A Wrinkle In Time

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A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle

As all good stories should start, it was a dark and stormy night. Margaret (Meg) Murry, in her attic bedroom, was watching the storm outside wrapped in her blanket. It’s been a rubbish day at school filled with garbage people. She doesn’t even get an ounce of concern or sympathy from her twin brothers Sandy and Dennis about a run in with a bully. Meg wishes her dad were here, but she doesn’t know where he is or when he’s coming back. Meg feels lonely, even her little brother Charles Wallace, who usually comes to bother her when she’s in a crappy mood, is fast asleep. 

From downstairs, Meg can hear Fortinbras, the family dog, barking. Her imagination goes wild about what has disturbed Fortinbras and she tiptoes downstairs to investigate, banging against all the furniture and toys. Graceful she is not. Deciding hot chocolate would be a better idea than her doom and gloom imagination, Meg heads to the kitchen and runs into Charles Wallace who has been waiting for her, Fortinbras at his feet and milk heating on the stove. 

Though Charles Wallace is only five he’s scarily astute. Their father told Meg, before he disappeared, that he tested both Meg and Charles Wallace through games and that they both have the potential to grow up to be whatever they want to be. Meg checks the milk and sees the pan is full, and when she comments to Charles Wallace, he simply says he thought Mother would like some, too, and in walks their mom. While Charles Wallace makes his mom and sister an exclusive sandwich, Mrs. Murry examines Meg’s bruises and tells her about the conversation she had with the bully’s mom. Meg complains about being an oddball and Charles Wallace says he’s going to tell Mrs. Whatsit about her. When asked who Mrs. Whatsit is, Charles Wallace will only say he met her after chasing Fortinbras a few days ago and he says she lives in the haunted house in the woods with her friends. Suddenly Fortinbras starts growling at Mrs. Murry’s lab door. 

Mrs. Murry goes to investigate and comes back with Mrs. Whatsit covered in many scarves and a felt hat perched upon her head. Apparently, Mrs. Whatsit was blown off course. They offer her a tuna fish sandwich. With her wet boots off, her stomach full of sandwiches, and being warm inside and out, Mrs. Whatsit declares it’s time for her to go home. As Mrs. Whatsit shoves her boots back on, she tells Mrs. Murry that there is such a thing as a tesseract which stops Mrs. Murry in her tracks. 

The next morning, Meg wakes up, hoping the events of the evening before were a dream, but they were not. The morning doesn’t get any better at school. She's tired and distracted, her sarcasm goes unappreciated by the teacher and the principal is an antagonistic gaslighting jerk to her about her father’s “disappearance” (air quotes added by the principal). Once home from school, Charles Wallace takes Meg on a walk to Mrs. Whatsit’s house with Fortinbras. He wants to find out about the tesseract and to warn them about stealing sheets from washing lines.

As they approach the haunted house, Fortinbras starts growling at someone who Meg recognizes as Calvin from a couple of grades above her. When Charles Wallace questions him about his whys and whatfores, Calvin is shocked that Charles Wallace isn’t the dumb kid everyone thinks but is in fact disconcertingly intelligent and perceptive. Calvin calls himself a sport amongst his family, which Charles Wallace understands, from the dictionary, means he’s the odd one out in his house. When asked why he’s at Mrs. Whatsit’s house, Calvin says he felt that he needed to be here. Charles Wallace is satisfied and decides to trust Calvin and invite him to dinner at their house. First, though, they need to visit Mrs. Whatsit.

Inside Mrs. Whatsit’s house, the group finds a new bespectacled lady feverishly sewing the stolen sheets. This is Mrs. Who and she is making sheet ghosts to help perpetuate the image of the haunted house. Sounds reasonable and entirely logical, but the kids tell her she and her friends should stop stealing bedsheets from washing lines. Mrs. Who keeps talking in different languages and making strange statements that Meg doesn’t understand but Charles Wallace seems to. In the end, Mrs. Who tells them to get plenty of food and rest, the time is not ripe yet to help their father. On the way to the Murry house for dinner, Calvin feels like he’s going home.

Mrs. Murry is in the lab with an experiment but there is a big vat of stew cooking in the kitchen that Calvin will later eat five bowls of. Meg helps him with his math homework because she’s a wiz at numbers after her dad's number games when she was little, but any other subject mystifies her. Calvin is the opposite. Throughout the evening, Calvin feels more at home and so happy he’s found in Meg and Charles Wallace people he can actually talk to. After dinner, Meg and Calvin go for a walk out to the vegetable garden behind the house.

Calvin questions Meg about her father. He's a physicist with multiple PhDs and has worked in different places and usually they would all go with him, but with this last job, they came here to what was typically their summer home while he went elsewhere to work. He and their mother would write to each other every day and though his letters stopped, their mother continued. They don’t know where he is or what he’s doing and no one will give them answers. Meg starts crying and Calvin gives her compliments on her pretty eyes when Charles Wallace appears, followed by Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs. Who, and only the voice of Mrs. Which because it takes too much time and energy for her to appear and they need to get going now if they are to save Mr. Murry. 

Suddenly the wind starts to get stronger and stronger until Meg can’t see and loses sight and grip of both Charles Wallace and Calvin. When everything is clear again, they are most definitely in a new place. Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs. Who are with them, Mrs. Which still mostly a voice, and they explain they used a wrinkle to transport them to Uriel, the third planet of the star Malak in the spiral nebula Messier 101. Obviously. 

This is a safe stopping point until they can continue their journey to help Mr. Murry. Mrs. Whatsit, being the youngest and most able, transforms into an androgynous sexy centaur-pegasus and takes Charles Wallace, Meg, and Calvin on a flight around Urial. They see dozens of the sexy centaur-pegasus creatures singing with their wings, fields, streams and a huge mountain. One of the sexy centaur-pegasuses’ hands the children a flower each at Mrs. Whatsit's request, they’ll need them in a little bit. As Mrs. Whatsit flies them higher and higher up the mountain and the air thins, she instructs them to breathe through the flowers. When they land, she tells them to keep watch of the horizon. Soon they see a black shadow. It feels evil. Mrs. Whatsit takes them back to Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which and Meg asks if the Black Thing is what her father is fighting. 

Mrs. Which confirms that Mr. Murry is behind the shadow, and that’s just where they are going now. This terrifies the children. Mrs. Whatsit explains to Meg they will tesser where they need to go, they will create a wrinkle to shorten the distance and time to get there. She tries to explain what that is using an example that Meg doesn’t get about an ant going from point A to point B on fabric, but Charles Wallace is able to put it into mathematical terms so she can understand it. Taking Calvin’s hand in hers, Meg is ready to go.

Moving through the tesseract is really strange. There was great pressure then feeling nothing then tingling as sensation came back. Soon they arrive in Orion’s Belt so they can visit a friend, the Happy Medium, so the children can look back on their own planet. Walking instead of bending time and space, they head to a cave where they see the Medium staring into a crystal ball. The Medium beckons them to look into the ball and see the Milky Way and Earth which is covered in the Dark Thing. It’s been there for many, many years. 

Mrs. Which, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Whatsit explain that many people have been fighting the Dark Thing for a very long time, mostly Earth’s greatest artists and scientists and philosophers, giving them light to see by. Mr. Murry is also a fighter and he’s now on a planet that has given into the darkness. They’re interrupted by the Medium who shows them a shadow moving through the Milky Way that is suddenly pierced by light, driving the darkness away and leaving stars and starlight visible again. What they just saw was a star giving up its life in the battle with the Thing. Charles Wallace realizes Mrs. Whatsit was once a star who did the same thing. Before they leave, Medium shows them their mothers. Calvin's mom is not pleasant and Mrs. Murry looks sad which gives Meg the oomph to carry on and find her father. She has no room for fear now.

Using a wrinkle again, the group travels to Camazotz, the dark planet where Mr. Murry is fighting. The landscape seems familiar with smokestacks from a nearby town in view, an autumnal feel in the air, and familiar trees. The Mrses. must leave the children now but they will be watching. Before they go, Mrs. Whatsit gives them a talisman each: Meg her faults, Calvin his ability to communicate, and to Charles Wallace, the resilience of his childhood. Mrs. Who then gives Calvin a hint from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Charles Wallace a quote that he does not know everything, and Meg her glasses for the final moment of peril. Mrs. Which gives all her command to go to the town and to stay together, especially Charles Wallace, who she reminds not to be arrogant and prideful. 

The town is off. Everything is in rhythm, be it playing with a ball, opening doors, or skipping rope, and all the houses are the same. Until, that is, one child playing with a ball stands out as being out of rhythm. His mother dashes from the house and brings the child inside, leaving the ball on the ground. Charles Wallace picks it up and decides to return it. The mother denies her boy dropped the ball, that hasn’t happened in years to any child in the neighborhood! The neighbors, watching what is happening, suddenly slam their doors. The boy reaches from the shadows and grabs the ball from Charles Wallace, and then the mother slams their door too. Really weird.  

Continuing on, the wrongness continues. A paper boy stops and questions Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace’s presence and it sounds funny. They do find out about needing papers and something called the CENTRAL Central Intelligence Center which they find a short time later. Standing outside CENTRAL Central Intelligence, the adults rushing in and out seem like robots but Charles Wallace knows that’s not right. They decide they need to go inside and investigate but Calvin has a terrible feeling they’re walking into danger. 

Together they walk into CENTRAL Central Intelligence. Inside is cold and devoid of personality, the people are like statues. They walk to the blank fourth wall and it feels off. They decide to ask someone and talk to a man who talks to them about filling in the correct forms and feeding it to the wall and that he’s regretfully going to have to report them for reprocessing, which sounds painful. The man takes them to the fourth wall, selects a paper from a stack and feeds it to the wall. The wall suddenly disappears revealing a room filled with a giant computer and machines. Stepping into the room and down the center for what feels like miles, Charles Wallace feels a presence and it’s not good. At the end of the room is a platform and a man with red eyes sits on a chair in the center. 

The man doesn’t use his voice to communicate but the children can hear him perfectly. Disturbingly, he’s been waiting for them. He tries to hypnotize them with the times tables but they resist with nursery rhymes and the Gettysburg Address. The man gives them a turkey dinner after Meg complains of being hungry. To Meg and Calvin it tastes delicious but to Charles Wallace, who the man says has a different brain, it tastes like sand. It’s after this that Charles Wallace faces off against the man despite Mrs. Which’s warnings of him not being arrogant. Charles Wallace is almost immediately possessed by the man and is gone. 

Possessed Charles Wallace continues to eat the now delicious turkey dinner, but Calvin and Meg hold on to him so they aren't separated, but Charles Wallace is able to break free with the help of men in black smocks. Charles Wallace claims the man with red eyes is their friend and the planet is orderly because everyone submits. Calvin demands the man with red eyes tell them who he is, and he calls himself the Prime Coordinator. Charles Wallace then leads Meg and Calvin away, supposedly to Mr. Murry. 

As they walk, Meg reminds Calvin of his gift to communicate from Mrs. Whatsit. Calvin tries to engage Charles Wallace in conversation but he won’t have any more hanky panky and resists Calvin’s efforts, telling Meg and Calvin they should submit to IT. IT has made Camaztoz a wonderful planet, there is no illness or deformity because they “annihilate” anyone who presents even the smallest sniffle. Charles Wallace rearranges some atoms for them to enter an elevator and takes Meg and Calvin up. It’s a creepy and threatening ride as Charles Wallace explains that everyone on Camazotz is of one mind, it’s IT's. Now walking down a corridor they go past a room with the boy from that afternoon, whose ball didn’t bounce in rhythm. Then they reach a room with a man in a large, round, transparent column. Meg screams, “FATHER!”

Meg’s father is trapped in the column and Charles Wallace tells them they must submit to IT but they’re not having that. Calvin tries to break Charles Wallace free from IT’s hold remembering the quote from The Tempest and it starts to work but ultimately fails. Meg then remembers Mrs. Who’s glasses, pulling them from her pocket. Charles Wallace growls and tries to grab them but Meg quickly puts them on and goes through the column and to her father. Without Mrs. Who’s glasses, the column prison is pitch black so Meg gives them to her father who is able to see and escape, coming back for her a moment. Back in the room, IT, through Charles Wallace, is exceedingly displeased.

Charles Wallace acts like the little brat he isn’t really and insists they go to IT. He takes them out of CENTRAL Central Intelligence, down the street to a giant domed building. Inside on a dais is a giant oversized pulsing brain. This is IT. IT is repulsive. The pulsing starts to overtake Meg’s mind when she remembers what Mrs. Whatsit said, she will need her faults and one of her faults is her stubbornness. Meg starts shouting the Declaration of Independence, then the Periodic Table of Elements, then her father asks her mathematics questions until she hears Calvin shout to her father to tesser. Meg then feels her father grip her wrists and she’s pulled through a wrinkle. 

When Meg, Calvin and Mr. Murry exit the wrinkle, they arrive on a different planet. Meg is partially frozen and paralyzed, but she can still hear her father and Calvin talking. Mr. Murry explains how he accidentally ended up on Camazotz when he was really heading for Mars because tessering is very complicated. Slowly Meg is able to move but she still feels frozen. She asks where Charles Wallace is, but IT had too much of a hold on him and he’s still on Camazotz. Meg feels anger at her father for tessering away to an unknown planet, for leaving Charles Wallace behind, at Calvin for telling him to do it, and for finding her father but he hasn’t instantly made everything alright. Suddenly three tall, strange, eyeless, furry, tentacled creatures approach. When one of the creatures touches Meg, she feels warmth and comfort. 

The creatures take Meg to be healed from IT while Mr. Murry and Calvin get cleaned up, rest and eat. Meg wakes in the dark with one creature who she names Aunt Beast. The creature sings to Meg, feeds her and keeps her warm with furs. Every touch radiates kindness, warmth and trust. Once Meg is better, she is reunited with her father and Calvin and they share breakfast. Meg is still angry with her father for leaving Charles Wallace behind, and Mr. Murry feels the guilt of it. The caregiver creatures promise to help as much as they can, but their help is limited as they can not tesser to a planet covered in darkness and shadow from their planet, which we find out is called Ixhel. They struggle to form a plan and Meg insists they need the help of the Mrs. Ws. Suddenly, Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs. Which appear with a loud “WWEEE ARRE HHERRE!”

After some discussion as to what they should do next, and Meg denying the truth, she finally understands only she can rescue Charles Wallace. Meg is closest to Charles Wallace and he understands her. Resolved to this and despite Mr. Murry and Calvin’s protests, Meg agrees she should be the one who goes back for him. Before she is tessered to Camazotz, Mrs. Whatsit gives Meg her love, Mrs. Who gives her a quote, may the right prevail, and Mrs. Which takes her to Camazotz and gives Meg advice, that her only weapon is what she has and IT does not. 

Meg walks through the deathly quiet streets, past CENTRAL Central Intelligence and straight to IT. On the dais the giant brain that is IT sits pulsing and beside him is a possessed Charles Wallace. Meg starts to feel hatred, fierce and burning hatred at IT, at IT controlling her little brother, and at the hurtful things IT is making Charles Wallace say. But when IT makes Charles Wallace say that Mrs. Whatsit hates Meg, she knows for sure IT is lying and what she has that IT does not. Love. She has love and gives love which is more than IT can do and Meg can love Charles Wallace. Meg tells Charles Wallace that she loves him. 

Charles Wallace starts to come back to himself and he runs into Meg’s arms. Suddenly Meg smells autumn and feels earth beneath them. They and their father and Calvin are now in the family's vegetable garden. Mrs. Murry and the twins come out of the house to call Meg inside from her walk with Calvin. To them, only moments have passed. Then they spot Mr. Murry with Meg and Charles Wallace and Calvin amongst the vegetables. The family are reunited with hugs and kisses and laughing and declarations. Meg can also feel the love of Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which who appear in front of them and just as quickly are taken away by a gust of wind.