Shirley Jackson is best known for her shocking short story
"The Lottery"; however, one of her most delightful tales is "Charles." It is the story
of a little terror in the kindergarten class named Charles. Laurie, a fellow
kindergartner, comes home and tells his parents--with great glee--all about how awful
Charles has been in class each day. Laurie's parents are afraid their son is picking up
bad habits from Charles, so his mother addresses the issue with the kindergarten teacher
at the PTA meeting--only to discover that Charles is actually Laurie's alter-ego. The
bad boy was Laurie.
The incident to which you refer is
found about a third of the way through the story; Laurie is recounting his day to his
father:
“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.”
In short, the answer to
your question is that the rest of the kids stayed simply to watch him. Not very
exciting, especially since their rebellious hero simply sat there and served out his
punishment--this time.
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