Chapter 5 first quarter

About a week later, I came home from outside to find Megan sitting on the stairs in our hallway with her chin resting on her lap. She greeted me with her usual casual manner. "Hi," she said, "may I have lunch at the house?" "Of course." I said. "If the kitchen refuses to serve you some hard-to-prepare steaks for lunch, just tell me the truth, it's okay." I went to the kitchen and told Patridge.When there were three people eating at noon, Megan yelled loudly from behind. I think Patridge must have scoffed behind her back, although she didn't say anything, but I knew she didn't take Miss Megan seriously.

I walked back down the corridor again. "Is it okay?" Megan asked anxiously. "No problem at all," I said, "braised offal." "Oh, well, but it sounds like dog food, doesn't it? Because it's almost all potatoes and seasonings." "Yes." I said. I took out my pipe and smoked, and we didn't speak for a while, but there was nothing awkward or uncomfortable about that silence, and it was friendly. Suddenly, Megan said: "I think you must find me as annoying as anyone else." I was so taken aback by her words that I dropped my pipe on the floor.It was a pipe of meerschaum, beautiful in color, but not strong at all, and broke when dropped on the ground.

I said angrily to Megan: "Look at you!" The most puzzling child, instead of feeling uneasy, said with a hearty smile, "I like you so much." This sentence sounds very kind and full of warmth.If your dog could talk, it might say this.It suddenly occurred to me that although Megan looks like a horse and has a personality like a dog, she is not inhuman after all. "What did you say before that accident?" I asked her, carefully picking up the fragments of my beloved pipe. "I said, I think you must think I'm annoying." Megan replied, but her tone at this time was not quite the same as before.

"why?" Megan said solemnly: "Because I'm already annoying." I said sternly: "Silly boy!" Megan shook her head and said, "Facts are facts. I'm not stupid at all. It's just someone else's imagination. They don't know what's in my head. I'm exactly the same as them. I've always hated those people." "right." Her sad, childlike eyes stared straight at me, unblinking, but deep and sad. "If you're like me, you're going to hate them," she said. "If you're as redundant as I am."

"Don't you think your thoughts are terrible?" "Yeah," said Megan, "everytime I tell the truth, people say that. But it's true, I'm redundant, and I know why, Mom never liked me, I think , because I reminded her of her father. Everyone said that her father was terrible and cruel to her. Only a mother can say that she does not want her child, and then walk away, or eat the child, and the mother cat will Eat kittens that it doesn't like. It's horrible! But I think it's also very sensible, neither waste nor mess up the place. But human mothers have to take care of their children. They can put me It wasn't so bad when it was sent to school—but you know, mother just needs herself, my stepfather, and those two boys."

I said slowly: "I still think your idea is not correct, Megan, but what you said does have a little truth. In this case, why don't you leave here and create your own life?" She replied with a strange, unchildlike smile, "You mean get a job and be self-reliant?" "right." "What are you doing?" "You can learn something, such as shorthand, typing, or keeping accounts." "I don't believe I can learn, I'm really stupid at learning, and—" "Ok?" She had already turned her head away, but now she slowly turned back, her eyes were red and full of tears, and she said in a very childish tone: "Why did I leave? Why did I have to be driven away by others? They thought I was redundant, so I chose Gotta stay, stay makes everyone feel bad. Hateful pig! I hate everyone in Lynstack, they think I'm dumb and ugly, and I'll let them see! I'll let them see Look! I'm going to—"

It was a childish, pathetic, strange anger. I heard footsteps coming from the corner of the room, and said to Megan rudely: "Get up, go in from the living room, go to the bathroom and wash your face, hurry up." She jumped up awkwardly, and walked quickly into the room, just as Joanna was coming around the corner. I told her Megan was coming for lunch. "Okay," said Joanna, "I like Megan quite a bit, but I think she's a silly kid, like an abandoned baby left by a fairy at someone's door. Even so, she's interesting." I find that so far I have said very little about the Reverend and Mrs. Cathop.

In fact, the pastor and his wife are quite special characters.The Reverend Mrs. Cassop, on the contrary, can be seen everywhere.Although she seldom voiced opinions and meddled in other people's affairs, she did represent the restless conscience that God had given to this small town. Mrs Cathorpe stopped me in the street the day after Megan came home for lunch.I was very surprised, because the Vicar's wife did not walk like a normal walk, but seemed to be chasing something, and her eyes were always fixed on the distant horizon, so that one felt that her object must be a mile and a half away.

"Oh!" she said, "Mr. Burton?" There was triumph in her tone, like solving a very difficult puzzle. I admitted I was Burton, and Mrs. Cassop turned her gaze away from the horizon to mine. "Hey!" she said, "What do I need from you?" Too bad I can't help either.She frowned and thought for a while, then said, "It's a troublesome matter." "What a pity." I said in surprise. "Oh! yes," exclaimed Mrs. Cathorpe, "about the anonymous letter! What kind of anonymous letter story have you got here?" "I didn't get it," I said. "It's here."

"But no one has ever received it before, and this scandal has only happened since you moved in," Mrs. Cassop accused. "But, Mrs. Cassop, the trouble began before we came." "Oh, dear," said Mrs. Cassop, "I don't like it to happen." She stood there with eyes that seemed hollow and distant and said: "I can't help but feel that everything is wrong, that it's not the way it is here. Yes, there are people who are guilty of jealousy and malice and some despicable petty crimes, but I don't think anyone here would do that. And I'm very disappointed because, you know, 'I' should know who did something good."

Her eyes returned to reality, looking into mine.I noticed that her eyes were full of worry, as if full of childlike genuine confusion. "Why should you know?" I said. "Because I've always known everything, and I feel like that's my job. Kelber is in charge of the preaching and the sacraments, and priests have those responsibilities, but if you admit that a priest's marriage is necessary, I think knowing what people feel and think , is the greatest task of a pastor's wife. But I can't think of anyone who would--" She stopped suddenly, and then said: "Those letters are really ridiculous!" "Did you—er—have it too?" I was a little embarrassed when I asked, but Mrs. Cassop was so natural that she opened her eyes a little and said, "Well, yes—two, no, three. I don't quite remember what the letter said." Well, it's about Kelber and that headmistress anyway. Absurd. Because Kelber has no interest in flirting, and nothing of the kind has ever happened. Quite enough for a clergyman. lucky." "Yeah, yeah," I said. "If Kelbe hadn't been too sensible," said Mrs. Cassop, "he'd be a saint." I did not feel myself fit to answer such criticisms, and Mrs. Cassop, without giving me time to speak, jumped from her husband to the anonymous letter. "There are many things that can be said in the letter, but they are not mentioned in the letter, so it makes people feel very strange." "I didn't expect those letters to be temperate," I said sharply. "But from the letter, it seems that the person who wrote the letter didn't really 'know' anything, and didn't understand the real situation at all." "You mean...?" Those blank eyes looked at me again. "Oh, of course, there are many shameful things here, but why didn't the person who wrote the anonymous letter mention it?" She paused for a moment, then suddenly asked, "What did you say in that letter?" "It's not really my sister to say that she is my sister." "Is she?" Mrs. Cassop's tone of question was far from embarrassing, but friendly and interested. "Joanna is, of course, my own sister." Mrs. Cassop nodded, and said: "It proves that I am right, and I dare say there must be something else—" Her bright eyes looked at me thoughtfully, and I suddenly understood why the people of Linstak were so afraid of her. There are things in everyone's life that they don't want others to know, and perhaps Mrs. Cassop has the ability to know. For the first time in my life I was heartily delighted to hear Amy Griffey's voice say: "Hi, Maud. Nice to find you. I would like to suggest that you change the date of the bazaar. Good morning, Mr. Burton." She added: "I have to run to the grocery store and order something, and then go straight to church, what do you think?" "Well, well, that's good," said Mrs. Cassop. Amy Griffey walks into the "International Store". Mrs. Cassop said, "Poor thing." I find it very strange, it is impossible for her to be pitying Aimi? Anyway, she went on: "You know, Mr. Burton, I'm a little worried..." "Worried about the anonymous letter?" "Yes, you know that sign—it must be a sign—" She stopped, pondered for a while, closed her eyes tightly and did not speak, and then slowly said as if she had solved some problem: " Blind resentment... yes, blind resentment. But even a blind man can stab someone in the heart... What will happen next, Mr. Burton." As for the answer to that question, we'll find out the next day.