Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to 'A Wrinkle In Time' or anything written by Madeleine L'Engle. I do not, sadly, own the Beatles or their song 'Something'.
Author's Note: I only read the first two books (Wrinkle, Wind) in the Time Quartet, and this is my second attempt at a Time Quartet fic. Implied MegCalvin. Okay. Here I go.
Something
Something in the way she moves
Attracts me like no other lover
Something in the way she woos me
I don't want to leave her now
You know I believe her now
The very first time I saw her, Mom had dragged me down to the laundromat to help her carry the clothes. Meg was standing outside with her dog, talking to someone standing in the street. The exact moment she laughed the sun hit her and she looked so beautiful. At that time I did not know her, or know her name. But it was from then on, practically, that I needed her. I stepped outside and pulled out my book, slipping side-glances over at her as she began walking my way. I felt the red creeping up my cheeks and I ducked inside the door to avoid maybe having to talk to her. I went over to Mom and helped her put the clothes in the dryer, for she wasn't tall enough.
After that I found out where she lived and found excuses to ride my bike over to her house and back. She lived well off from the village, a bit through the woods and secluded by a few trees. It was a small, two-story home, probably old, and there was a garden in the front, and on the way there, there was a rock that was tilted perfectly to look at the stars. In front of the garden, where a few vegetables struggled to thrive, there was a valley that wrapped its way around everything majestically.
I went by there everyday after school, and I met the twins, Dennys and Sandy. They were probably elementary school age, I gathered, but they already knew all about me. Probably sports fanatics. But maybe Meg was telling them.
"So, what is your sister's name?"
"Our sister?" One of the twins gasped.
"You want to know our sister?" The other one did a fake faint. "Well, her name is Margaret."
"Only she likes to be called Meg."
"Margaret..." The word rolled off my tongue so easily and beautifully.
"Okay. Now that you know our sister, tell me more about basketball." One of the twins, I still wasn't sure who, said while sitting on the ground. I scuffed my oxfords in the dirt. I looked up at the house, at the attic window, by chance, and saw the silhouette of a girl looking out the window. I nudged one of the twins and pointed up.
"Hey, Sandy, is that Meg?"
"Dennys, and it is. She's our only sister. How could it be anyone else?"
"Sorry." And in that instant I fell absolutely head over heels in love with her, and it must've shown because the twin I now knew as Dennys started giggling.
"Okay, you can come down to Earth now!" He laughed and I blinked my eyes and shook my head and looked at the watch I'd won at the fair.
"You know what, I-- I've got to get going." I hopped on my bike, said goodbye, and as I peddled down the pathway I heard one of the twins start giggling.
"I think he likes her."
"It's obvious."
Somewhere in her smile she knows
That I don't need no other lover
Something in her style that shows me
Don't want to leave her now
You know I believe her now
As I sat in the bedroom I shared with Hinky, trying to do my math homework, all I could think of was Meg. The words zoomed around the page and I couldn't read them. I finally just put down any number that came to mind. I began reading my book for Literature class but then again, I could only think of Meg and the shadow I saw on her window, the bit of her face I saw. I could not get her out of my mind. I dreamed about her, saw her during the day, and all of it made my grades slip and my mind wander up to the attic door. A few times I almost went over to her house and knocked, but I always cowered out.
But when I finally did, no one was home. So I trudged along home and sat down on my bed and tried to read without her name coming up. Of course, someone's name popped up in the book: Meg. It was the name of one of the characters, and I threw the book on the ground and rubbed my eyes, and then looked at the clock. It was midnight. I then took notice of the rain. It was beating hard and the wind was dreadful, but I always enjoyed a good storm. I looked at the trees bending over and some of the weak saplings cracking completely. This was really a horrid downpour. I pulled on my nightclothes, leaving my jeans and T-shirt in a rumpled pile by my bed and proceeded to spend another night awake, dwelling on this girl I knew nothing about.
- - -
That day I had skipped my Math class altogether and was walking by the principal's office when she came out. I must have startled her because she gasped and dropped her books. I smiled and kneeled down to get them for her.
"Here." I said, giving them to her and running a hand through my hair.
"Thanks." She said gruffly, but I could sympathize.
"I'm Calvin."
"Meg." She nodded and walked on. I knew she couldn't be like that, I had spied on her for weeks, I had seen her with her brother Charles Wallace. Mr. Jenkins probably said something horrible to her. I walked along slowly, feeling my heart swell in my chest. I watched her back as she walked quickly down the hall and then the bell rang and I rushed to History.
That day after school I did my homework but I was distracted, but it wasn't my usual distraction. I got this odd compulsion, this force, to leave, to go out to the haunted house and wait. Wait for something. So I abandoned by work, as usual, and ran away from my house. As I ran the wind danced across my face and Meg's face daunted in my mind. I stopped and waited, for what or who, I had no idea.
You're asking me will my love grow
I don't know, I don't know
You stick around now it may show
I don't know, I don't know
As I stood there, two figures and a dog approached. The dog became ferocious and the figure that looked like a young boy spoke. I couldn't hear him over the dog's barking and then I saw the face. It was Meg's. I felt myself flushing and I looked down and then back up again. The dog was soon in front of me, barking loudly.
"For crying out loud, call off your dog." I said. Then the boy did some more talking to Meg.
"It's all right, fella. I'm not going to hurt you," at least not if it decided to shut up. The boy told his dog, he called it Fort, to sit.
"Okay. Now tell us what you're doing here."
"I might ask the same of you," I said indignantly, a bit angry Meg had called me a big bug.
"Aren't you two of the Murry kids? This isn't your property is it?" I began to walk away but Fort growled and I stopped.
"Tell me about him, Meg."
"What would I know about him? He's a couple grades above me, and he's on the basketball team."
"Just because I'm tall."
"Tell us what you're doing here."
"What is this? The third degree? Aren't you the one who's supposed to be the moron?"
"Hey!" Meg shouted.
"Sorry," I said sheepishly, "but that's what I've heard."
"Well, he's not a moron." Meg pushed some of her brown hair behind her back and ran her tongue over her braces. I looked at her eyes and almost melted. They were absolutely like a dream. Our conversation continued and I was invited to dinner. Of course, I accepted. Anything was better than what my mother made. I walked along with the dog, Meg, and Charles Wallace, as I learned his name was. But we weren't going in the right direction.
We walked to the dilapidated house in the middle of the woods.
"They get a lot of fun out of using the typical props. Come on. Follow me." We did and I put a hand on Meg's elbow and I felt her relax. Charles Wallace began talking to a woman who was sitting in the kitchen, where we entered. "I really don't think you ought to have taken Mrs. Buncombe's sheets without consulting me. What on earth do you want them for?"
"Why Charlsie, my pet!" She said, and I tried to push Meg back a little until I was sure that this place was safe. "Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait point. French. Pascal. The heart has its reasons, whereof reason knows nothing." As this woman and Charles Wallace spoke I looked around and I felt Meg tense up again.
"Good afternoon, Ma'am. I didn't quite catch your name."
"Mrs. Who will do. He wasn't quite my idea, Charlsie, darling, but right now he needs our help."
"Who?" Meg demanded, and I put my arm around her defensively.
"And little Megsie! Lovely to meet you, sweetheart..." But I drifted off and just stared at Meg. She was so beautiful. And then I heard my name. "Now, off with you..." And I drifted off again and next thing I knew, we were leaving.
"I don't know either, yet. Not quite. I'll tell you what I know as soon as I can. But you saw Fort, didn't you? Not a growl. Not a quiver. Just as though there weren't anything strange about it. So you know it's okay. Look, do me a favor, both of you. Let's not talk about it till we've had something to eat. I need fuel so I can sort things out and assimilate them properly."
T
hen I had the feeling that I needed to make up some sort of lie, they needed to clearly know that I hadn't been there before, even though I have. "Lead on, moron. I've never even seen your house, and I have the funniest feeling that for the first time in my life I'm going home!"
Something in the way she knows
And all I have to do is think of her
Something in the things she shows me
Out in the garden, I sat and talked with Meg. We talked about our families and then her father.
"You'd always had this house?"
"Yes. But we used to live in it just in the summer."
"And you don't know where your father was sent?"
"No. At first we got lots of letters. Mother and Father always wrote each other every day. I think Mother still writes him every night. Every once in a while the postmistress makes some kind of crack about all her letters."
"I suppose they think she's pursuing him or something." I said bitterly. "They can't understand plain ordinary love when they see it."
"Or do they?" Meg said, and she looked at me with her head tilted and a bit of a smile on her face. I leaned in a bit and so did she and then the both of us began laughing.
"Well, go on," I encouraged, "what happened next?"
"Nothing happened. That's the trouble."
"Well, what about your father's letters?"
"They just stopped coming."
"You haven't heard anything at all?"
"No, nothing." She sounded miserable. I looked away and my voice was overcome with the absence of emotion.
"Do you think he could be dead?"
"No!" She leaped up, but I pulled her down again. "They'd have told us if he were dead! There's always a telegram or something. They always tell you!"
"What do they tell you?"
"Oh, Calvin," she was crying, "Mother's tried and tried to find out. She's been down to Washington and everything. And all they say is that he's on a secret and dangerous mission, and she can be very proud of him, but he won't be able to-- to-- communicate with us for awhile. And they'll give us news as soon as they have it."
"Meg, don't get mad, but do you think maybe they don't know?" A tear trickled down Meg's cheek and I wiped it off for her. She nodded. "Meg, go ahead and cry. It'll do you good."
"You should be telling me not to," she sniffed. "I cry much too much." But she cried anyways and took off her glasses and I was taken aback.
"Meg, do you know this is the first time I've seen you without your glasses?"
"I'm blind as a bat without them. I'm near-sighted, like Father."
"Well, you know what, you've got dream-boat eyes," I said to her, taking her chin in my hand. "Listen, you go right on wearing your glasses. I don't think I want anybody else to see what gorgeous eyes you have." She blushed and I took the chance and kissed her.
Don't want to leave her now
You know I believe her now
And I don't think she minded.