The World at Night

unmarked door, which he opened, saying “Be quick about it.” He closed the door. Casson stood in front of a urinal.

On the wall above the sink, a window. Gray, frosted glass. Probably barred, but not so Casson could see. But then, he thought, why would they have bars? This is the Interior Ministry. The top floor. For the French, the most important people would be housed on the second floor. In former times, the top floor would have served the Ministry’s minor bureaucrats-what would they want with bars in a bathroom? Casson walked to the sink and turned it on, drank some water, put his hand on the glass of the window. Top floor, he thought, six stories down to a courtyard.

You’ll die.

But then, what did that matter? Better now, he thought, before they go to work on me.

“Just a minute.”

He put his index fingers under the two handles and very gently pushed up. Nothing. Locked. He could back up to the door, take a run, and jump through it, smashing the glass, tumbling six stories to the courtyard below. He pushed harder, the window moved. Opened an inch. The night air rushed in, it was black outside, and pouring rain.

Lower the window. Go back to Guske’s office. Explain everything to him. Try to talk your way out of it-crawl, do whatever you have to do.

He listened, held his breath. Against the background hum of office business he could just make out Werner’s voice. It spoke German, but Casson could easily understand the tone of it. He was explaining something-he was being important. Casson raised the window, perhaps a foot. A damp, sweet wind blew in on him and he could hear distant thunder, a storm up the Seine somewhere, the sound rolling down across the wheatfields into Paris.

He put one knee on the edge of the sink, pulled himself through the window, then froze, terrified, unable to move. The night swirled around him, the courtyard a thousand feet below, the wet cobblestone gleaming in the faint spill of light from blacked-out windows. He forced himself to look around: the window was set out a little from the slanted plane of the roof, slate tile angled sharply up to the peak- copper sheathing turned green with age. To the left: a cascade of white, foamy water. He followed it, found an ancient lead gutter, eaten through by time and corrosion, water pouring through the hole, spilling off the edge of the roof and splashing into the courtyard below.

If he stood on the window ledge …

He had to force his body to move-he was trembling with fear. He got himself turned around, feet dangling into space, pulled himself to his knees by using the inside handles of the window, then stood up, back to the courtyard. The rain was cold on his face, he took a deep breath. The gutter ran to a perpendicular roof. He could inch over-feet on the gutter, body pressed flat against the slate-and climb the angle. He would then be-he would then be somewhere else.

He heard the bathroom door open, heard Werner cry out. He let go of the window handles, lifted his right foot from the ledge and placed it on the gutter. Werner ran toward the window, Casson left the ledge and let his weight shift to the gutter. It rolled over, dumping its water, then dropped three inches. Casson bit down against a scream and clawed at the wet slate for traction.

Werner’s head appeared through the window. He was pale with terror, his carefully combed hair hanging lank from its center parting. Suddenly he leaned out, took a swipe at Casson’s ankle. Casson crabbed sideways along the gutter.

From Werner, a taut little laugh-just kidding. “Tell me, what on earth do you think you’re doing out there?”

Casson didn’t answer.

“Mm?”

Silence.

“Perhaps you will end it all, eh?” His voice was low, and edged with panic. It was, at the same time, hopeful. To allow an escape was unthinkable, but suicide-maybe they wouldn’t be quite so angry with him.

Casson couldn’t speak. He closed his eyes, felt the rain on his hair and skin, heard the storm in the distance. From the darkness, from the very root of his soul, he said slowly, “Leave me alone.”

A minute passed, frozen time. Then Werner gave an order, his voice a shrill whisper. “You come back in here!” Casson could hear a life in the words-all the failures, all the excuses.

Casson moved another step, the gutter sagged. He stretched his arms as high as they would go, discovered a mossy crack between the slate tiles. He tried it-it was possible, just barely and not for long.

Now Werner saw everything he’d worked for about to fall apart. “One more step,” he said, “and I call the guards.”

Casson counted to twenty. “All right,” he said. “I’m coming back.” But he didn’t move. He could imagine Guske in his office, looking at his watch.

“Well?”

“I can’t.”

“You must try!”

“My feet won’t move.”

“Ach.”

Teeth clenched with fury, Werner wriggled through the window then stood on the ledge. “Just stay still,” he said. “I’ll help you.”

Casson drove the tips of his fingers through the moss, into the shallow crack. Werner stepped daintily off the ledge, made sure of his balance, then, leaning his weight on the roof, began to move slowly sideways. Casson shifted his weight to his hands, lifted his right leg as high as it would go and rammed it back down against the gutter.

Nothing happened.

Until Werner’s next step-then he mewed with fear as the gutter came away. Then he vanished. For part of a second he thought it over, at last allowed himself a loud whine of indignation that ended, briefly, in a scream. The lead gutter hit the cobbles with a dull clatter.

Thirty seconds, Casson thought, no more. The crack between the tiles deepened, and he moved along it quickly. Reached the corner where the two wings of the building met, shinned up the angle to the peak, lay flat on the copper sheathing and tried to catch his breath. As he looked over the other side he saw a row of windows-the same type he’d just crawled out of. The only difference was a narrow spillway, wedged between the slanted roof and a stone parapet.

Now they discovered Werner.

He heard shouts from the courtyard, somebody blew a police whistle, flashlight beams swept everywhere, across the facades of the building and the roof. He rolled off the peak and let himself slide down to the spillway. There he stayed on his knees, looked over the parapet, saw a sheer drop to a narrow street. He had no idea what it might be, the city was a maze-secret courtyards, blind alleyways, sense of direction meant nothing.

He ran along the the spillway, looked in the first window. Blackout curtain. At the next, the curtain was slightly askew. He could see an office in low light, a cleaner in a gray smock was polishing the waxed parquet with a square of sheepskin tied to a broom. Casson tapped on the window.

The man looked up. Casson tapped again. The man walked slowly to the window and tried to see out. The Lost King, Casson thought. An old man with snow-white hair and thin lips and rosy skin. He moved the blackout curtain aside and cranked the casement window open a few inches. “What are you doing out there?” he asked.

“I escaped. Over the roof.”

“Escaped? From the Gestapo?”

“Yes.”

“Bon Dieu.” He ran a hand through his hair, smoothing it back, thinking. “Well, over here we’re the National Meteorological office, but, we have our Germans too, of course.” He stopped, the shouts from the courtyard on the other side of the building could just be heard. “Well, then, monsieur, I expect you may want to climb in here, and permit us to hide you.”

25 June, 1941.

“Good morning.”