Stepping on the Cracks

On the way to school again, Elizabeth and Margaret see Gordy looking especially unpleasant. Margaret suggests walking a different way, but Elizabeth calls her a “scaredy-cat.” Blocking their path, Gordy threatens that the “crazy” man is coming for them. Margaret is scared but notices that Gordy has a painful-looking black eye. Elizabeth mocks Gordy, who seizes her bookbag, rips up her homework, and tosses her school supplies everywhere. Margaret calls for help. Classmates and crossing guards Bruce and Frankie tell Gordy to stop. Gordy dares them to tell Mrs. Wagner.

Elizabeth is furious and close to tears, but the boys, fearing both Gordy and Mrs. Wagner, refuse to tell tales. Margaret also will not “tattle.” Elizabeth changes her rhyme to “step on a crack, break Gordy’s back!” (50) Margaret joins her, but when Elizabeth vengefully makes plans to tear down the boys’ hut while they are at football practice, Margaret refuses. Elizabeth calls Margaret a coward and says they are not friends. Ashamed of her fear, Margaret agrees to help Elizabeth.

Margaret does not want to help Elizabeth destroy the boys’ hut: She would rather stay home and listen to her favorite radio show or even do some chores for her mother. She and Elizabeth cross the tracks and creep through the woods with Elizabeth pretending that they are soldiers and the hut a “Nazi outpost.” Margaret is terrified.

The hut is empty. Elizabeth suggests they vandalize it by writing swear words on the walls since it is too solid to tear down. While Margaret acts as lookout, Elizabeth enters and discovers signs that someone has been living there: books, magazines, defaced pinup girl posters, cans of food, blankets, and a big knife like the “crazy” man is rumored to possess. Yelling, Elizabeth trashes the hut, shattering the windows, ripping up the magazines, and slashing the posters. Excited by Elizabeth’s enthusiasm, Margaret joins in the destruction. She feels as brave and strong as Elizabeth. The girls leave, flushed with victory, until they both see a man hidden in the bushes. Terrified, they run home.

For the first time, Elizabeth is scared. Margaret believes that the man will kill them in the night since Jimmy is not there to protect her. Before Elizabeth leaves, she warns Margaret not to tell her mother anything.

Margaret’s teary face signals to Mother that something bad has happened. Mother suspects that Elizabeth hurt Margaret’s feelings or that they had a fight. Margaret admits to herself that Mother is usually right about Elizabeth, but she isn’t this time. Mother tells Margaret not to let Elizabeth bully her—there are lots of other nice girls to befriend who aren’t “smart alecks”—which angers Margaret.

Elizabeth tells Margaret that her father, a policeman, laughed at the idea of a man in the bushes but said that there are occasionally vagrants in the woods. Margaret believes the man is lurking outside her home, however. She cannot sleep for fear and is ashamed of her part in destroying the hut. Mother shares a family trick to confuse bogeymen—turning one of Margaret’s shoes the opposite direction—in the hopes it will allow Margaret to sleep. Mother says this even worked for Jimmy, who was more scared of the dark than Margaret.

Elizabeth worries more about Gordy’s retribution than the strange man. Gordy catches the girls alone one day and grabs Elizabeth, who denies breaking up the hut; he pulls her hair and threatens to kill them if they mention the man to anyone. Barbara’s appearance saves them.

Months later, the girls follow Gordy and Doug again when they enter the woods. Elizabeth suggests that the man is a Nazi spy and that Gordy is sharing military secrets. The girls see the man talking quietly with Gordy and Doug: He is unkempt, sad-faced, and looks even younger than Jimmy. Elizabeth realizes that the man is Gordy’s brother Stuart, a deserter. Both she and Margaret are outraged that Stuart gets to stay home while their own brothers fight. Margaret wants to tell her father, but Elizabeth makes her promise to wait until they have had their revenge on Gordy.

Margaret remembers how the other older boys used to tease Stuart, whom Jimmy stood up for, calling him “the little poet” (72). Margaret thinks Jimmy would not want her to turn Stuart in, and she imagines how she would feel if it were Jimmy in Stuart’s place.