We Have Always Lived in the Castle

by Shirley Jackson

wishing, as I always did, that I could walk home across the sky instead of through the village.

and I wanted to laugh. There was something so simple and silly about the spoon going around while Jim Donell talked; I wondered if he would stop talking if I reached out and took hold of the spoon.

this is so funny

very likely he would throw the coffee in my face.

me at work

When Jim Donell thought of something to say he said it as often and in as many ways as possible, perhaps because he had very few ideas and had to wring each one dry.

YEPPPPP

I put my hands quietly in my lap. I am living on the moon, I told myself, I have a little house all by myself on the moon.

these lines are prob gonna make this my favorite classic ngl

she managed to make the simple act of moving into a room and sitting down a complex ballet for three people;

and although there were enough chairs in the room and another sofa, she sat finally uncomfortably close to Constance,

back. I had to content myself with smashing the milk pitcher which waited on the table; it had been our mother’s and I left the pieces on the floor so Constance would see them.

Go away, I told her in my mind. Go away, go away.

“Taste, madam? Have you ever tasted arsenic?

damn okay Julian go off😭😳

although I do not think that she anticipated anything so severe as arsenic on her blackberries.

We relied upon Constance for various small delicacies which only she could provide; I am of course not referring to arsenic.”

puhleaseee😭

I can’t help it when people are frightened; I always want to frighten them more.”

All the omens spoke of change.

mornings I examined my safeguards, the box of silver dollars I had buried by the creek, and the doll buried in the long field, and the book nailed to the tree in the pine woods; so long as they were where I had put them nothing could get in to harm us.

I had buried all my baby teeth as they came out one by one and perhaps someday they would grow as dragons.

I wrote the first word—melody—in the apricot jam on my toast with the handle of a spoon and then put the toast in my mouth and ate it very quickly.

“I’m Dr. Levy. I’ve come to see you instead.” “Rather have Jack Mason.” “I’ll do the best I can.” “Always said I’d outlive the old fool.” Uncle Julian laughed thinly. “Why are you pretending with me? Jack Mason died three years ago.”

I took a glass from the cabinet, and said the word very distinctly into the glass, then filled it with water and drank.

“Remember, now,” he said. “And I’ll see you next Saturday.” “Quack,” Uncle Julian said.

I came directly to the rock covering the spot where the doll was buried; I could always find it although much of my buried treasure was forever lost.

I was on my way back to the house when I found a very bad omen, one of the worst. My book nailed to a tree in the pine woods had fallen down. I decided that the nail had rusted away and the book—it

It was because the book had fallen from the tree; I had neglected to replace it at once and our wall of safety had cracked.

I took my glass and smashed it on the floor.

“Charles is intrepid. Your cooking, although it is of a very high standard indeed, has certain disadvantages.”

uncle julian wildin😭😭

“Now you will go outside,” Constance said quietly to Uncle Julian, “and the sun will be warm and the garden will be bright and you will have broiled liver for your lunch.” “Perhaps not,” Uncle Julian said. “Perhaps I had better have just an egg.”

this man does not gaf im crying😭😭 "and for the lady.. perhaps a salad?" "perhaps not- i'll have the steak. smothered in onions"

“Then it will take him four or five hours to get home again?” “I suppose so. When he goes.” “But first he will have to walk back to the village?” “Unless you take him on your winged horse.” “I don’t have any winged horse,” I said.

this is so ??😭

Charles had only gotten in because the magic was broken; if I could reseal the protection around Constance and shut Charles out he would have to leave the house. Every touch he made on the house must be erased. “Charles is a ghost,” I said, and Constance sighed.

In the drawing room we dusted the golden-legged chairs and the harp, and everything sparkled at us, even the blue dress in the portrait of our mother.

looking up and pretending that the ceiling was the floor and I was sweeping,

I lay back against the tree trunk and thought of magic; if Charles had not gone away before three days I would smash the mirror in the hall.

😳

I had made sure of what to say to him before I came to the table. “The Amanita phalloides,” I said to him, “holds three different poisons. There is amanitin, which works slowly and is most potent. There is phalloidin, which acts at once, and there is phallin, which dissolves red corpuscles, although it is the least potent. The first symptoms do not appear until seven to twelve hours after eating, in some cases not before twenty-four or even forty hours. The symptoms begin with violent stomach pains, cold sweat, vomiting—”

i-

“Old witch,” I said, “you have a gingerbread house.” “I do not,” Constance said. “I have a lovely house where I live with my sister Merricat.”

I wondered about going down to the creek, but I had no reason to suppose that the creek would even be there, since I never visited it on Tuesday mornings;

I would not touch the ring; the thought of a ring around my finger always made me feel tied tight, because rings had no openings to get out of,

“I’ll take it up and put it back in the box where it belongs,” Charles said. No one but me noticed that he knew where it had been kept.

“Jonas is asleep in the lettuce,” I said. “There is nothing I like more than cat fur in my salad,” Constance said amiably.

Time was running shorter, tightening around our house, crushing me. I thought it might be time to smash the big mirror in the hall,

That evening Constance played for us in the drawing room, the tall curve of her harp making shadows against our mother’s portrait and the soft notes falling into the air like petals.

“I cannot work in here if that young man is going to talk all the time,” Uncle Julian

so real

you have taken far too much of my time. Please be extremely quiet now.”

Our mother had once seen a rat in the doorway looking in and nothing after that could persuade her there again, and where our mother did not go, no one else went.

I disliked having a fork pointed at me and I disliked the sound of the voice never stopping; I wished he would put food on the fork and put it into his mouth and strangle himself.

“Has everyone gone crazy in here?” Jim Clarke was saying from inside, and there was a shout of laughter. “Would you like a cup of tea?” someone inside screamed,

Jonas sat on the doorstep in the growing sunlight looking at the kitchen with astonishment; once he raised his eyes to me and I wondered if he thought that Constance and I had made this mess.

I was shocked when we came into the drawing room to see our mother’s portrait looking down on us graciously while her drawing room lay destroyed around her.

one of my favorite lines from this.

“they’re in there and they can hear me, I know it.” “I’m sure they can hear you,” Jim Clarke said. “They can probably hear you in the village.”

cleared part ??

Constance lay on the floor near the stove; it was dark, but I could see the paleness of her face across the kitchen. “Are you comfortable?” I asked her, and she laughed.

“They are the children of the strangers,” I told her. “They have no faces.” “They have eyes.”

“And yours needs washing, and mending; how can you tear your clothes so, my Merricat?” “I shall weave a suit of leaves. At once. With acorns for buttons.”