Three Knocks on the Wall

While burying a dead robin beside the tall wooden fence that separates the Hutchinson yard from the house next door, Marty hears three knocks come from the other side of the wall. Her first reaction is to freeze. Knocking on a wall seems like something only a person who has lost her wits would do, and neighborhood talk says old Mrs. Hutchinson has. She lives alone with her unmarried daughter and sees no one. When the knocking starts again, Marty begins to wonder who is behind that ten-foot barrier and why they have chosen to stay there.

Finding out who is on the other side is easier than finding a way to help. For a long time, Marty and her new unseen friend can only talk through the wall, and Marty must be patient. Then a deadly flu epidemic takes hold of the town, Marty can no longer come to the wall, and the friend on the other side at last steps outside it.

The story is set in a small Oregon town during World War I. Evelyn Sibley Lampman brings that time and place to life, along with the people who live in it, and her characters are drawn with human warmth and drama as the story moves toward its ending.