A Matter of Time

by Graham Debenham

conclusion

Dolly and Les helped Stan and his family to carry the rest of their belongings down the stairs behind the mattress. They were several steps from the bottom when there was a sudden flash, and the entire building was rocked by the blast from a bomb landing nearby. The three lead light windows above the entrance to the station burst inwards with the force of the detonation wave. Shards of red, white and blue glass were hurled through the air in a murderous shower.

Les managed to pull Dolly down on to the stairs and cover her body. Stan did the same for Ethel and Roger. As they did so, the air around them was filled with glass splinters. Ron tried to lift his arm to cover his face, but his foot slipped on the stairs and he fell back, dropping his end of the mattress, the full weight of it left to Eddie.

There was a pause of several seconds, as Eddie tried to come to grips with the additional weight. Finally it proved too much for him, and he fell backwards down the stairs.

Dolly looked up in time to see him fall. “Eddie!” she screamed, and scrambled to her feet. She half ran and half fell down the stairs in the wake of the runaway mattress. Eddie was sliding down the remaining stairs on his back, his head clipping each step as he went. The mattress was giving added momentum to his descent, its weight pushing him farther than he would normally have travelled.

As the mattress came to rest at the bottom of the stairs, Dolly scrambled over it and pulled it away from Eddie.

Eddie was lying on his back, the lower part of his body still on the stairs. He looked up at Dolly. She was leaning over him rummaging in her medical bag; trying to reassure him. “Dolly, is that you?” he asked groggily.

“It’s all right Eddie. Just lie there. Don’t move. You’ve hit your head. Don’t worry; you’re going to be all right.”

He looked over her shoulder. Ron was standing behind her. “Sorry about that, Eddie,” he said apologetically. “I couldn’t help it. It just slipped out of my hands.”

“Don’t worry son,” Les said, appearing over Ron’s left shoulder. “Dolly’ll look after you.”

Eddie looked back at Dolly. She was looking at him and smiling. “I’ve got to get you fixed up,” she said softly. “We’ve got a date, haven’t we?”

Eddie’s vision began to blur. Gradually everything started to fade to black. The last thing he saw was the look of concern on Dolly’s face as her smile faded.

“Dolly,” he called. “Dolly!”

“Eddie! Eddie, wake up,” she screamed. “Eddie, Eddie!”

Then there was just darkness. All he could sense was his name being called over and over.

* * *

“Eddie, come on, wake up, Eddie! Eddie, wake up.”

His eyes opened slowly. The light hurt, so he closed them again. “Eddie! Come on, man. Wake up.” He put his hand up to shield his eyes before opening them again. He was on a bench seat and there was somebody standing over him shaking him.

“You okay now, Eddie?” Winston asked.

Eddie looked around. He was sitting in a tube train. He looked back at Winston. He really had to struggle not to say, Where am I? He knew where he was. He was back in his own time.

“You had me worried there, Eddie,” Winston said. “You kept callin’ me Dolly.”

Eddie stood up and looked around. It was all a dream. He was never back in 1941. It was all in his mind. “Sorry, mate,” he said to Winston. “I guess I’m just a bit over-tired. Where are we?”

“We’re still at Tootin’ Broadway on the northbound,” Winston replied. “When we came out of the siding and you didn’t open up, I thought something was wrong. Man, you were spark out.” He laughed. “It must have been a good dream.”

Eddie grinned. “Well, it wasn’t bad,” he said. “I met this gorgeous ATS girl back in the Blitz.”

Winston laughed. “I’m not surprised, man,” he said, picking up the library book from the seat. “Look what you’ve been readin’ lately.” He handed the book to Eddie. “Come on, man. Let’s get back to the Green and go home. Then you can get a proper night’s sleep.”

He turned and walked back through the train, closing the doors as he went. Eddie looked at the book: London at War. Winston was right. He had been reading too much about the war lately. He walked over to the panel and opened the doors. The cool air from the platform hit him in the face. The platform was relatively empty, no shelterers, and no white lines. Everything was as it should be.

He looked down the platform. A few late-night passengers were getting on farther down. The signal at the end of the platform was still red. That meant that he had only been asleep for a couple of minutes.

He couldn’t believe that everything he had been through, falling from the train, walking to the platform, meeting Dolly, the air raid, how could all of that have happened in less than five minutes? He was devastated. Even though it was a dream, he felt cheated. He felt that he had suffered a loss. He felt... heartbroken.

He looked down the platform. The signal was now green. He jabbed the black button on the panel and with a hiss of air the doors closed. He hit the bell and the train moved smoothly away from the platform and picked up speed. Eddie saw the first three cars into the tunnel before closing his door.

He looked over at the seat where he had dropped the book. Could it have been the reason for his dream? Was it a dream? It all seemed so real. Especially Dolly.

Especially Dolly.

He walked over and sat down. He looked down at the book for a while. Could this really have been the cause of his dream? He opened the book to the page where he had left it. It was the last page before the centre, which was composed of glossy illustrations.

He turned the pages slowly looking at the way London had been in his dream. Here on these pages were photographs of London at night. The searchlights, the fires from the incendiary bombs, people crowding into the air raid shelters. They all looked starkly familiar.

He turned a page and stopped. He sat up straight and looked at the photograph carefully.

Suddenly, he realised that whatever happened, he would see Dolly again. That was a stone cold certainty.

The photograph was taken in a tube station. It showed an old lady lying on some bedding, being comforted by a pretty blonde girl in an ATS uniform. Kneeling down on the other side of the old lady was a young man wearing a London Transport uniform, looking at the young girl. It wasn’t until you looked closely, that you could just make out the Seiko diver’s watch on his left wrist and the almost new Doc Marten’s boots on his feet.

The caption for the photograph read: Tooting Broadway Underground station circa 1941. Photograph courtesy of the Balham and Tooting News and Mercury.

Eddie looked at the photograph for a long time before closing the book. He sat back in the seat and smiled to himself. There was no longer any doubt in his mind that he would eventually meet Dolly again. No doubt whatsoever. If he could go back once, he could do it again. It was simply a matter of time.

To Challenge 441...