Mother was always shoving me out in the world, Meg said. Shed want me to do this. You know she would. Tell her she started, choked, then held up her head and said, No. Never mind. Ill tell her myself.
Good girl. Of course you will.
Now Meg walked slowly around the great table to where Mrs Whatsit was still poised between the columns. Are you going with me?
No. Only Mrs Which.
The Black Thing Fear made her voice tremble. When Father tessered me through it, it almost got me.
Your father is singularly inexperienced, Mrs Whatsit said, though a fine man, and worth teaching. At the moment he still treats tessering as though he were working with a machine. We will not let the Black Thing get you. I dont think.
This was not exactly comforting.
The momentary vision and faith that had come to Meg dwindled. But suppose I cant get Charles Wallace away from IT
Stop. Mrs Whatsit held up her hand. We gave you gifts the last time we took you to Camazotz. We will not let you go empty handed this time. But what we can give you now is nothing you can touch with your hands. I give you my love, Meg. Never forget that. My love always.
Mrs Who, eyes shining behind spectacles, beamed at Meg. Meg felt in her blazer pocket and handed back the spectacles she had used on Camazotz.
Your father is right. Mrs Who took the spectacles and hid them somewhere in the folds of her robes. The virtue is gone from them. And what I have to give you this time you must try to understand not word by word, but in a flash, as you understand the tesseract. Listen, Meg. Listen well. The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought thingsthat are. She paused, and then she said, T 
May the right prevail. Her spectacles seemed to flicker. Behind her, through her, one of the columns became visible. There was a final gleam from the glasses, and she was gone. Meg looked nervously to where Mrs Whatsit had been standing before Mrs Who spoke. But Mrs Whatsit was no longer there.
No! Mr Murry cried, and stepped towards Meg.
Mrs Whichs voice came through her shimmer. I ccannnott hholldd yyourr hanndd, chilldd.
Immediately Meg was swept into darkness, into nothingness, and then into the icy devouring cold of the Black Thing. Mrs Which wont let it get me, she thought over and over while the cold of the Black Thing seemed to crunch at her bones.
Then they were through it, and she was standing breathlessly on her feet on the same hill on which they had first landed on Camazotz. She was cold and a little numb, but no worse than she had often been in the winter in the country when she had spent an afternoon skating on the pond. She was completely alone. Her heart began to pound.
Then, seeming to echo from all around her, came Mrs Whichs unforgettable voice. I hhave nnott ggivenn yyou mmyy ggifftt. Yyou hhave ssomethinngg thattITThhass nnott. Thiss ssomethinngg iss yyourr onlly wweapponn. Bbutt yyou mmusstt ffinndd itt fforr yyourrssellff. Then the voice ceased, and Meg knew that she was alone.
She walked slowly down the hill, her heart thumping painfully against her ribs. There below her was the same row of identical houses they had seen before, and beyond these the linear buildings of the city. She walked along the quiet street. It was dark and the street was deserted. No children playing ball or skipping rope. No mother figures at the doors. No father figures returning from work. In the same window of each house was a light, and as Meg walked down the street all the lights were extinguished simultaneously. Was it because of her presence, or was it simply that it was time for lights out?
She felt numb, beyond rage or disappointment or even fear. She put one foot ahead of the other with precise regularity, not allowing her pace to lag. She was not thinking; she was not planning; she was simply walking slowly but steadily towards the city and the domed building where IT lay.
Now she approached the outlying buildings of the city. In each of them was a vertical line of light, but it was a dim, eerie light, not the warm light of stairways in cities at home. And there were no isolated brightly lit windows where someone was working late, or an office was being cleaned. Out of each building came one man, perhaps a watchman, and each man started walking the width of the building. They appeared not to see her. At any rate they paid no attention to her whatsoever, and she went on past them.
What have I got that IT hasnt got? she thought suddenly. What have I possibly got?
Now she was walking by the tallest of the business buildings. More dim vertical lines of light. The walls glowed slightly to give a faint illumination to the streets. CENTRAL Central Intelligence was ahead of her. Was the man with red eyes still sitting there? Or was he allowed to go to bed? But this was not where she must go, though the man with red eyes seemed the kind old gentleman he claimed to be when compared with IT. But he was no longer of any consequence in the search for Charles Wallace. She must go directly to IT.
IT isnt used to being resisted. Father said thats how he managed, and how Calvin and I managed as long as we did. Father saved me then. Theres nobody here to save me now. I have to do it myself. I have to resist IT by myself. Is that what I have that IT hasnt got? No, Im sure IT can resist, IT just isnt used to having other people resist.
CENTRAL Central Intelligence with its huge rectangle blocked the end of the square. She turned to walk round it, and almost imperceptibly her steps slowed.
It was not far to the great dome which housed IT.
Im going to Charles Wallace. Thats whats important. Thats what I have to think of. I wish I could feel numb again the way I did at first. Suppose IT has him somewhere else? Suppose he isnt there?
I have to go there first, anyhow. Thats the only way I can find out.
Her steps got slower and slower as she passed the great bronzed doors, the huge slabs of the CENTRAL Central Intelligence Building, as she finally saw ahead of her the strange, light, pulsing dome of IT.
Father said it was all right for me to be afraid. He said to go ahead and be afraid. And Mrs Who said I dont understand what she said but I think it was meant to make me not hate being only me, and me being the way I am. And Mrs Whatsit said to remember that she loves me. Thats what I have to think about. Not about being afraid. Or not as smart as IT. Mrs Whatsit loves me. Thats quite something, to be loved by someone like Mrs Whatsit.
She was there.
No matter how slowly her feet had taken her at the end, they had taken her there.
Directly ahead of her was the circular building, its walls glowing with violet flame, its silvery roof pulsing with a light that seemed to Meg to be insane. Again she could feel the light, neither warm nor cold, but reaching out to touch her, pulling her towards IT.
There was a sudden sucking, and she was within.
It was as though the wind had been knocked out of her. She gasped for breath, for breath in her own rhythm, not the permeating pulsing of IT. She could feel the inexorable beat within her body, controlling her heart, her lungs.
But not herself. Not Meg. It did not quite have her.
She blinked her eyes rapidly and against the rhythm until the redness before them cleared and she could see. There was the brain, there was IT, lying pulsing and quivering on the dais, soft and exposed and nauseating. Charles Wallace was crouched beside IT, his eyes still slowly twirling, his jaw still slack, as she had seen him before, with a tic in his forehead reiterating the revolting rhythm of IT.