Sandra is a young member of the “The Good Neighbors’ Club”. Throughout the story she makes observations of people and expresses thoughts on them. This is how she describes Kerry Stevens, a young boy who is also a member of the club:
His blacked licked-down hair and slitty eyes. Some people you only have to look at to know they’re not up to much
Her observations are altered by the fact that she has discovered she will not have her friend Susie as her partner, so she cannot have a "bit of a giggle".
Another thing that makes this an unfair judge of character is that she is only thinking about his appearance. This is all that Sandra is concerned with at first, but does change at the end of the story.
There is not much said about Kerry within the story, he is a typical teenage boy with acne.
They have both been appointed by Pat to visit Mrs. Rutter and keep her company for a while.
They expect her to be like the many other old people they have visited, which is shown early on in the story where the narrator describes the stereotypical sign in the library advertising “The Good Neighbors’ Club”:
“Come and have fun giving a helping hand to the old folks. Adopt a granny.”
And the jokey cartoon drawing of a dear old bod with specs on the end of her nose and a shawl.
The story is set within Potters end, a dark and fairly grim place that was witness to a German airplane crash during WWII. This is an important factor of the story, as it reveals the truth about what Mrs. Rutter is really like, and changes Sandra’s thought on older people, as well as Kerry.
She thinks that Mrs. Rutter will be old and kind and that “old Mrs. Rutter with her wonky leg would be ever so pleased to see them because they were really sweet, lots of the old people”.
She tells Sandra and Kerry about the plane crash whilst drinking tea and of how she went up close to it and had seen the crew, one of them was “Sort of moaning.”
She continues to describe the accident:
“there was three of them, two in the font and they were dead, you could see that all right, one of them had his . . .”
This is when Sandra, who is shocked at what she is hearing, interrupts her.
Nevertheless, Mrs. Rutter continues to talk about the man in the back “who was bashed up pretty nasty”. She also tells them that she had never been very squeamish, which neither of them would have expected.
Even Kerry, who we would expect to act tough and boisterous, is shocked:
The boy’s spoon clattered to the floor; he did not move.
This could also show that he is deeply intrigued by the old ladies story.
Over quite a short period of time, their thoughts of Mrs. Rutter have been altered dramatically.
Instead of Kerry imagining her as a dear old lady, he instead refers to her as “that old bitch.”
Mrs. Rutter doesn’t realize she has disturbed the two helpers, as when she discovers they are leaving she says:
You’re off, are you? That was nice of you to see my little jobs for me. Tell what’s-er-name to send someone next week if she can, I like having someone young about the place, once in a while. I’ve got a sympathy with young people. Here – you’re forgetting your pretty jacket, Sandra, what’s the hurry?
The fact that Sandra almost forgot her jacket is more evidence that she has become shocked at Mrs. Rutter’s story.
Sandra’s misjudgment of the old lady also makes her realize she has misjudged Kerry as well:
He had grown; he had got older and larger. His anger eclipsed his acne, the patches of grease on his jeans, his lardy midriff. You could get people all wrong, she realised with alarm. You could get people wrong and there was a darkness that was not the darkness of tree shadows and murky undergrowth and you could not draw the curtains and keep it out because it was in your head, once known, in your head for ever like lines from a song.
These lines clearly show she has changed the way she thinks about other people and the way in which she will view the world from now on. She says it will be with her forever and she will never be without it now that she knows what it is. She will never be able to see a person, no matter how nice and innocent they look, as just that.
This shows clearly that the writer has used deceptive appearances as a strong theme in this story. She has used the theme to make the reader consider many aspects of life, including judgement of character.
