The Seeds of Time

Then, on the sixth night, when several of us were just beginning to wonder whether it might not be wiser to clear out of Westwich for a bit, the first crack showed-a man at the Town Hall rang me up to say he had seen several platforms with empty seats on them.

The next night I went down to one of their regular routes to see for myself. I found a large, well-lubricated crowd already there, exchanging cracks and jostling and shoving, but we hadn’t long to wait. A platform slid out on a slant through the front of the Coronation Cafe, and the label on it read:

CHARM & ROMANCE OF 20lH CENTURY-15/-

and there were half a dozen empty seats, at that.

The arrival of the platform brought a well-supported Bronx cheer, and a shrilling of whistles. The driver remained indifferent as he steered straight through the crowds. His passengers looked less certain of themselves. Some of them did their best to play up; they giggled, made motions of returning slap for slap and grimace for grimace with the crowd to start with. Possibly it was as well that the tourist girls couldn’t hear the things the crowd was shouting to them, but some of the gestures were clear enough. It couldn’t have been a lot of fun gliding straight into the men who were making them. By the time the platform was clear of the crowd and disappearing through the front of the Bon Marche pretty well all the tourists had given up pretending that it was; some of them were looking a little sick. By the expression on several of the faces I reckoned that Pawley might be going to have a tough time explaining the culture aspect of it to a deputation somewhere.

The next night there were more empty seats than full ones, and someone reported that the price had come down to 10s.

The night after that they did not show up at all, and we all had a busy time with the job of returning the half-crowns, and refusing claims for wasted petrol.

And the next night they didn’t come, either; or the one after that; so then all we had to do was to pitch into the job of cleaning up Westwich, and the affair was practically over -apart from the longer term business of living down the reputation the place had been getting lately.

At least, we say it’s over. Jimmy, however, maintains that that is probably only the way it looks from here. According to him, all they had to do was to modify out the visibility factor that was causing the trouble, so it’s possible that they are still touring around here-and other places.

Well, I suppose he could be right. Perhaps that fellow Pawley, whoever he is, or will be, has a chain of his fun-fairs operating all round the world and all through history at this very moment. But we don’t know-and, as long as he keeps them out of sight, I don’t know that we care a lot, either.

Pawley has been dealt with as far as we are concerned.

He was a case for desperate measures; even the vicar of All Saints’ appreciated that; and undoubtedly he had a point to make when he began his address of thanksgiving with: ‘Paradoxical, my friends, paradoxical can be the workings of vulgarity …’

Once it was settled I was able to make time to go round and see Sally again. I found her looking brighter than she’d been for weeks, and lovelier on account of it. She seemed pleased to see me, too.

‘Hullo, Jerry,’ she said. ‘I’ve just been reading in the paper how you organized the plan for getting rid of them. I think it was just wonderful of you.’

A little time ago I’d probably have taken that for a cue, but it was no trigger now. I sort of kept on seeing her with her arms full of twins, and wondering in a dead-inside way how they got there.

‘There wasn’t a lot to it, darling,’ I told her, modestly.

‘Anyone else might have hit on the idea.’

‘That’s as maybe-but a whole lot of people don’t think so. And I’ll tell you another thing I heard today. They’re going to ask you to stand for the Council, Jerry.’

‘Me on the Council. That’d be a big laugh ‘ I began. Then I stopped suddenly. ‘If-I mean, would that mean I’d be called “Councillor”?’ I asked her.

‘Why-well, yes, I suppose so,’ she said, looking puzzled.

Things shimmered a bit.

‘Er-Sally, darling-er, sweetheart, there’s-er-something I’ve been trying to get round to saying to you for quite a time….’ I began.