Let's Go Play at the Adams'

Although the Adams living room had furniture, none of it seemed to suit the children. John,

who most needed big chairs, slumped instead on the coffee table, legs apart, elbows on

knees.

"OK, let's get going," he said. "We've got a lot to talk about."

Paul sat down before him, cross-legged on the rug; Bobby lounged against the edge of the

old captain's desk; and only Dianne sat in a chair, an overstuffed chair with rather regal

lines. Cindy flung herself full length along the 'back of the couch as if she were riding it

bareback; then she slowly let herself slide down the front side onto the cushions where she

rolled over once and lay staring up at the ceiling.

"Cindy, stop that," Bobby said. "You know you're not allowed to play on the furniture."

"We can do anything we want now," she said defiantly. "There's no one to stop us, and

you're not my father."

"No, we can't," John said. "That's why we're having a meeting. We've got to make a lot of

new rules about this thing."

"Like what?" Cindy was obviously against rules of any kind. Nonetheless, she sat up.

"Like, for one thing, we have to stand watch over her. Take turns," John said. "If she ever

gets loose .... "

"She can't get loose," Bobby said quickly. "I put the knots where she couldn't get them."

· "What if she found something sharp and cut the rope or reached over and knocked the

telephone over?" Cindy said.

19

"Aw, that's only like you see on television. Where could she get hold of anything sharp

enough to cut rope?"

"Just the same, we ought to watch her," John said stubbornly. "Take turns, one at a time."

"We ought to write this down like the other rules we used to have," Paul said. "Hey, Dianne,

get some paper .... "

"That's a good idea," John said.

"Where's something to write with?" Dianne, who at seventeen was slightly the oldest, got

up and went searching. There was an opening and slamming of drawers before she found a

telephone pad and a ballpoint pen. "OK," she said, "Number One: watch her."

"Right. Now, since Red Fox Patrol will have to watch her all night, Blue Fox Patrol will watch

her while we're here. OK?"

"Blue Fox, Roger," Paul said. "OK?" John looked at Dianne.

Dianne did not say Roger. In no way did she condescend to say it. "Certainly," she said

coolly.

"OK, and another thing," Bobby said. "We can't keep her tied in one place all the time.

How're we going to move her around?"

"Why move her?" Cindy said.

"She has to get some circulation sometime, and she has to go to the bathroom like

everybody else."

There was general giggling.

"Yeah, but she's strong," Bobby said. "You should have seen her this morning. Man, I

thought she · was going to tear the bed apart."

"Really?"

"We'd better all be here when we do have to move her," John said thoughtfully. The idea

didn't appear to cheer him. "There're five of us-we ought to be able to do it."

"I got some things figured out-" Bobby began. "Write that down," John ignored him.

"Then what about feeding her?" Cindy said. "Yeah, that's something, too."

20

"I think we ought to put her on bread and water once a day," Paul said quite seriously.

"You know, like a diet."

"Why?" Cindy said. "She's not fat."

"To make her weaker. Bobby says she's strong, so make her weak. Our mother diets.

She doesn't eat anything at all during the day, except for carrots and celery and

skimmed milk and junk like that, and she's always weak and tired out. Besides," he

said, "we can do anything we want with a prisoner."

"Does your mother really eat that stuff?"

"All grown-ups do. They're afraid of getting fat and dying."

"Aw, you only get that from smoking and cancer," Cindy said. "Don't you watch TV?"

"Shut up, Cindy," John said, but kindly enough.

"OK, how're we going to feed her? What happens if we take off the gag and she starts

doing a lot of yelling?"

"We've still got the chloroform from Bobby's father," Paul said. "We can tell her if she

screams, we'll put her to sleep and not feed her at all."

"There's enough stuff in the rag still." Bobby thought and had to agree. "I put it back in

a tight jar."

"No one could hear her way down here anyway," Dianne said coolly.

"I know! We'll tum up the TV like they do on ·TV," Cindy's redundance was unconscious.

"That way, anybody'll think it's that."

"Well, at least we all ought to be here whenever we take off her gag," John said. "Five

are better than two. Write that down, Dianne."

"Another thing," Dianne spoke while she wrote.

"Bobby and Cindy are supposed to have a baby-sitter to do all the housework and keep

them clean," she looked up at Cindy. "If the house isn't neat and the yard's a mess and

the trash piles up, anybody stopping by'll want to come in and find out what's wrong."

"I'm not dirty," Cindy said.

"You ought to wash your face and brush your hair”

21

"Aw, I thought we were going to be free after her-"

"We are free, stupid," Bobby said, "but that doesn't mean you can do everything you

want."