s arm.
    â€œThat was when we were kids,” Virginia said. “We used to play here when they were building it.”
    The man listened intently, and nodded when she was through talking. “I have lived here for two years now,” he said. “Perhaps some day you will visit me and see the inside of the house.”
    Harriet made her pressure on Virginia’s arm more violent, but Virginia said, “Thank you. Some day I’d like to.”
    â€œPerhaps you would like to come to tea some day,” he said. “With your charming friend, of course.”
    Virginia pulled back as violently against Harriet, and said, “Thank you. We
would
like to.”
    The man thought for a minute, and Harriet said, “Virginia, we’ve got to
go.
”
    Then the man said, “Perhaps a week from today?” He looked at them, and his smile faded. “No?” he said as politely. “Another time, then.”
    â€œWe’d
love
to,” Virginia said hastily. “I was just trying to think if we were busy that day.”
    He smiled again. “Next Tuesday, then,” he said. “About four. I’ll meet you right outside here, so that you won’t be uncomfortable, coming in by yourselves.”
    â€œThank you,” Virginia said. She yielded slightly to Harriet’s tugging, moving slowly along the sidewalk after Harriet while she talked. “It’s very nice of you,” she said. “We’ll be here.”
    â€œThank
you
,” the man said. He bowed to them and then went into the house, in a hurry again.
    â€œVirginia,” Harriet said, “you must be
crazy
. Stopping to talk like that.”
    â€œWhat could he do to us?” Virginia said. “He gave me a nickel.”
    â€œSuppose someone saw us?” Harriet said. “Suppose my mother had come by?”
    â€œWhat of it?” Virginia said. “We were looking for my nickel, is all.”
    â€œYou’re not going to go next week?” Harriet said, frightened by something in Virginia she did not understand.
    â€œI may,” Virginia said, turning down the corners of her mouth tantalizingly. “
Helen
would go.”
    â€œI won’t,” Harriet said.
    â€œAnyway,” Virginia went on, “I found mine. Look.” She held out her hand with two nickels in it. “We can get gum,” she said.
    â€œYou shouldn’t have,” Harriet said uncertainly.
    â€œWhat of it?” Virginia said again. “It doesn’t hurt to take money from a Chinaman.”
    â€¢Â Â Â â€¢Â Â Â â€¢
    â€œI’ll bet this old thing used to be deep enough for swimming,” Pat said.
    â€œThat would be something, swimming right next to home,” Art said, “right around the corner almost.”
    They were lying in the deep grass in the old creek bed. Above them on either side were the steep banks, grown over with moss and grass and high above the eucalyptus and fir trees heavy and ending far up in the sky. The old creek was the border of the golf course which spread over a vast area near Pepper Street; the golf course belonged to the better neighbors beyond the gates, but because golf courses are large and the better neighbors only played on this one and never tried to live there, the fairways were allowed to meander democratically past the strict border line of the gates and touch, formally, the neighbors on the other side, even to the extent of permitting young boys like Pat and Art on its fringes. They could have caddied on the course if their fathers had not opposed their working, but they would have had to go around through the gates and up the long road where no home was permitted to be