Time Will Run Back

Chapter 14

THE pounding on the door grew louder.

Edith woke up, her heart racing. She pulled on her slacks in the darkness, then turned on the light. The pounding was repeated, this time apparently with the butt of a revolver. She opened the door.

Three members of the Security Police stood outside.

“L—92?” asked the officer.

Edith nodded.

“You’re under arrest.”

Maxwell had come to the door.

“EN—57? You’re under arrest.”

Neither asked why. No one ever asked why.

“Have I time to shave?” asked Maxwell.

“You have five minutes to dress.”

From behind the curtain on the other side of the room, Edith noticed the white frightened face of the three-year-old boy. As she put on her one luxury, a wrist watch, she noticed the time: quarter of three.

They were led down the dark stairs to the street. A Black Maria stood waiting. As they sat on its hard benches they were blindfolded with black kerchiefs. It started off.

They could not see each other; they dared not speak. But each knew what the other was thinking. They were thinking of Edith’s mother, Helen. She had been a teacher in a nursery. One day, two years ago, she had not come home. No one at the nursery would tell them anything; no one could even remember whether she had been there that day or not. The police told them nothing, and marked it against them that they had asked.

After the first few days they had never spoken to each other about Edith’s mother. Speculation about her fate, if she was still alive, was more self-torturing than the assumption that she was dead.

The Black Maria stopped. Edith was led out, still blindfolded. She heard the Black Maria start off again. She was led up some steps, and apparently through two doors. She was aware of light underneath her blindfold. The blindfold was taken off.

She found herself in a woman’s jail.

She was registered, fingerprinted, and taken to a cell. It was about six feet by nine, with a single narrow bed. There were five women in the cell, three of them crowded on the bed, the other two lying on the floor. Several wakened when the light was switched on, and looked sleepily and angrily at the new prisoner who was going to crowd them up still more. The matron pushed Edith in, locked the iron grating door, and switched off the light again.

As Edith’s eyes grew accustomed to the darkness she could notice that her five cell mates had gone back to sleep. Cautiously she felt her way to the floor, and tried to stretch out and join them. She stared into the darkness.