After the story Sandra and Kerry are terrified and leave hastily. Sandra has learned that people are not always what they seem to be.
B) Essay.
The environment in the short story is very well described and we get a good image of how everything looks. On page one we hear about how "she walked through the thicker grass by the hedge and felt it drag at her legs and thought of swimming in warm seas (ll. 37-38)". Next to her is the wood, Packer's End, which is dark and scary and where nobody dares go by themselves, because of the "ghostlike voices coming out of the darkness of the wood (ll. 20-21)". I like this contrast between the dark and the light, and how they are placed right next to each other.
We also about Mrs Rutter's cottage which I think is described in a very gloomy manner: "The room was stuffy. It had lino floor with pattern rubbed away in front of the sink and round the table; the walls were cluttered with old calendars and pictures torn from magazines; there was a smell of cabbage (ll. 67-70)." This and the fact that she lives secluded and close to Packer's End, both give her a touch of mystery, and sets the mood for the rest of the story.
Mrs Rutter is a little round lady with a moon-shaped face below which cheeks collapse one into another. She has been living alone ever since her sister died two years ago. She appears to be a sweet and content old lady, although her way of talking to Sandra and Kerry sounds a bit patronizing. That might also be the reason why Kerry is not very fond of her. .
She has been a widow for a long time, ever since she lost her husband in Belgium in the beginning of the war, and this is probably the reason why she has such a great dislike for the Germans, and finds it "tit for tat" that three of them die as payback for her husband.
Sandra is a beautiful young lady who likes to help others, but she is a bit ignorant. When she was young she was afraid of Packer's End because there might be wolves and witches lurking in the dark.