chapter 4-6

When the children begin to walk into the nearby town. Everything in the town looks very similar. All the houses are the same and all the children playing outside are wearing similar clothes. Meg notices that there is something strange about the way the children are playing, and then realizes that they are all jumping rope and playing with balls in an exact rhythm. All their movements are coordinated and the same. As they continue to walk through the neighborhood, Charles Wallace sees one little boy drop his ball. The boy’s mother than comes running out of the house, screaming, and grabs the boy and takes him into the house.

Charles Wallace grabs the boy’s ball and the three children go up to the little boy’s house to give it back to him. His mother nervously answers the door, assuring the children in their section “never drop their balls.” The woman screams that she doesn’t have to let them in if they haven’t shown her their papers, and she slams the door on them. They then meet a paperboy delivering papers, each paper being thrown in the same arc and landing on the same place at the step of each door. The paper boy tells them that they aren’t allowed on the streets during this time.

When Charles Wallace questions the paper boy, he tells them that “Everybody knows our city has the best Central Intelligence Center on the planet. Our production levels are the highest. Our factories never close; our machines never stop rolling. Added to this we have five poets, one musician, three artists, and six sculptors, all perfectly channeled.” Charles Wallace feels very disturbed by all this, though he can’t read the thoughts of the boy or anybody else in order to really understand what is going on. The paper boy then directs them to the CENTRAL Central Intelligence Center and the children take off.