“Charles” by Shirley Jackson

The day my son Laurie started kindergarten he
renounced corduroy overalls with bibs and began
wearing blue jeans with a belt; I watched him go
off the first morning with the older girl next door,
seeing clearly that an era of my life was ended,
my sweet-voiced nursery-school tot replaced by a
long-trousered, swaggering1 character who forgot
to stop at the corner and wave good-bye to me.
He came home the same way, the front door slamming
open, his cap on the floor, and the voice suddenly become
raucous2 shouting, “Isn’t anybody here?”
At lunch he spoke insolently to his father, spilled his baby
sister’s milk, and remarked that his teacher said we were not
to take the name of the Lord in vain.
“How was school today?” I asked, elaborately casual.
“All right,” he said.
“Did you learn anything?” his father asked.
Laurie regarded his father coldly. “I didn’t learn nothing,”
he said.
“Anything,” I said. “Didn’t learn anything.”
“The teacher spanked a boy, though,” Laurie said, addressing
his bread and butter. “For being fresh,” he added, with his
mouth full.
“What did he do?” I asked. “Who was it?”
Laurie thought. “It was Charles,” he said. “He was fresh.
The teacher spanked him and made him stand in a corner. He
was awfully fresh.”
“What did he do?” I asked again, but Laurie slid off his
chair, took a cookie, and left, while his father was still saying,
“See here, young man.”

1. swaggering (swag» gßr i¢) v. strutting; walking with a bold step. 

2. raucous (rô» kßs) adj. harsh; rough-sounding.

3. renounced (ri n™nsd») v. gave up

The next day Laurie remarked at lunch, as soon as he sat

down, “Well, Charles was bad again today.” He grinned enormously

and said, “Today Charles hit the teacher.”

“Good heavens,” I said, mindful of the Lord’s name, “I suppose

he got spanked again?”

“He sure did,” Laurie said. “Look up,” he said to his father.

“What?” his father said, looking up.

“Look down,” Laurie said. “Look at my thumb. Gee, you’re

dumb.” He began to laugh insanely.

“Why did Charles hit the teacher?” I asked quickly.

“Because she tried to make him color with red crayons,”

Laurie said. “Charles wanted to color with green crayons so he

hit the teacher and she spanked him and said nobody play

with Charles but everybody did.”

The third day—it was Wednesday of the first week—Charles

bounced a see-saw on to the head of a little girl and made her

bleed, and the teacher made him stay inside all during recess.

Thursday Charles had to stand in a corner during story-time

because he kept pounding his feet on the floor. Friday Charles

was deprived of blackboard privileges because he threw chalk.

On Saturday I remarked to my husband, “Do you think kindergarten

is too unsettling for Laurie? All this toughness, and

bad grammar, and this Charles boy sounds like such a bad

influence.”

“It’ll be all right,” my husband said reassuringly. “Bound to

be people like Charles in the world. Might as well meet them

now as later.”

On Monday Laurie came home late, full of news. “Charles,”

he shouted as he came up the hill; I was waiting anxiously on

the front steps. “Charles,” Laurie yelled all

the way up the hill, “Charles was bad

again.”

“Come right in,” I said, as soon as

he came close enough. “Lunch is

waiting.”

“You know what Charles did?”

he demanded, following me

through the door. “Charles yelled so in school they sent a boy

in from first grade to tell the teacher she had to make Charles

keep quiet, and so Charles had to stay after school. And so all

the children stayed to watch him.”

“What did he do?” I asked.

“He just sat there,” Laurie said, climbing into his chair at

the table. “Hi, Pop, y’old dust mop.”

“Charles had to stay after school today,” I told my husband.

“Everyone stayed with him.”

“What does this Charles look like?” my husband asked Laurie.

“What’s his other name?”

“He’s bigger than me,” Laurie said. “And he doesn’t have

any rubbers and he doesn’t ever wear a jacket.”

Monday night was the first Parent-Teachers meeting, and

only the fact that the baby had a cold kept me from going; I

wanted passionately to meet Charles’s mother. On Tuesday

Laurie remarked suddenly, “Our teacher had a friend come to

see her in school today.”

“Charles’s mother?” my husband and I asked

simultaneously.

“Naaah,” Laurie said scornfully. “It was a man who came

and made us do exercises, we had to touch our toes. Look.”

He climbed down from his chair and squatted down and

touched his toes. “Like this,” he said. He got solemnly back

into his chair and said, picking up his fork, “Charles didn’t

even do exercises.”

“That’s fine,” I said heartily. “Didn’t Charles want to do

exercises?”

“Naaah,” Laurie said. “Charles was so fresh to the teacher’s

friend he wasn’t let do exercises.”

“Fresh again?” I said.

“He kicked the teacher’s friend,” Laurie said. “The teacher’s

friend told Charles to touch his toes like I just did and Charles

kicked him.”

“What are they going to do about Charles, do you suppose?”

Laurie’s father asked him.

Laurie shrugged elaborately. “Throw him out of school, I

guess,” he said.

Wednesday and Thursday were routine; Charles yelled during

story hour and hit a boy in the stomach and made him

cry. On Friday Charles stayed after school again and so did all

the other children.

With the third week of kindergarten Charles was an institution

in our family; the baby was being a Charles when she

cried all afternoon; Laurie did a Charles when he filled his

wagon full of mud and pulled it through the kitchen; even my

husband, when he caught his elbow in the telephone cord and

pulled the telephone, ashtray, and a bowl of flowers off the

table, said, after the first minute, “Looks like Charles.”

During the third and fourth weeks it looked like a reformation

in Charles; Laurie reported grimly at lunch on Thursday

of the third week, “Charles was so good today the teacher gave

him an apple.”

“What?” I said, and my husband added warily, “You mean

Charles?”

“Charles,” Laurie said. “He gave the crayons around and he

picked up the books afterward and the teacher said he was

her helper.”

“What happened?” I asked incredulously.

“He was her helper, that’s all,” Laurie said, and shrugged.

“Can this be true, about Charles?” I asked my husband that

night. “Can something like this happen?”

“Wait and see,” my husband said cynically.3 “When you’ve

got a Charles to deal with, this may mean he’s only plotting.”

He seemed to be wrong. For over a week Charles was the

teacher’s helper; each day he handed things out and he

picked things up; no one had to stay after school.

“The PTA meeting’s next week again,” I told my husband

one evening. “I’m going to find Charles’s mother there.”

“Ask her what happened to Charles,” my husband said. “I’d

like to know.”

“I’d like to know myself,” I said.

On Friday of that week things were back to normal. “You

know what Charles did today?” Laurie demanded at the lunch

table, in a voice slightly awed. “He told a little girl to say a

word and she said it and the teacher washed her mouth out

with soap and Charles laughed.”

“What word?” his father asked unwisely, and Laurie said,

“I’ll have to whisper it to you, it’s so bad.” He got down off his

chair and went around to his father. His father bent his head

down and Laurie whispered joyfully. His father’s eyes

widened.

“Did Charles tell the little girl to say that?” he asked

respectfully.

4. ynically (sin» i kß lè) adv. with disbelief about the honesty of people’s intentions or actions

“She said it twice,” Laurie said. “Charles told her to say it

twice.”

“What happened to Charles?” my husband asked.

“Nothing,” Laurie said. “He was passing out the crayons.”

Monday morning Charles abandoned the little girl and said

the evil word himself three or four times, getting his mouth

washed out with soap each time. He also threw chalk.

My husband came to the door with me that evening as I set

out for the PTA meeting. “Invite her over for a cup of tea after

the meeting,” he said. “I want to get a look at her.”

“If only she’s there,” I said prayerfully.

“She’ll be there,” my husband said. “I don’t see how they

could hold a PTA meeting without Charles’s mother.”

At the meeting I sat restlessly, scanning each comfortable

matronly face, trying to determine which one hid the secret of

Charles. None of them looked to me haggard enough. No one

stood up in the meeting and apologized for the way her son

had been acting. No one mentioned Charles.

After the meeting I identified and sought out Laurie’s kindergarten

teacher. She had a plate with a cup of tea and a

piece of chocolate cake; I had a plate with a cup of tea and a

piece of marshmallow cake. We maneuvered up to one

another cautiously, and smiled.

“I’ve been so anxious to meet you,” I said. “I’m Laurie’s

mother.”

“We’re all so interested in Laurie,” she said.

“Well, he certainly likes kindergarten,” I said. “He talks

about it all the time.”

“We had a little trouble adjusting, the first week or so,” she

said primly, “but now he’s a fine little helper. With occasional

lapses, of course.”

“Laurie usually adjusts very quickly,” I said. “I suppose this

time it’s Charles’s influence.”

“Charles?”

“Yes,” I said, laughing, “you must have your hands full in

that kindergarten, with Charles.”

“Charles?” she said. “We don’t have any Charles in the

kindergarten.”