The Ocean at the End of the Lane

In the morning, the narrator’s foot seems to be healing. His mother announces that she has a new job as an optometrist, and a woman named Ursula Monkton will live with them and look after him and his sister. He goes outside, climbs a tree, reads, and then returns inside for some food. Ursula is there: She’s tall, pretty, and friendly, and the boy’s sister says she wants to be just like her. When the boy sees the woman, he feels a twinge in his chest and imagines sails flapping under an orange sky. He’s now certain that letting go of Lettie’s hand caused Ursula to appear: “I would not be able to get rid of her by flushing her down a plug hole” (75).

The narrator’s mother leaves for work, and Ursula appears outside with sandwiches. The boy fears they contain worms; he grabs several fruits from the kitchen and hides in an old shed out back. He eats some fruit, stores the rest, and sneaks off to Lettie’s farm using a back way. However, Ursula is somehow waiting for him on the lane, and takes him home. On the way, she says his parents will probably sell their home, and the back property will be converted into houses. The boy asks, “Who are you really? Why are you giving people money?” (79). Ursula replies that money makes people happy.

The narrator runs for the house, but Ursula is already inside when he gets there. She warns him that she knows him, and that she can make it so he can never tell anyone about her. He goes to his bedroom, his foot and chest throbbing, and reads. Then, the boy sneaks into his parents’ room and dials Directory Enquiries, hoping to get the Hempstocks’ phone number, but Ursula answers and scolds him.

The narrator’s parents return from their jobs and set out a delicious dinner, but he won’t eat. He tries to tell his mother that Ursula is bad, but she dismisses the idea. Later, lying in bed, he fervently wishes to contact the Hempstocks. The boy can’t sleep, so he creeps downstairs, sits on the third step, and listens to Ursula talking to his father. She sounds agreeable, but suddenly appears at the stairs and coldly tells him to go back to bed. He says he wants to talk to his father, but she’s unmoving. He goes upstairs and sleeps fitfully.

The next day, Ursula again warns the narrator to behave. He goes to the shed, eats his stashed fruit, and reads one of his mother’s books about a girl sent to the wrong school; the girl is hated until she proves her geography teacher is an evil spy, whereupon she’s finally accepted.

The narrator’s father returns home early. He and Ursula spend time together, talking or walking in the gardens, which he shows off as if he planted everything. Ursula laughs at his jokes; sometimes, he touches her shoulder and once, he touches her rear. He presents her with flowers from the garden. The boy knows Ursula’s a monster, but he’s afraid to say so for fear she’ll get his father to rage at him. His father never hits him because his own parents hit him; still, anger paralyzes the boy, who’d rather be spanked than endure this fear.

At dinner, the narrator refuses to eat Ursula’s cooking. His father insists he eat, but despite his great hunger, the boy stands firm. His father demands that the boy apologize to Ursula and finish his meal. The boy runs upstairs and locks himself in the bathroom. His father pounds on the door, then breaks it open. He grabs the boy, fills the tub with cold water, and pushes his head underwater.

Fearing he’s going to die, the narrator grabs his father’s necktie and tries to pull himself up out of the freezing water. He gets so close to his father’s face that the man can’t dunk him again without going under himself. He stands and lets his son drop to the floor, then orders the boy to his room.

In his bedroom, the narrator removes his soaked clothes. The room has a fireplace; shivering, the boy lights it, uses his bedspread to dry himself, then puts on pajamas and a robe. His sister comes in. She grabs some things, tells him that she’s not supposed to even talk to him, and goes to their parents’ room to watch TV; she sounds satisfied. Ursula arrives, guides the girl away, then switches off the fireplace. She warns, “I have things to do here, and you are getting in my way. Next time it will be so much worse” (103). Remembering the Hempstocks’ term for the irritating specters that populate their farm, the boy calls her a “flea.” She locks him in.

The narrator cries, then switches off the light and quietly sneaks out through the window into the rainy night. He finds the drain pipe and fearfully climbs down it, past the TV room. His father and Ursula aren’t there, but he sees them through the drawing-room window: His father is holding her from behind, and her skirt is hiked up. He doesn’t understand what they’re doing, but doesn’t care, as long as Ursula is distracted.

Barefoot, the narrator hurries down the lane toward the Hempstocks. He’s worried that Ursula has somehow gotten between his father and mother. If they decide to search for him, they’ll be in a car, so he jumps over a fence and runs across fields. The boy tries to crawl under a fence, but it’s electrified and shocks him. He finds a nearby gate, climbs over it, and continues forward. A bolt of lightning guides him; but soon, he’s uncertain where he is. The storm gets more intense.

Suddenly, the narrator hears Ursula’s voice. She floats 20 feet above him, lightning crackling beyond her. She grins toothily and says, “Oh, sweety-weety-pudding-and-pie, you are in so much trouble” (114). Despite the rain, she’s dry. Ursula says she’ll put him in the attic, where her “friends” who hate children will visit and torment him. When she tires of it, she’ll have his father finish the job and drown him.

Despite knowing it’s hopeless, the narrator runs, while Ursula floats beside him, whispering in his ear. Finally, he falls and pees on himself. A black kitten nuzzles his hand. The boy hugs the kitten and stands, saying he refuses to go with Ursula. She says, “You’re just a little boy. I’m a grown-up. I was an adult when your world was a ball of molten rock. I can do whatever I wish to you. Now, stand up. I’m taking you home” (118).

Suddenly, Lettie appears, wearing a red raincoat. She orders Ursula off her farm. She takes the narrator’s hand, then wraps herself around him protectively. Ursula says she bided her time and took her chance to escape to this world, where everything is fragile and people want simple things. She plans to gorge herself on all of it. Lettie makes the surrounding grass, bushes, and trees glow golden, brighter and brighter, until the light flares up and pushes Ursula, flailing, off into the night. The glow fades.

The narrator worries Ursula will come back, and Lettie admits it’s possible. They walk toward her farmhouse. She says the kitten he found is the one he pulled up from the fields: If he listens, the kitten will tell him her name.

In the farmhouse kitchen, Old Mrs. Hempstock prepares a stew. Lettie’s mother Ginnie drags out a large metal tub and fills it with steaming water for the narrator’s bath. He takes off his clothes, embarrassed at his nakedness, and steps into the water. The Hempstocks take his torn clothes away to be repaired. Old Mrs. Hempstock hands the boy a mug of stew. She then gives him soap, and he cleans himself. He towels off, and Lettie gives him a large, white nightgown like the one worn by Wee Willie Winkie in the nursery rhymes.

The group sits for a meal of beef, buttered greens, roast potatoes and carrots, and apple pie and custard (128). The narrator asks why there are no men at Hempstock Farm. Old Mrs. Hempstock says they’re not much use, as the male Hempstocks always get wanderlust and leave. She suddenly adds that the badgers have just informed her that the boy’s parents are driving over. He’s afraid Ursula is with them, and will put him in the attic and later have him killed. Ginnie assures him that they won’t let this happen. Still, the boy is afraid to go home.

The kitten feeds on some beef, then curls up in the narrator’s lap and goes to sleep. Old Mrs. Hempstock works on the boy’s torn dressing gown while the family discusses options. They briefly consider altering time, reshaping reality, and converting the boy into something his parents won’t recognize.

There’s a knock at the front door, and Ginnie brings in the narrator’s parents. They see him and start to walk toward him just as Old Mrs. Hempstock slices through a piece of fabric: It falls to the table, and the parents stop moving, frozen in place. Ginnie explains that the fabric contains the father’s memory of the bathtub incident. Removing it from him means he’ll have no reason to be angry. The boy notes that he hadn’t told them about the incident.

Old Mrs. Hempstock continues to sew. Lettie asks the narrator what his toothbrush looks like; he remembers it and she says, “Got it!” Old Mrs. Hempstock finishes sewing up the boy’s gown; she snips off a bit of sewing thread, and the boy’s parents move again. They’re a bit confused, but Ginnie talks about how glad she is that they’ve let their boy spend the night. The father reaches into a pocket and produces the boy’s toothbrush: “You forgot your toothbrush […] Thought you’d want it” (135). His mother wonders at what her son is wearing, and Ginnie explains that there was a small accident, and his pajamas are drying.

The narrator’s parents leave, and he wonders how the Hempstocks managed everything. Old Mrs. Hempstock hands him his gown, stitched perfectly. She says he can keep the fabric she removed, with its memory of the bathtub incident, but suggests he burn it. The boy asks if burning the fabric will make the entire incident disappear from reality. Ginnie asks him what result he wants. He wants to remember it. He tosses the fabric into the fire and retains his memory.

Suddenly, the narrator writhes on the floor, his foot and chest in pain. His foot feels like it’s been burnt. Ginnie examines his foot while he explains the worm. The Hempstocks say Ursula was using the boy as a back door to her world. Old Mrs. Hempstock sticks her sewing needle into the hole in the boy’s foot—which doesn’t hurt—and pulls out something translucent, a hole shaped like a worm. It takes a while, but she gets the entire thing out, and the boy’s foot looks healed.

The Hempstocks put the strange thing in an empty jam jar: It floats lazily in the middle of the jar, as if it’s in water. The narrator apologizes for letting go of Lettie’s hand and letting Ursula get into his foot. Lettie says he knows to hold tighter next time. The boy and Lettie take candles and go into the main part of the farmhouse; the kitten follows. They walk upstairs, past a window with a full moon—unlike the crescent the day before, which Old Mrs. Hempstock prefers full—and, near the top of the house, they arrive at a room with a blazing fire and a bed with bedposts. Lettie sleeps in the next room; the boy is to shout or knock if he needs anything.

The narrator climbs into bed, and the kitten jumps up with him. He remembers nearly drowning, running through the night, and the monster kissing his father: “The dread had not left my soul” (146). The kitten purrs contentedly next to his face, and he drifts off.