‘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?’