The Young Unicorns

by Madeleine L'engle

  “What’re you doing!” Dave expostulated. “Rub it off. You’re defacing private property.”

  “It’s all right, Dave.” Rob gave Rochester a shove so that the dog strode up Broadway, pulling Dave along with him. “The Rabbi knows about it.” He hurried along, half running, half walking to keep up with Dave and Rochester. He felt that he had stumbled out of the real world and into a nightmare. If he could only wake up he could go running across the hall and into his parents’ bedroom, and his mother would hear him, and wake immediately, and roll over in bed, and open her arms to him and everything would be safe and all right and in the known world, and she would walk him back to his own bed, and it would be his bed in Thornhill, not his bed in New York …

  But then there would be no Emily …

  Would he want to wake up and have Emily be only a character in a dream?

  There would be no Emily, no Dave, no Rabbi …

  The large yellow R on the synogogue was his link with reality, with a world in which there were people who could be trusted. If he was moving through a nightmare now, it was a real nightmare; the chalked R was his hope, his belief in love. He knew that the Rabbi loved him. He had thought that Dave loved him because he, himself, loved Dave. For the first time in his short life it occurred to him that this did not necessarily follow.

  He looked at Dave, at the older boy’s dark face set in grim and determined lines, and the thought that Dave might not love him, might not, indeed, love any of the family, surged coldly across him like the unexpected breaking of a wave.

  Dave loved Emily: Rob was sure that Dave loved Emily. Perhaps he put up with the rest of them only for Emily’s sake.

  They crossed Amsterdam Avenue. The south gate to the Close was locked for the night and Dave said, “Hold Rochester,” thrust the leash into Rob’s hand and opened the gate. They walked across the Close and Dave led the way up the steps which Rob had gone down only the day before with Canon Tallis. Rochester’s claws clicked against the granite. Rob looked around, wildly hoping to see Canon Tallis, but the Close appeared deserted.

  Dave unlocked the door which opened near the back entrance to St. James chapel. There were a few lights on in the chapel, but shadows lurked in the corners. On Rob’s right the tomb and effigy of Bishop Potter jutted whitely out of darkness.

  “Rob.” A form emerged from the shadows behind the tomb.

  Dave jumped. But it was not Bishop Potter sitting up and leaving the sarcophagus; it was Bishop Fall, walking around the tomb and holding out his hand to Rob.

  Rob took the Bishop’s hand, shook it, not bowing, but looking up through the shadows into the Bishop’s face.

  The Bishop looked past Rob, spoke to Dave. “What is that dog doing here?”

  “It’s the Austins’ dog.”

  “I didn’t ask whose dog it was. I wished to know what it is doing here.”

  “Walking the dog was my reason for bringing Rob, Bishop.”

  “The dog can’t come with us. He’ll have to go back.” The Bishop snapped his fingers and three leather-jacketed youths stepped out from the darkness of the choir stalls. “Take the dog back.”

  The three boys backed away.

  “Bishop, I said no Bats—” Dave started.

  Rob spoke clearly. “Mr. Rochester won’t go with them.” He looked at the Bishop. “Anyhow, Rochester won’t go anywhere without me. And I’m not going anywhere except home. Daddy said we were only to stay out fifteen minutes and it’s more than that already.”

  “Robert,” the Bishop said gently, holding his beautiful hands out to Rob as though coaxing a puppy or an unbroken pony. “Why are you afraid of me?”

  “Mr. Rochester and I don’t like those boys,” Rob said.

  “Bishop—” Dave started, but the Bishop snapped his fingers again.

  The boy called N stepped forward. “It wasn’t our fault. We didn’t do nothing, and the dog was ready to eat us.”

  As N stepped forward, Rochester began to growl, very softly, deep in his throat.

  “See?” N said, and stepped back again.

  “Robert,” the Bishop said. “Do you know who I am?”

  “The Bishop. Bishop Fall.”

  “And you are afraid of me?”

  “I don’t know much about bishops,” Rob said, “but I think maybe you ought to be a little bit afraid of a bishop, oughtn’t you?”

  “What you ought to be, most of all, is open and truthful, and obedient. I want to ask you some questions, and I want you to answer them, truthfully. But we are not safe here. Therefore I would like to take you to a place I know about where we won’t be interrupted. Will you come with me?”

  “I can’t now,” Rob said. “Daddy said we had to come right home.”

  “I will send Davidson home with your dog—he will go with Davidson, won’t he?—and Davidson can tell your father that you are with me, and then he won’t be worried about you. Certainly if he knows that you are with the Bishop he won’t be concerned for your safety. Davidson, take the dog back to the Austins, please. Now, my son.”

  “Bishop—” Dave started.

  The Bishop’s voice was low, urgent. “You must trust me now. For the little boy. For Emily. Davidson.”

  Dave took Mr. Rochester’s leash. Mr. Rochester simply moved closer to Rob, placing his four feet firmly on the marble floor, and stood stiffly, unbudging.

  “Robert,” the Bishop said, “will you tell your dog to go with Davidson, please?” He looked down at the little boy’s pale, confused face. “For Emily’s sake, Robert? If I tell you it is for Emily’s sake? If you do not do as I ask you to do, Emily will be in great danger. Do you remember what happened to Emily in the house in which you now live? If Mr. Rochester had been there to protect Emily she might not be blind today. Emily needs Mr. Rochester now.”

  “Rochester,” Rob said. “Go with Dave. Go, boy. Go with Dave.”

  Tail down, ears flat, Rochester stumped heavily, unwillingly after Dave. Rob heard the outer door shut, heard their steps on the stairs. The Bishop snapped his fingers again, and the three boys reemerged from the shadows. The Bishop nodded at them, and they walked swiftly, silently down the aisle. The outer door closed again, softly, this time. Rob could not hear their muffled feet on the stairs as they went after Dave.

  “Now, Robert,” the Bishop said. “Come.”

  When the dishes were washed and dried and everything was cleaned up, more quickly than usual because Suzy was the only one of the three girls who was at all talkative, Emily pulled at Vicky’s sleeve. “Please take me downstairs for a minute, Vicky, and help me find something.”

  This was the kind of help Emily never asked, but Suzy, called into the living room by her mother, did not stop to question it, or to say, “You’re just trying to get rid of me.”

  Emily led the way downstairs and into her room. “Vicky,” she said, “we have to go to the Cathedral right now.”

  Vicky had paused as usual at the window seat and was looking out over the drive and the river. “The Cathedral? At this time of night? Don’t be silly.”

  “Listen, Vicky,” Emily said, “and I mean listen. I do. Listening is something I’ve learned. I hear lots of things nobody else does. I came out into the kitchen while Rob and Dave were clearing the table and I heard Dave tell Rob that the Bishop wants to see him tonight at the Cathedral.”

  “That’s nuts,” Vicky said. “You couldn’t have heard right.”

  “I did. I don’t make mistakes about what I hear.”

  “But it’s absolutely nuts. The Bishop wouldn’t want to see Rob. Why didn’t you ask Dave about it?”

  “Because Dave didn’t want anybody to hear. When he knew I was there he shut up like a clam.”

  “It doesn’t make any sense,” Vicky said flatly. “Anyhow, Rob and Dave should be back any minute. Daddy said they weren’t to stay out more than a quarter of an hour. They wouldn’t have had time to go to the Cathedral.”

  “They’ve been gone almost half an hour
now,” Emily said. “Is all this any more peculiar than my rubbing an old lamp and calling up a genie? Vicky, listen to me and don’t just say no. You’ve got to take me to the Cathedral.”

  “All right. We’ll go after school tomorrow.”

  Emily raised her voice angrily. “Don’t be reasonable, Vicky! Things passed the point of reason a long time ago. We have to go to the Cathedral now.”

  “Mother and Daddy would never let us go.”

  “I know that. We have to slip out. Right now. What I hope is that we’ll meet Canon Tallis. He knows more than anybody else about what’s going on, whatever it is. Listen, Vicky, that cable Papa sent. The CAREFUL OF FALLS. Does it mean anything to you?”

  “No,” Vicky said irritably.—I want to go to bed, she thought, pressing her cheek against the cold glass of the window. Her breath steamed up the pane so that it was as though she were looking at the bare trees through fog.—I’m scared.

  “The Bishop’s name is Fall.”

  “I know that.”

  “Do you suppose Papa was giving us a warning about the Bishop?”

  “I don’t suppose anything. I don’t think it has anything to do with it. Let’s tell Mother and Daddy about it.”

  “No,” Emily said. “It would take time. And we’re wasting time already. Are you going to go with me or are you going to let me go alone?”

  “You can’t go alone,” Vicky said. “Anyhow it’s dark now. You wouldn’t be allowed even if you—”

  “It’s not dark for me,” Emily snapped.

  “But it is for truck drivers and—”

  “If you don’t come with me, I’m going.” Emily was cold with fury. “Someone would help me. Someone would take me there.” She walked rapidly out of the room, started down the stairs.

  Vicky hurried after her.

  Fifteen

  Suzy sat at the dining table doing homework. She was furious with Vicky and Emily for going off and leaving her. She kept looking up from her work, towards her father’s study. Her mother had gone in to the study and shut the door, and this meant that the Austin parents did not want to be interrupted except for an emergency. It wouldn’t be an emergency for her to go blundering in and say that Vicky and Emily had abandoned her, that they had gone down to Emily’s room and Vicky hadn’t done her homework …

  It wasn’t an emergency to go rushing in and say that Dave and Rob ought to have come back with Rochester at least twenty minutes ago and weren’t back yet …

  She got up, leaving her papers and books spread out on the table and went into the living room, to look out the front windows down on to the Drive; she might see them coming home.

  There was a teen-aged couple walking along arm in arm, singing; there was a girl with a transistor radio, on too loud, so that the raucous music came blaring up, louder than the Mozart which Mrs. Austin had on the phonograph. There was a very old man with his very old schnauzer, both of whom were friends of Rob’s; there was a group of boys coming from the direction of the Buddhist temple and talking rapidly in Japanese; they carried small satchels and probably had been practicing judo; there was a boy in a black leather jacket, a cigarette dangling from his lips, a tiny glow waxing and waning in the dark.

  And no sight of Rob or Dave or Rochester. Sighing, she went back to the dining room. If her mother came out of the study she’d tell her, all right, about Vicky and Emily, about Dave and Rob, about …

  She stood in front of the mirror over the sideboard, looking at her reflection. To see herself usually gave her pleasure and a sense of confidence; this was a combination of naïve vanity and legitimate enjoyment of the fact that she was extremely pleasing to look at.

  —I’m prettier than Vicky, she said to herself.—I’m ever so much prettier than Vicky.

  But she was not comforted.

  —I wish Mother’d come out. What’re the girls doing downstairs without me? Where are Rob and Dave? What’re Mother and Daddy talking about? I don’t want to learn French verbs … What’s happening? Please, what’s happening?

  Mrs. Austin sat in the study after dinner, her fingers around the bowl of her coffee cup as though to warm them. The Doctor was at his desk. He had again in his hands Rob’s chunky paperweight. His coffee stood, untouched and cooling, on a stack of papers.

  “Rob and Dave’ve been gone well over half an hour,” Mrs. Austin said.

  “They should be back any minute.”

  Mrs. Austin leaned back in the yellow wicker rocker, jumped at the loudness of its squeak. “Suzy—Suzy of all people was quoting no man is an island to me before dinner.”

  “Justified, wasn’t she?” he asked. “I’ve tried to keep the island of safety. I’ve thought I could keep you and the children separated from the mainland. I should have known that it can’t be done. And we’re all paying now for my folly.”

  “But what’s happening?”

  “I don’t know. But perhaps whatever it is, we’ve got it coming to us. We’re paying for our insulation.”

  “You mean justice? Retribution?” She shivered.

  “No. I don’t mean that. I’m not naïve enough to believe in a balance of justice, right for wrong, good for evil, in this world. But you and I have been in ways as immature as our children … . Have I told you about Gregory’s cable?”

  “We all read it.”

  “No, not that. It wasn’t sent from Athens. It was sent from Liverpool.”

  “Liverpool—”

  “Canon Tallis had a cable from Shasti. Gregory’s with Shasti and Shen-shu in Liverpool. Both cables said CAREFUL OF FALLS.”

  “But what—” she started.

  There was a knock on the door.

  Suzy poked her head in.

  “Is it an emergency?” her mother asked automatically.

  “Yes.”

  The second automatic question followed. “Would I think it an emergency?”

  “Yes,” Suzy said breathlessly. “I went down to Emily’s room and Emily and Vicky aren’t there. I looked all over for them and they aren’t anywhere.”

  “That’s nonsense, Suzy,” Dr. Austin said. “Why were you looking for them anyhow?”

  “They went off together, having secrets from me, and then I got worried because Dave and Rob were gone so long, and I didn’t want to interrupt you unless it was a real emergency and I didn’t know how long a real emergency would be, so I went to ask Vicky and Emily and they weren’t there. Their coats are gone.”

  Downstairs they heard Rochester’s bark, loud, demanding.

  “They’re back. Thank heavens,” Mrs. Austin said.

  Dr. Austin had risen from his desk and was running down the stairs. His wife and Suzy followed him.

  Outside the front door Mr. Rochester was barking. Dr. Austin flung it open and there was Rochester, alone, leash trailing, his bark rising to a high, almost hysterical pitch. Dr. Austin looked up and down the street. No one was in sight.

  “Rochester,” Dr. Austin took the leash. “Which way? Tell me.”

  Rochester started up the street, pulling the doctor after him.

  “Get your coat—” Mrs. Austin started. Then she and Suzy, not pausing, coatless, followed the Doctor and the dog.

  At the corner they met the Rabbi, his beard blowing in the wind. When he saw Dr. Austin and the dog, he called, “Is Rob all right?”

  Rochester stopped when he saw the Rabbi, and whined.

  Mrs. Austin held her arms about herself, against the cold. “Suzy, your coat …”

  “Let’s go back to the house.” Dr. Austin looked swiftly up and down Broadway but saw neither his children nor Emily nor Dave.

  They hurried, without talking, down the street to the Drive. Dr. Austin unlocked the door and they went in. Dr. Austin stopped in the front hall, turning to the Rabbi. “Why do you ask about Rob?”

  The old man was panting, his beard disheveled from the wind. “Yesterday he paid me one of his visits. He had something on his mind, but you had told him to stay with me only fifteen
minutes, so he said he didn’t have time to tell me about it. But he asked me if ever he left a chalked letter R where I could see it, to come rescue him, that he would need rescuing. I just now saw a yellow chalk R on the synagogue wall.”

  Dr. Austin leaned against the closed front door. Mrs. Austin sat on the marble stairs as though her legs would not hold her up. Suzy said, “Oh, Rabbi Levy, Rob and Dave went out with Rochester about an hour ago, and Rochester just came home alone. And Vicky and Emily have disappeared and their coats are gone.” She burst into a spasm of tears.

  Now Mrs. Austin was able to get up from the stairs, to go to her child, to hold her, say, “Hush,” quiet her.

  Dr. Austin asked the Rabbi, “Did Rob tell you about the Aladdin’s lamp and the genie?”

  “Yes. Last week.”

  “What did you think?”

  “I thought it was one of his fairy tales. I was busy that day, and I wasn’t listening with all my ears. It was not a fairy tale?”

  Dr. Austin shook his head. “But what it was, what it means, we don’t know. Rabbi Levy, will you do me the kindness of staying here with my wife and little girl? I’m afraid to leave them alone.”

  “Where are you going?” Mrs. Austin, her arm still around Suzy, held her voice under control with difficulty.

  “I’m going to look for the children.” He did not say where or how.

  “Take Rochester with you.”

  “I want Rochester here with you.”

  “Please, Wallace—”

  “No,” he said. “Rochester is to stay here with the three of you. I’ll be as quick as I can. If I find out anything and I’m near a phone I’ll call you. I can’t tell you not to open the front door, in case it might be one of the children. But don’t open it unless you have Rochester right beside you. I think you’d better stay downstairs. If I call I’ll use Gregory’s number.” Without waiting for a response he opened the front door and shut it quickly behind him.

  Sixteen

  Vicky and Emily walked rapidly up Broadway. Every once in a while Vicky would open her mouth as though to expostulate with the other girl, then close it again without speaking. She could see that Emily was concentrating on counting the blocks to 110th Street. Once Emily panted, “I wish we had Rochester with us …”