Connie Willis - Blackout

Linna shook her head. “That’s even worse. We’re totally swamped. Mr. Dunworthy’s ordered all these schedule changes-”

“Were they ones historians requested?” Eileen asked. Perhaps if she asked Mr. Dunworthy-

“No,” Linna said, “and they’re all absolutely furious, which is something else the lab’s had to deal with. I’ve done nothing but-” The telephone rang. “Sorry.” She crossed the lab to answer the phone next to the console. “Hullo? Yes, I know you were scheduled to go to the Reign of Terror first-”

The door of the lab opened and Gerald Phipps came in. Oh, no, Eileen thought, just what I need. Gerald was the most tiresome person she knew. “Where’s Badri?” he demanded.

“He’s not here,” Eileen said, “and Linna’s on the phone.”

“I suppose they’ve changed your date of departure as well,” he said, waving a printout at her. “Is this for that silly VE-Day assignment you’re always on about?”

No, I’m not going to VE-Day. Not unless I can persuade Mr. Dunworthy to change his mind. Which seemed unlikely. When she went to see him, he’d refused not only to let her go, but to even listen to her worries about her evacuees all returning to London.

“No,” she said stiffly to Gerald. “I’m observing World War II evacuees.”

He laughed. “Are that and VE-Day the most exciting assignments you could think of?” he asked, and for a moment she actually wished Alf and Binnie were there to set him on fire.

“The lab rescheduled your departure date?” she asked to change the subject.

“Yes,” he said, glancing impatiently over at Linna, who was still on the phone.

“No, I know you were supposed to do the storming of the Bastille first-” Linna said.

“But it can’t be changed,” Gerald said. “I’ve already been through and made all the arrangements. And got my costume from Wardrobe. If my arrival’s changed from August, I’ll need a whole new suit of clothes. I’m certain when I explain the circumstances, they’ll change it back. This isn’t an ordinary assignment where one can waltz in anytime. It was difficult enough getting it set up in the first place.” He launched into a long explanation of where he was going and the preparations he’d made.

Eileen only half listened. It was obvious he’d pounce on Linna the moment she got off the phone, and by the time he finished shouting at her and Eileen got to speak to her, Linna would be in no mood to move another departure date. And in the meantime, her two days were ticking away, and she hadn’t even been to Oriel yet to sign up for lessons with Transport. “I think I’d best come back later,” she interrupted Gerald to say, and started for the door.

“Oh, but I thought we could get together after this, and I could-”

Tell me more about your assignment? No, thank you. “I’m afraid I can’t. I’m going back almost immediately.”

“Oh, too bad. I say, will you still be there in August? I could take the train up to-where is it you are?”

“Warwickshire.”

“Up to Warwickshire some weekend to brighten your existence with tales of my derring-do.”

I can imagine. “No, I’m afraid I come back at the beginning of May.” Thank goodness. She waved to Linna and walked quickly out of the lab before he could propose anything else. First the Hodbins and now Gerald, she thought, stopping outside the door to put on her coat and gloves.

But this wasn’t February, it was April, and a lovely day. Linna’d said rain was forecast for late this afternoon, but for now it was warm. She took her coat off as she walked. That was the most difficult thing about time travel, remembering where and when one was. She’d forgotten she wasn’t still a servant and called Linna “ma’am” twice, and now she kept looking nervously behind her to make certain Alf and Binnie weren’t following her. She reached the High, stepped into the street, and was nearly hit by a bicycle whizzing past.

You’re in Oxford, she told herself, stepping hastily back up on the curb, not Backbury. She crossed the street, looking both ways this time, and started along the sunlit High, suddenly jubilant. You’re in Oxford. There’s no blackout, no rationing, no Lady Caroline, no Hodbins-

“Merope!” someone shouted. She turned around. It was Polly Churchill. “I’ve been calling to you all the way down the street,” Polly said breathlessly as she caught up to her. “Didn’t you hear me?”

“No… I mean, yes… I mean, I didn’t realize you were calling me at first. I’ve been trying so hard to think of myself as Eileen O’Reilly these last months, I don’t even recognize my own name anymore. I had to have an Irish name because of my posing as a maid-”

“And your red hair,” Polly said.

“Yes, and Eileen is all anyone’s called me in months. I’ve practically forgotten my name is Merope, though I suppose that’s better than forgetting one’s cover name, which is what I kept doing the first week I was in Backbury, and on my very first assignment! How do you manage to remember your cover names?”

“I’m lucky. Unlike your Christian name, mine’s been around for a good part of history, and I can always use it or one of its many nicknames. I can sometimes even use my last name. When I can’t-Churchill’s not really an option for World War II-I use Shakespeare.”

“Polly Shakespeare?”

“No,” Polly said, laughing. “Names from Shakespeare. I had the plays implanted when I did that sixteenth-century assignment, and they’re full of names. Especially the history plays, though for the Blitz it’s going to be Twelfth Night. I’ll be Polly Sebastian.”

“I thought you’d already gone to the Blitz.”

“No, not yet. The lab’s had difficulty finding me a drop site that met all of Mr. Dunworthy’s requirements. He’s such a fusspot. So, since it’s a multitime project, I did one of the other parts first. I only just got back yesterday.”

Eileen nodded. She remembered Polly having said something about observing the World War I zeppelin attacks on London.

“I’m on my way to Balliol to report in to Mr. Dunworthy,” Polly said. “Is that where you’re going?”

“No, I must go to Oriel.”

“Oh, good, then we’re going the same direction.” She took Eileen’s arm. “We can walk part of the way together and catch up on things. So you’ve been in Backbury observing evacuees-”

“Yes, and I have a question,” Eileen said earnestly. “You’ve had loads of assignments. How do you keep from getting them all mixed together? It’s not only the names. I’m already getting confused as to where I am and when.”

“You’ve got to forget you’ve ever been anywhere or anyone else and focus completely on the situation at hand. It’s like acting. Or being a spy. You’ve got to shut out everything and be Eileen O’Reilly. Thinking about other assignments only ruins your concentration on the task at hand.”

“Even if you’re doing a multitime assignment?”

“Especially if you’re doing a multitime assignment. Focus entirely on the part or the assignment until it’s over, and then shut that out and go on to the next. Why are you going to Oriel?”

“For driving lessons.”

“Driving lessons? You’re not planning to drive to VE-Day, are you? You’ll never get through. The crowds-”

“This isn’t for VE-Day. If only it were. Mr. Dunworthy refuses to send me.”

“But you-” Polly said and stopped, frowning.

“Had my heart set on going? That doesn’t matter two pins to Mr. Dunworthy. I met with him this morning, and he told me VE-Day was already part of another assignment, and having two historians in the same temporal and spatial location was too dangerous, which is ridiculous. It isn’t as if we’d run into each other-there were thousands of people in Trafalgar Square on VE-Day. And even if we did, what does he think we’d do? Shout, ‘Oh, my, another time traveler!’ or something? I don’t suppose you know whose assignment he was talking about, Polly? I thought I might be able to persuade them to switch if they haven’t already gone. Who else is doing World War II?”

“What?” Polly said blankly. She clearly hadn’t heard a word she’d said.

“I said, who else has an assignment in World War II?”

“Oh,” Polly said. “Rob Cotton, and I believe Michael Davies does.”

“Do you know what he’s observing?”

“No, why?”

“I want to know who’s going to VE-Day.”

“Oh. I think he said something about Pearl Harbor.”

“When was Pearl Harbor?”

“The seventh of December, 1941. If it’s not VE-Day, where are you going that you need to learn how to drive?”

“Back to Warwickshire and the manor. I still have months to go on my assignment.”

“I wish I could have months. Mr. Dunworthy’s only allowing me to go to the Blitz for a few weeks. But I thought you were a maid. Servants didn’t usually drive, did they?”

“No, Lady Caroline’s insisting the staff learn so we can drive an ambulance if there’s an incident.”

“But Backbury wasn’t bombed, was it?”

“No, but Lady Caroline’s determined to do her bit-or, rather, to make her staff do it for her. She’s also made us learn to administer first aid and put out incendiaries. Next week she’ll have us all learning to fire an anti-aircraft gun.”

“You sound better prepared for the Blitz than I am. I should have done my prep in Backbury.”

“No, you shouldn’t have,” Eileen said. “You’d have had to deal with the Horrible Hodbins.”

“What are Horrible Hodbins? Some sort of weaponry?”

“That’s exactly what they are. A deadly secret weapon. They’re the worst children in history.” She told Polly about the haystack fire and trying to put Theodore on the train and about Alf and Binnie’s painting white stripes on Mr. Rudman’s Black Angus cows, “‘So’s ’e can see ’em in the blackout.’”

“It’s a pity they couldn’t have been evacuated to Berlin instead of Backbury,” Eileen said. “Two weeks of coping with Alf and Binnie, and Hitler would be begging to surrender.” They’d reached King Edward Street. “I’d love to stay and chat, but I must get to Transport. You don’t know when it closes, do you, Polly?”

“No. What automobile are you planning to learn on? A Daimler?”

“No, a Bentley. That’s what Lady Caroline-or, rather, her chauffeur-drives. Why?”

“Nothing. I was going to warn you about the Daimler’s gearbox, that’s all-one has to yank the gear stick very hard to shift into reverse gear-but you’re not going to be driving an actual ambulance, so it doesn’t matter. Does Transport have a period Bentley?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t been there yet. I only came though this morning.”

“Do you have your driving authorization form?”

“Driving authorization?” Eileen said blankly.

“Yes. You must get it from Props before you go to Oriel.”

“You mean I’ve got to go all the way back to Queen’s-?”

“No, I mean you’ve got to go to Balliol and get approval from Mr. Dunworthy, and then you must go to Props.”

“But that will take all afternoon,” Eileen protested, “and I only have two days. I’ll never learn to drive in one day.”