The Fifth Child: Pages 74 – 96 Summary & Analysis

A few days later, Frederick calls to say that a place has been found and a car will come for Ben the next morning. Harriet realizes that David has been working to arrange this privately, David says that Ben “has probably just dropped in from Mars. He’s going back to report on what he’s found down here.” Harriet realizes that Ben is not expected to live long once he gets to the institution and admonishes David, saying that Ben is their child. David denies that Ben is his. David and Harriet observe the children playing in the backyard and note how far they’ve come from their wild, free youths.

In the morning, a black van shows up. David loads the bags he’s packed for Ben into the car and then deposits Ben in the car, too. They hear Ben’s screams as the car pulls away, and David assures Harriet they had no choice. Harriet weeps with shock, relief, and gratitude. When the children arrive home from school, they’re told Ben is gone and they express joyful relief. At dinner, Jane asks if her parents will send the other children away, too. Luke assures Jane that Ben was sent away because he wasn’t really one of them.

The family thrives in Ben’s absence, but Harriet can’t distract herself from thinking about how Ben is prisoner somewhere and she is overcome with guilt and horror. One morning she wakes up and says that she must visit Ben. David tells her not to, but Harriet phones Molly and convinces her to share the address. Harriet drives the five hours to the institution. She waits a long time for a girl to come to the front desk, and Harriet realizes that no one visits their children here. While she waits for the girl to retrieve a manager, Harriet hears high screams coming from the wards. Finally, a young man in a dirty lab coat emerges with the girl. He tells Harriet she can’t visit Ben, but Harriet insists.

The young man says he’ll retrieve Ben, but Harriet lets herself through the door, wanting to see what it is they’re trying to keep from her. Harriet walks through a ward of malformed children, drugged into sleep or silence. She finds the attendants entering a cell. In a padded room, she sees Ben laying on a foam mattress soaked in urine and smeared with excrement, wearing only a strait-jacket, unconscious. The two attendants carry Ben to a bath and wash him down, before dressing him in a fresh strait-jacket.

Harriet thinks Ben almost looks normal, unconscious as he is, and Harriet decides to take him home. The young woman asks Harriet what she’ll do with him, saying she’s never seen a child so strong. They advise Harriet on how to get him home and tell her that no one lasts in this job longer than a few weeks. They load Ben into Harriet’s car and the young man gives Harriet some drugs to subdue Ben when he comes to. Harriet asks how long Ben would have survived at the institution and the two attendants tell her he wouldn’t have lived long because of the large amount of drugs it took to subdue such a strong child.

On the way home, Ben wakes up and screams with fear. When Harriet pulls over and looks at Ben, she feels as though he doesn’t recognize her. She injects him with the sedative and arrives home at night. She carries Ben into the house and faces her family, explaining that the institution was killing Ben, which frightens the children. Harriet takes Ben to his room where he wakes up, screaming. She feeds him and then injects him again.

Harriet defends herself against David’s anger saying that if he would have seen what they were doing to Ben, David would have saved Ben, too. David counters that he was careful not to see. Harriet says that what’s done is done and David calls out “done” as the key word. The children, tear-stained, refuse to look their mother in the eye. David sleeps in another bedroom.

Harriet repeats the cycle of feeding and sedating Ben. She tries to reassure Ben that he is home and safe and that if he behaves she will take off the strait-jacket. He struggles and Harriet sees that the police have come to the house because of the disturbance. David sends them away. When the children are due home, Harriet, again, asks Ben to quiet down, and exhausted, he complies. She bathes him and threatens to put the strait-jacket back on him if he misbehaves, realizing that she must use fear to control Ben. Finally it seems as though Ben recognizes her. Harriet remains with Ben that night, feeling as though she is shielding the rest of the family from him as she reteaches him all the social skills he lost in the institution, but the family feels as though she has chosen Ben over them.

The first time Ben sees David, he hisses, remembering it was David who put him in the van. David doesn’t apologize, now believing that Ben is Harriet’s responsibility, and the other (“real”) children his own. Ben resumes copying the other children and things return to the way they were before Ben left, except for Ben’s distrust of David. Harriet hires a young man named John to come help clean up the garden, and Ben takes a liking to him immediately. John is kind but firm with Ben, bossing him around like a puppy that needs training. Harriet goes to the café where she knows John hangs out with some of his other unemployed friends. She asks if John would be willing to care for Ben during the day until he’s old enough to go to school, and John accepts the offer.

John arrives each morning to pick up Ben on his motorbike. Family life is improved if distant. David returns to sleep with Harriet and Harriet begins taking the Pill, indicating a growing lack of trust in Nature. Harriet asks if Dorothy might watch the children so that she and David can have a weekend away together. They go to the countryside. Harriet suggests having more children and David bristles at the idea. Harriet says that another Ben couldn’t happen and David asks if they’re just supposed to forget the children she’s already neglecting.  Harriet suggests that another child might draw the family together. In David’s silence, Harriet recognizes what a bad idea it is. David asks what they should do about Paul, who is damaged by the way he’s been refused attention because of all that his younger brother requires. Harriet hopes he’ll get over it, but David disagrees.

Some people visit for the summer holidays because Harriet has explained that Ben is hardly ever home. Molly and Frederick do not attend, unable to forgive Harriet for bringing Ben home. Among the guests is Deborah, newly divorced. Ben has become a mascot for John’s group of friends, treating Ben roughly, ordering him about, calling him “Dopey, Dwarfey, Alien Two, Hobbit, and Gremlin.” David picks up extra work, and much of this money goes toward paying for outings for Ben. Ben is moved to a regular bedroom, where they can no longer lock him in for fear of his protest. This causes the other children to lock their own doors, barring Harriet from tucking them in or checking on them. On the rare occasions when Ben observes Harriet tucking the other children in, he doesn’t seem to understand the gesture. Sometimes Harriet wakes to find Ben watching her sleep.