The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories

by Connie Willis

  But I didn’t smell it. I wandered up and down the passages of the Central and Northern and District Lines, stood on each of the platforms, waited in the corners near the stairways for over an hour, and nothing.

  It doesn’t happen all the time, I thought, taking the Circle Line to Liverpool Street. There’s some other factor—the time of day or the temperature or the weather. Maybe the winds only blew when London was experiencing an inversion layer. I should have checked the weather this morning, I thought.

  Whatever the factor was, there was nothing at Liverpool Street, either, but at Euston the wind hit me full force a minute I had stepped off the train—a violent blast of soot and dread and charred wood. Even though I knew what it was now, I had to lean against the cold tiled wall a minute, till my heart stopped pounding, and the dry taste of fear in my mouth subsided.

  I waited for the next train and the next, but the wind didn’t repeat itself, and I went down to the Victoria Line, thought a minute, and went back up to the surface to ask the ticket seller if the tracks at Bounds Green were above-ground.

  “I believe they are, sir,” he said in a thick Scottish brogue.

  “What about Balham?”

  He looked alarmed. “Balham’s the other way. It’s not on the same line either.”

  “I know,” I said. “Are they? Above-ground?”

  He shook his head. “I’m afraid I don’t know, sir. Sorry. If you’re going to Balham, you go down to the Northern Line and take the train to Tooting Bec and Morden. Not the one to Elephant and Castle.”

  I nodded. Balham was even farther out in the suburbs than Bounds Green. The tracks were almost certain to be above-ground, but it was still worth a try.

  Balham had taken the worst hit of any of the stations. The bomb had fallen just short of the station, but in the worst possible place. It had plunged the station into darkness, smashed the water and sewer pipes and the gas mains. Filthy water had rushed into the station in torrents, flooding the pitch-black passages, pouring down the stairs and into the tunnels. Three hundred people had drowned. And how could that not still be there, even if Balham was above-ground? And if it was there, the smell of sewage and gas and darkness would be unmistakable.

  I didn’t follow the ticket vendor’s directions. I detoured to Blackfriars, since it was nearly on the way, and stood around its yellow-tiled platforms for half an hour with no result before going on to Balham.

  The train was nearly deserted for most of the long trip. From London Bridge out there were only two people in my car, a middle-aged woman reading a book and, at the far end, a young girl, crying.

  She had spiked hair and a pierced eyebrow, and she cried helplessly, obliviously, making no attempt to wipe her mascaraed cheeks, or even turn her head toward the window.

  I wondered if I should go ask her what was wrong or if the woman with the book would think I was hitting on her. I wasn’t even sure she would be aware of me if I did go over—there was a complete absorption to her sorrow that reminded me of Cath, intent on finding her china. I wondered if that was what had broken this girl’s heart, that they had discontinued her pattern? Or had her friends betrayed her, had affairs, gotten old?

  “Borough,” the automated voice said, and she seemed to come to herself with a jerk, swiped at her cheeks, grabbed up her knapsack, and got off.

  The middle-aged woman stayed on all the way to Balham, never once looking up from her book. When the train pulled in, I went over and stood next to her at the door so I could see what classic of literature she found so fascinating. It was Gone with the Wind.

  But the winds aren’t gone, I thought, leaning against the wall of Balham’s platform, listening for the occasional sound of an incoming train, futilely waiting for a blast of sewage and methane and darkness. The winds of the Blitz are still here, endlessly blowing through the tunnels and passages of the tube like ghosts, wandering reminders of fire and flood and destruction.

  If that was what they were. Because there was no smell of filthy water at Balham, or any indication that any had ever been there. The air in the passages was dry and dusty. There wasn’t even a hint of mildew.

  And even if there had been, it still wouldn’t explain Holborn. I waited through three more trains on each side and then caught a train for Elephant and Castle and the Imperial War Museum.

  “Experience the London Blitz,” the poster had said, but the exhibit didn’t have anything about which tube stations had been hit. Its gift shop yielded three more books, though. I scoured them from cover to cover, but there was no mention at all of Holborn or of any bombings near there.

  And if the winds were leftover breezes from the Blitz, why hadn’t I felt them the first time we were here? We had been in the tube all the time, going to the conference, going to plays, going off on the Old Man’s wild hares, and there hadn’t been even a breath of smoke, of sulfur?

  What was different that time? The weather? It had rained nearly nonstop that first time. Could that have affected the inversion layer? Or was it something that had happened since then? Some change in the routing of the trains or the connections between stations?

  I walked back to Elephant and Castle in a light rain. A man in a clerical collar and two boys with white surplices over their arms were coming out of the station. There must be a church nearby, I thought, and realized that could be the solution for Holborn.

  The crypts of churches had been used as shelters during the Blitz. Maybe they had also been used as temporary morgues.

  I looked up “morgue” and then, when that didn’t work, “body disposal.”

  I was right. They had used churches, warehouses, even swimming pools after some of the worst air raids to store bodies. I doubted if there were any swimming pools near Holborn, but there might be a church.

  There was only one way to find out—go back to Holborn and look. I looked at my tube map. Good. I could catch a train straight to Holborn from here. I went down to the Bakerloo Line and got on a northbound train. It was nearly as empty as the one I’d come out on, but when the doors opened at Waterloo, a huge crowd of people surged onto the train.

  It can’t be rush hour yet, I thought, and glanced at my watch. Six-fifteen. Good God. I was supposed to meet Cath at the theater at seven. And I was how many stops from the theater? I pulled out my tube map and clung to the overhead pole, trying to count. Embankment and then Charing Cross and Piccadilly Circus. Five minutes each, and another five to get out of the station in this crush. I’d make it. Barely.

  “Service on the Bakerloo Line has been disrupted from Embankment north,” the automated voice said as we pulled in. “Please seek alternate routes.”

  Not now! I thought, grabbing for my map. Alternate routes. I could take the Northern Line to Leicester Square and then change for Piccadilly Circus. No, it would be faster to get off at Leicester Square and run the extra blocks.

  I raced off the train the minute the doors open and down the corridor to the Northern Line. Five to seven, and I was still two stops away from Leicester Square, and four blocks from the theater. A train was coming in. I could hear its rumble down the corridor. I darted around people, shouting, “Sorry, sorry, sorry,” and burst onto the packed northbound platform.

  The train must have been on the southbound tracks. “Next train 4 min.,” the overhead sign said.

  Great, I thought, hearing it start up, pushing the air in front of it, creating a vacuum in its wake. Embankment had been hit. And that was all I needed right now, a blast from the Blitz.

  I’d no sooner said it than it hit, whipping my hair and my coat lapels back, rattling the unglued edges of a poster for Showboat. There was no blast, no heat, even though Embankment was right on the river, where the fires had been the worst. It was cold, cold, but there was no smell of formaldehyde with it, no stench of decay. Only the icy chill and a smothering smell of dryness and of dust.

  It should have been better than the other ones, but it wasn’t. It was worse. I had to lean against the back wall
of the platform for support, my eyes closed, before I could get on the train.

  What are they? I thought, even though this proved they were the residue of the Blitz. Because Embankment had been hit. And people must have died, I thought. Because it was death I’d smelled. Death and terror and despair.

  I stumbled onto the train. It was jammed tight, and the closeness, the knowledge that any wind, any air, couldn’t reach me through this mass of people, revived me, calmed me, and by the time I pulled in to Leicester Square, I had recovered and was thinking only of how late I was.

  Seven-ten. I could still make it, but just barely. At least Cath had the tickets, and with luck Elliott and Sara would get there in the meantime and they’d all be busy saying hello.

  Maybe the Old Man changed his mind, I thought, and decided to come. Maybe yesterday he’d been under the weather, and tonight he’d be his old self.

  The train pulled in. I raced down the passage, up the escalator, and out onto Shaftesbury. It was raining, but I didn’t have time to worry about it.

  “Tom! Tom!” a breathless voice shouted behind me.

  I turned. Sara was frantically waving at me from half a block away.

  “Didn’t you hear me?” she said breathlessly, catching up to me. “I’ve been calling you ever since the tube.”

  She’d obviously been running. Her hair was mussed, and one end of her scarf dangled nearly to the ground.

  “I know we’re late,” she said, pulling at my arm, “but I must catch my breath. You’re not one of those dreadful men who’ve taken up marathon-running in old age, are you?”

  “No,” I said, moving over in front of a shop and out of the path of traffic.

  “Elliott’s always talking about getting a Stairmaster.” She pulled her dangling scarf off and wrapped it carelessly around her neck. “I have no desire to get in shape.”

  Cath was wrong. That was all there was to it. Her radar had failed her and she was misinterpreting the whole situation.

  I must have been staring. Sara put a defensive hand up to her hair. “I know I look a mess,” she said, putting up her umbrella. “Oh, well. How late are we?”

  “We’ll make it,” I said, taking her arm, and setting off toward the Lyric. “Where’s Elliott?”

  “He’s meeting us at the theater. Did Cath get her china?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t seen her since this morning,” I said.

  “Oh, look, there she is,” Sara said, and began waving.

  Cath was standing in front of the Lyric, next to the water-spotted sign that said, “Tonight’s Performance Sold Out,” looking numb and cold.

  “Why didn’t you wait inside out of the rain?” I said, leading them both into the lobby.

  “We ran into each other coming out of the tube,” Sara said, pulling off her scarf. “Or, rather, I saw Tom. I had to scream to get his attention. “Isn’t Elliott here yet?”

  “No,” Cath said.

  “He and Mr. Evers came back after lunch. The day was not a success, so don’t bring up the subject. Mrs. Evers insisted on buying everything in the entire gift shop, and then we couldn’t find a taxi. Apparently there are no taxis down in Kew. I had to take the tube, and it was blocks to the station.” She put her hand up to her hair. “I got blown to pieces.”

  “Did you change trains at Embankment?” I asked, trying to remember which line went out to Kew Gardens. Maybe she’d felt the wind, too. “Were you on the Bakerloo Line platform?”

  “I don’t remember,” Sara said impatiently. “Is that the line for Kew? You’re the tube expert.”

  “Do you want me to check your coats?” I said hastily.

  Sara handed me hers, jamming her long scarf into one sleeve, but Cath shook her head. “I’m cold.”

  “You should have waited in the lobby,” I said.

  “Should I?” she said, and I looked at her, surprised. Was she mad I was late? Why? We still had fifteen minutes, and Elliott wasn’t even here yet.

  “What’s the matter?” I started to say, but Sara was asking, “Did you get your china?”

  “No,” she said, still with that edge of anger in her voice. “Nobody has it.”

  “Did you try Selfridge’s?” Sara asked, and I went off to check Sara’s coat. When I came back, Elliott was there.

  “Sorry I’m late,” he said. He turned to me. “What happened to you this—”

  “We were all late,” I said, “except Cath, who, luckily, was the one with the tickets. You do have the tickets?”

  Cath nodded and pulled them out of her evening bag. She handed them to me, and we went in. “Right-hand aisle and down to your right,” the usher said. “Row three.”

  “No stairs to climb?” Elliott said. “No ladders?”

  “No rock-axes and pitons,” I said. “No binoculars.”

  “You’re kidding,” Elliott said. “I won’t know how to act.”

  I stopped to buy programs from the usher. By the time we got to Row 3, Cath and Sara were already in their seats. “Good God,” Elliott said as we sidled past the people on the aisle. “I’ll bet you can actually see from here.”

  “Do you want to sit next to Sara?” I said.

  “Good God, no,” Elliott joked. “I want to be able to ogle the chorus girls without her smacking me with her program.”

  “I don’t think it’s that kind of play,” I said.

  “Cath, what’s this play about?” Elliott said.

  She leaned across Sara. “Hayley Mills is in it,” she told him.

  “Hayley Mills,” he said reminiscently, leaning back, his hands behind his head. “I thought she was truly sexy when I was ten years old. Especially that dance number in Bye-Bye, Birdie.”

  “You’re thinking of Ann-Margaret, you fool,” Sara said, reaching across me to smack him with her program. “Hayley Mills was in that one where she’s the little girl who always saw the positive side of things—what was it called?”

  I looked across at Cath, surprised she hadn’t chimed in with the answer—she was the Hayley Mills fan. She was sitting with her coat pulled around her shoulders. Her face looked pinched with cold.

  “You know Hayley Mills,” Sara said to Elliott. “We watched her in The Flame Trees of Thika.”

  Elliott nodded. “I always admired her chest. Or am I thinking of Annette?”

  “I don’t think this is that kind of play,” Sara said.

  It wasn’t that kind of play. Everyone wore high-necked costumes, including Hayley Mills who swept in swathed in a bulky coat. “I’m so sorry I’m late, dear,” she said, taking off her coat to reveal a turtleneck sweater and going over to stand in front of a stage fire. “It’s so cold out. And the air’s so strange.”

  Whoever was playing her husband said, “‘Into my heart an air that kills from yon far country blows,’” and Elliott leaned over and whispered, “Oh, God, a literary play.”

  I’d missed the rest of the husband’s line, but he must have asked Hayley why she was late because she said, “My assistant cut her hand, and I had to take her to hospital. It took forever for her to get stitched up.”

  A hospital. I hadn’t considered that. Their morgues would have been full during the Blitz. Was there a hospital close to Holborn? I would have to ask Elliott at intermission.

  A sudden rattle of applause brought me out of my reverie.

  The stage was dark. I’d missed Scene I. When the lights went back up, I tried to focus on the play, so I could discuss it at least halfway intelligibly at the intermission.

  “The wind is rising,” Hayley Mills said, looking out an imaginary window.

  “Storm brewing,” a man, not her husband, said.

  “That’s what I fear,” she said, rubbing her hands along her arms to warm them. “Oh, Derek, what if he finds out about us?”

  I glanced sideways across Sara at Cath, but couldn’t see her face in the darkened theater. She obviously hadn’t known what this play was about, or she’d never have chosen it.

 
But Hayley wasn’t acting anything like Sara. She chain-smoked, she paced, she hung up the phone hastily when her husband came into the room and was so obviously guilty no one, least of all her husband, could have failed to miss it.

  Elliott certainly didn’t. “The husband’s got to be a complete moron,” he said as soon as the curtain went down for the intermission. “Even the dog could deduce that she’s having an affair. Why is it characters in plays never act any way remotely resembling real life?”

  “Maybe because people in real life don’t look like Hayley Mills,” Cath said. “She does look wonderful, doesn’t she, Sara? She hasn’t aged a day.”

  “You’re joking, right?” Elliott said. “All right, I know people kid themselves about their spouses having affairs, but—”

  “I have to go to the bathroom,” Cath said. “I suppose there’ll be a horrible line. Come with me, Sara, and I’ll tell you the saga of my china.” They edged past us.

  “Get us a glass of white wine,” Sara called back from the aisle, and Elliott and I shouldered our way to the bar, which took ten minutes, and another five to get served. Sara and Cath still weren’t back.

  “So where were you all day?” Elliott asked me, sipping Sara’s wine. “I looked for you at lunch.”

  “I was researching something,” I said. “Holborn Tube station is in Bloomsbury, isn’t it?”

  “I think so,” he said. “I rarely take the tube.”

  “Are there any hospitals near the tube station?”

  “Hospitals?” he said bewilderedly. “I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

  “Or churches?”

  “I don’t know. What’s this all about?”

  “Have you ever heard of a thing called an inversion layer?” I said. “It’s when air is trapped—”

  “They simply must do something about the women’s bathroom situation,” Sara said, grabbing her wine and taking a sip. “I thought we were going to be in there the entire third act.”