New World Aborning
A SHORT STORY
Waiting there in the echoing train station, I thought about the recent abdication of the King of England: I too was leaving one life for another, though not because of a woman. Edward VIII was going, as the joke had it, from being the ruler of the Royal Navy to being the second mate of a tramp. And I was going from being the heir of Beech Hill to — what? I did not know; tomorrow was veiled.
Then the New York train — The Southerner — was called. I picked up my single suitcase and looked about, half expecting to see my uncle’s grim face, and walked towards the train shed. A newsboy was shouting an “EXTRA” — something about FDR and the Court — and I heard a businessman ahead of me mutter “that damned traitor!” to his companion. The colored porter of the Pullman gave me a wide grin and reached for my bag, saying, “Yes suh!”
Settling into my seat at the end of the car, I glanced at the kindly-looking elderly gentleman facing me. He watched me as I took out three books I’d brought along in a paper bag. One was I’ll Take My Stand, and the others were Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Huxley’s Brave New World, in which I wanted to reread the arguments of the future World Controller, Mustafa Mond. Despite gritting my mental teeth at the thought of him, I decided I was not in the mood — not today — to settle down and read.
There was a last shout of “All aboard!” and then the clang of doors shutting and a jerk, and the journey had begun. As the train emerged into the afternoon sunshine, I saw the spire of my church, St. Dominic’s, touched with gold, and wondered when, if ever, I should see it again.
You May Also Enjoy
My plan had been to stay with my brother and to have his wife help with the delivery. Where was the Lord of Hosts when you needed Him?
Socrates asks what would happen to a capitalist nation if everyone practiced the greedlessness of Jesus, or Buddha, or even Thoreau?
Would a woman like Pelagia truly repent in public? Would she put aside her pride and status, all that she had lived for, to humble herself before the citizens of Antioch?