Let's Go Play at the Adams'

At John's wave they fanned out reconnoiter style, but the deception was useless. Dried

leaves and brush 145

broke under them and broadcast their movements. Squirrels chattered and ran, sending

showers of dried bark clattering down through the dimness. Jays scolded, and little invisible

things ran invisibly off to the left and forded marsh pools with small splashes. The boys

paused-each alone-peering into the green shadows and seeing anything their minds

suggested, but in the end each grayness turned out to be tree and each movement, light on

the foliage. At length John yelled from on the right.

"Found it!"

"What?" (Two separated voices) "Over here ... !"

What there was to find was a charred campfire. It had been built in a hole, hand-scooped out

for the purpose, and provided with an under draft which could be closed with a rock, and it had

been neatly covered over afterward; in the straw-dry woods, someone accustomed to living

outside had pretty much gone by the book. There was also-Bobby had been right-a rather thick

bed of the greener pine needles and branches. Beyond that, there were a few blurred

footprintswide- where the ground had been cleared for the fire, there were a few cigarette

butts (not filters), an empty stew can, and a couple of empty beer cans. Nothing more.

Freedom Five-except that it was now three stood in silence and absorbed this.

John bent over and laid his hand on the uncovered ashes. "Can't tell."

Bobby and Paul nodded; together they had all built and extinguished many Freedom Five

campfires.

"Well, this is where I saw it, OK," Bobby said. "Yeah." John straightened up, broke his gun, and

unloaded. The others unloaded with him and felt a trifle more naked in the woods, even though

they were quite certain they were alone.

"Who do you think it is?"

"Like Bobby said, some Picker." "But why's he here?"

146

"Drunk, hiding out, fired from the job-how

should I know?"

"He was hungry," Bobby said. "How do you know?"

"The stuff he bought, stew, spaghetti, beer. It fills you up." He kicked over a can. "Nothing

left in it, like he used his fingers to get it all." (As an old icing bowl cleaner, Bobby knew his

fellows.)

"If he's hungry, he's looking around." Paul twitched.

Both John and Bobby looked at him somewhat in surprise. Paul was growing smarter. He

might be right.

"And if he keeps looking around, he might find

us."

uYeah."

"Well, there's nothing more here," John said.

"Don't mess anything up."

"Why not?" Paul said. "Then he'll know someone bas found out about him."

"No. Then he'll move somewhere else," Bobby

said fast.

"Sure, he'll go away!" Paul writhed. "Or he'll come up to the house."

"Let's talk about it with Dianne," John said, and they turned back.

Dianne, when she heard about it, narrowed her gray eyes down and said nothing for a

minute. In the last five days-counting the Sunday when they had planned Barbara's

capture-she had lost a lot of her diffidence and become more assertive in making the plans

for all of them and seeing that they were carried out. Her province had expanded until the

Adams' now seemed her house (Cindy was miffed). All of them, even John, asked her even

by just a lift of the eyebrow for approval before making a serious move, and so they waited

now.

"What're we going to do if he comes up and asks for food like Bobby said, and then he finds

out that there aren't any grown-ups here?"

147

"He hasn't, has he?"

"He hasn't been around long .... " "No, but what if he does?"

"Then let me talk to him, and the rest of you hang around. We'll say that Mother's in town,

Daddy's at work, and besides we have somebody to do the fieldwork. Keep one gun up here on

this floor, and somebody like John or Bobby to shoot it, and we'll just see." Dianne reached her

decision with decision. "Don't worry about it."

"And what if we have to shoot him?" Cindy said brightly.

"Then we'll shoot him," Dianne said.

Freedom Five considered. What she was talking about was killing an adult, not a very important

one perhaps (adults varied) but still doing it. The idea was not in any way unacceptable except

that other grownups would find out about it and punish them for it.

"Won't that blow everything?" Bobby said quietly. "Not if we do it my way."

They nodded. Nonetheless the day had begun on a somber note.

The next problem of the day-it became a crisis-arose with Barbara. Because of the Picker, the

children were late in shifting her from bed to walking and taking her to the bathroom:

nonetheless she went docilely enough and performed her usual ceremony (ever more brief as

she ate less) with such grace as was possible. Only she and Dianne knew exactly what hap-

pened next.

While Barbara was washing one-handed, she dropped her washcloth on the floor and being