Concrete Island

by J. G. Ballard

  TRAFFIC drummed above his head. Smoke rose from a cigarette butt tossed into the grass a few feet from his face. Maitland watched the smoke entwine itself through the tall blades, which leaned towards him, swaying in the late afternoon sunlight as if urging him to his feet. He sat up, trying to clear his mind. The fever had soaked his body, burning the raw skin beneath his beard.

  On all sides of the island the traffic moved along the motorways. Steadying himself, Maitland fixed his eyes on the distant cars. He climbed to his feet, hanging himself from the crutch like a carcass on a butcher’s hook. High above him, the illuminated surface of the route indicator shone like a burning sword in the dark sky.

  Maitland found a last rubber marker in his jacket pocket. On the drying concrete he scrawled:

  CATHERINE HELP TOO FAST

  The letters wound up and down the slope. Maitland concentrated on the spelling, but ten minutes later, when he returned after an unsuccessful attempt to reach the Jaguar, they had been rubbed out as if by some dissatisfied examiner.

  MOTHER DONT HURT POLICE

  He waited in the long grass beside the embankment, but his eyes closed. When he opened them, the message had vanished.

  He gave up, unable to decipher his own writing. The grass swayed reassuringly, beckoning this fever-racked scarecrow into its interior. The blades swirled around him, opening a dozen pathways, each of which would carry him to some paradisial arbour. Knowing that unless he reached the shelter of the Jaguar he would not survive the night, Maitland set his course for the breaker’s yard, but after a few minutes he followed the grass passively as it wove its spiral patterns around him.

  To his surprise, it carried him up a slope of steeper and more difficult ground, over the roof of the largest of the air-raid shelters. Maitland laboured along, listening to the grass seethe around him. A stony ridge marked the west wall of the shelter. Maitland paused there. The curving roof fell away on either side, disappearing into the dense undergrowth that sprang from the floor of the pit.

  The grass was silent now, as if waiting for Maitland to make some significant move. Wondering why he had climbed on to the shelter, Maitland caught sight of the overturned taxi in the breaker’s yard. He turned with his last strength to reach the Jaguar. Before he could catch himself he slipped on the rain-damp roof. He fell heavily, and slid down the rounded slope into the grass and nettles, plunging through them like a diver vanishing into the deeps of an underground cavern.

  * * *

  Submerged in this green bower, Maitland lay for some time in a hammock of crushed nettles. The dense grass and the foliage of a stunted elder sealed off all but a faint glow of the late afternoon sunlight, and he could almost believe that he was lying at the bottom of a calm and peaceful sea, through which a few bars of faint light penetrated the pelagic quiet. This silence and the reassuring organic smell of decaying vegetation soothed his fever.

  A small, sharp-footed creature moved across his left leg, its claws clutching for purchase in the worn fabric of his trousers. It darted in brief scurries, reaching up his thigh to his groin. Opening his eyes, Maitland peered through the dim light, recognizing the long muzzle and nervous eyes of a brown rat drawn to him by the scent of the blood leaking from his hip. An open wound disfigured the creature’s head, exposing the skull, as if it had recently torn itself from a trap.

  ‘Get out – aah!’ Maitland leapt forward, seizing the metal crutch in the elder branches above his head. He thrashed wildly at the foliage, beating back the walls of his green cell.

  The rat had gone. Maitland forced his left leg through the branches to the ground below and stepped out into the fading evening light. He was standing in a sunken passage that ran along the western wall of the shelter. Here the vegetation had been cut back, forming a rough slope that ran down the bank to the doorway of the shelter.

  ‘Tools…!’

  Fumbling excitedly with the crutch, Maitland lurched down the passage, his fever and injured leg forgotten. When he reached the door he wiped away the sweat that soaked his face and forehead. A chromium padlock and chain locked the door. Maitland forced the crutch inside the chain and jerked it from its mountings.

  Kicking back the door, Maitland hobbled forward into the shelter. A sweet but not unpleasant smell greeted him, as if he were stepping into the lair of some large and docile creature. In the fading light he could see that the shelter was an abandoned beggar’s hovel. A line of faded quilts hung from the ceiling and covered the walls and floor. A pile of blankets formed a small bed, and the sole pieces of furniture were a wooden chair and table. From the back of the chair hung a ragged leotard, the faded costume of some pre-war circus acrobat.

  Maitland leaned against the curving wall, deciding that he would pass the night in this deserted lair. On the wooden table a number of metal objects were arranged in a circle like ornaments on an altar. All had been taken from motor-car bodies – a wing mirror, strips of chromium window trim, pieces of broken headlamp.

  ‘Jaguar…?’ Maitland recognized the manufacturer’s medallion, of the same type as that on his own car.

  As he picked up the medallion to examine it he was unaware of the broad, thick chested figure who was watching him from the doorway, head lowered like a bull’s between swaying shoulders.

  Before Maitland could raise the medallion to the light a heavy fist knocked it from his hands. The crutch was snatched away and flung into the open air. Powerful hands seized him by the arms and hurled him backwards through the door. During the next seconds, as he was flung to the ground, Maitland was only aware of the panting, bull-like figure dragging him up the slope into the last light of the day. The headlamps of the distant traffic moved with an almost dream-like calm as the man’s face gasped into his own, gusting out a hot breath of rancid wine. Slapping Maitland with his fists, his attacker rolled him backwards and forwards across the damp ground, grunting to himself as if trying to discover some secret hidden on Maitland’s injured body.

  As he lost consciousness Maitland caught a last glimpse of the passing traffic on the motorway. Between his attacker’s swinging arms he saw a red-haired young woman in a camouflage-patterned combat jacket running towards them with the metal crutch lifted in her strong hands.

  11 Rescue

  ‘REST – try not to move. We’ve sent for help.’

  The young woman’s quiet voice soothed Maitland. Her hands bathed his face with a tampon of cotton wool. He lay back as the hot water stung his bruised skin, aware of the fever burning through his bones. As the young woman lifted his head the water trickled through his beard. He opened his swollen mouth, trying to catch the scalding drops.

  ‘I’ll give you a drink – you must be thirsty.’

  She gestured with her elbow at the plastic mug standing on the packing-case beside the bed, but made no effort to pass it to Maitland. Her firm hands moved around his neck and down to his chest. Maitland was no longer wearing the dinner-jacket, and the damp dress-shirt was black with oil.

  An unshaded paraffin lamp standing on the floor by the doorway glared into his eyes when he tried to look at the young woman’s face. As he stirred fretfully, aware of the pain in his leg, she drew the red blanket around his shoulders.

  ‘Relax, Mr Maitland. We’ve called for help. Catherine – is that your wife’s name?’

  Maitland nodded weakly. He felt numbed by his relief at being rescued. When she placed her left arm under his head and lifted the mug to his mouth he could smell her warm, strong body, a medley of scents and odours that made his mind reel.

  He was lying in a small room, little more than ten feet by ten and almost filled by the metal double bed and mattress on which he was lying. A blocked-off ventilation shaft rose from the centre of the ceiling, but the room was windowless. Beyond the open doorway a flight of semi-circular steps led to the floor above. A faded cinema poster hung from the wall at the foot of the bed, advertising a Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire musical. On either side were several more up-to-date pri
nts taken from underground magazines – a psychedelic poster in the Beardsley manner, a grainy close-up of the dead Che Guevara, a Black Power manifesto, and Charles Manson at his trial, psychotic eyes staring out beneath a bald skull. Apart from the packing case beside the bed the only piece of furniture in the room was a card-table stacked with cosmetic jars and scent bottles, mascara sticks and scruffed-up tissues. An expensive leather suitcase was propped against the wall. A skirt and sweater, and various pieces of underwear, were strung on hangers from the lid.

  Maitland gathered himself together. The fever had begun to subside. He remembered the violent attack in the air-raid shelter, and being dragged into the open evening air, but the pain of these blows had been dissolved by the young woman’s first words. In the context of his ordeal on the island even this shabby room – in a decaying neighbourhood somewhere near the motorway, he assumed – took on all the style and comfort of a riverside suite at the Savoy. As the young woman sat down on the bed he took her hand, trying to express his gratitude to her.

  ‘Are we…’ he began through his bruised mouth. ‘Are we near the island?’ He added, realizing that she might not be aware of this, ‘I crashed my car … Jaguar … I went off the motorway.’

  The young woman chewed pensively on a stick of gum, watching Maitland with her sharp eyes.

  ‘Yes, we know. You’re lucky that you’re still alive.’ She placed her strong hand on his forehead, feeling his temperature. ‘Were you ill before the crash? You’ve got quite a fever, you know.’

  Maitland shook his head, glad to feel the pressure of her cool palm. ‘No – it started later. Yesterday, I think. My leg … it’s broken.’

  ‘Good. I thought so. Poor man, I’ll give you something to eat.’

  As Maitland waited, she reached into her handbag and took out a bar of milk chocolate. She peeled back the silver foil, broke off several of the squares and placed the first one between Maitland’s lips.

  While the warm chocolate dissolved in his mouth, Maitland was able to see the young woman’s face for the first time. She stood up and peered at herself in the travelling mirror hanging from the wall. Bar of chocolate in one hand, she paced up and down the narrow floor. Lit by the paraffin lamp behind her, her red hair glowed like a wild sun in the shabby room, shafts of light cutting through the home-set waves that rose above her high forehead. She was about twenty, with an angular, sharp-witted face and strong jaw. She was good-looking in an almost wilfully tatty way. Her manner towards Maitland, as she fed the soft chocolate to him, each square fingerprinted by her thumb, was brusque and deferential at the same time. Possibly she resented having to look after this well-to-do man who had been brought to her meagre room, realizing that he would soon leave for surroundings that were very much more comfortable. Yet something about her tone, the confident intonations of her voice, suggested to Maitland that she had come from a rather different background. With her faded jeans and combat jacket, surrounded by the Manson and Black Power posters, she looked like the prototypal drop-out, but this impression in turn was belied by the mass of cheap cosmetics, the tarty hair-do and garish clothes hanging from the suitcase lid, the make-believe equipment of a street walker.

  Revived by the water and chocolate, Maitland massaged his mouth with one hand. At any moment the ambulance attendants would arrive, he would be carried away to a hospital bed in Hammersmith.

  ‘You called the ambulance? They’ll be coming soon. I’d like to thank you…?’

  ‘Jane – Jane Sheppard. I haven’t done very much.’

  ‘I’ve almost forgotten how to eat. There’s another number I want you to ring. Dr Helen Fairfax – do you mind?’

  ‘No – but I’m not on the phone. Try to relax. You’re absolutely exhausted.’

  She sat on the bed, exploring his right hip with her firm fingers. She grimaced as she peered at the inflamed wound exposed through the rent in his trousers. ‘This looks nasty. I’ll try to clean it for you.’

  Her hands moved around his hips and groin as she tried to losen his trousers. The chocolate melting in Maitland’s stomach made him feel light-headed. ‘It’s all right. They’ll deal with it at the hospital.’

  He began to tell the young woman about his crash, eager to fix his nightmare ordeal in someone else’s mind before it vanished.

  ‘I was trapped there for three days – it’s hard to believe now. My car went over the edge, I don’t think I was hurt at first. But I couldn’t get off. Nobody stopped! It’s amazing – I was starving to death on this traffic island. Unless you’d come I would have died there…’

  Maitland broke off. Jane Sheppard was sitting with her back to him, her hip pressing against his right elbow. Her hands worked away expertly at his trousers. She had extended the slit to the waistband, but the rubberized fabric was too strong for the pair of nail-scissors in her hand. Lifting his right buttock, she began to cut at the lining of his hip pocket.

  Maitland watched her remove his car keys from the pocket. She looked hard at them, turning over each of the three keys, and caught his eye. With a small laugh she put them on the packing case.

  ‘You were uncomfortable…’ As if to make the explanation convincing, she slid her hand on to his buttock and massaged the bruised skin for a few seconds.

  ‘So no one stopped? I suppose you were surprised. These days we don’t notice other people’s selfishness until we’re on the receiving end ourselves.’

  Maitland turned his head, his eyes meeting her level gaze. He stopped himself from picking up the keys. His sense of relief and exhilaration had begun to fade, and he looked around the room, establishing its reality in his mind. Part of himself was still lying out in the rain, listening to the invisible, endlessly drumming traffic. For a moment he was frightened that the room and its young tenant might be part of some terminal delusion.

  ‘It’s kind of you to look after me. You have called the ambulance?’

  ‘I’ve arranged for help, yes. A friend of mine has gone. You’ll be all right.’

  ‘Where are we exactly – are we near the island?’

  ‘The “island” – is that what you call it?’

  ‘The traffic island. The patch of waste ground below the motorway. Are we near there?’

  ‘We’re near the motorway, yes. You’re quite safe, Mr Maitland.’

  Maitland listened to the distant murmur of the traffic. He noticed that his wrist-watch had gone, but he guessed it to be somewhere near midnight – hard experience told him that the last westbound traffic was leaving central London.

  ‘My watch must have fallen off. How do you know my name?’

  ‘We found some papers, in a briefcase near the car. Anyway, you talk to yourself all the time.’ She paused, eyeing him critically. ‘You’re tremendously angry with yourself about something, aren’t you?’

  Maitland ignored this. ‘You’ve seen the car? The silver Jaguar?’

  ‘No – I mean, yes, I did. You confuse me when you talk about the island all the time.’ Half-resentfully, as if reminding Maitland of his debt to her, she said, ‘I brought you here. You’re damned heavy, you know, even for a big man.’

  ‘Where are we – the traffic…’ Alarmed, Maitland tried to sit up. The young woman stood at the foot of the bed, her red hair inflamed by the paraffin lamp. She stared at Maitland like a down-at-heel witch who by some confused alchemy had conjured an over-large victim into her lair and was unsure how best to exploit the possibilities of the cadaver.

  Unsettled by her calm gaze, Maitland glanced around the room. In one corner, supporting a metal basin filled with wet underwear, were three circular cans, each the size of a film reel.

  Projecting like horns from the wall behind the girl’s head were the brackets of some kind of winding device. Maitland looked up at the ventilator shaft, and at the Astaire and Rogers publicity poster.

  Jane Sheppard spoke quietly. ‘Go on. What is it? You’re obviously straining to realize something.’

  ‘The cinema…
’ Maitland pointed to the ceiling. ‘Of course, the basement of the ruined cinema.’ He lowered his head wearily on to the stale pillow. ‘My God, I’m still on the island…’

  ‘Stop talking about the island! You can leave any time you want, I’m not keeping you here. It may not be good enough for you, but I’ve done what I can. If it hadn’t been for me you wouldn’t be around any more to complain!’

  Maitland brought a hand to his face, feeling the sweat pour from his skin. ‘Oh my God … Look – I need a doctor.’

  ‘We’ll call a doctor. You must rest now. You’ve been over-exciting yourself for days, deliberately, I think.’

  ‘Jane, I’ll give you some money. Help me up on to the road and stop a car. How much money do you want?’

  Jane stopped pacing up and down the room. She looked back cannily at Maitland. ‘Have you got any money?’

  Maitland nodded wearily. Communicating the simplest information seemed to tax this intelligent but devious woman. Clearly she suspected everything around her.

  ‘Yes – I’m well off … a senior partner in a firm of architects. You’ll be paid all you want, without any questions. Now, have you sent for help?’

  Jane ignored this. ‘Have you any money here – say five pounds?’

  ‘In my wallet – it’s in my car, in the trunk. I’ve got about thirty pounds. I’ll give you ten.’

  ‘In the trunk…’ Jane pondered this, and with a deft movement of her hand picked up the keys. ‘I’d better look after these.’

  Too tired to move, Maitland stared at the Charles Manson poster. Again he found himself losing the will to survive. He needed to sleep on the warm bed with its smell of cheap scent, in this windowless room deep in the ground. Far above, he heard the grass seething in the night wind.

  Heavy boots clattered down the staircase, barely waking him. Jane stepped forward aggressively. Deferring to her, the visitor stood outside the door, a scarred hand shielding his small eyes from the paraffin lamp. As he panted from the exertion of moving his burly body down the steps, Maitland recognized the harsh, phlegmy breathing of the man who had attacked him.