Chapter 9
“What anightmare...” Gwen gasped as she stared blankly at the little tubemap in her hands. She wished she could tell Crispin somethinghelpful, but as it was, the tiny multi-coloured lines signifyingthe many different underground train lines and connections were nowin her eyes an indistinguishable blur. His huffing and puffing onlymade things worse. His escalating frustration was not helping herquickly unravelling concentration either. It wasn’t his fault,really. After all, the guy had just hauled both their suitcases upand down numerous flights of stairs. It wasn’t her fault either,but it suddenly felt like it was. She’d messed up the last fewstops, sending them on what felt like a wild goose chase in searchof the correct trains. They had gotten on and off more trains thanshe could have imagined possible yet it didn’t feel like they weregetting any closer to Victoria Station.
Yes, sheshould have prepared for something like this, she realized. But whocould have foreseen such an unfortunate turn of events? What shouldhave been a simple one connection commute had turned into alogistical nightmare.
“Just fucking tell me where we’re going next,” Crispindemanded, out of breath.
“I... I’m sorry, Crispin. I’m trying to find another way. Butit’s all so...”
Initially,they had found the tube station easily enough, having followed theherd of similarly minded travellers. But three stops into theirtrain ride, an announcement had come on to inform passengers of aproblem. Both the Circle and District Lines were shut down formaintenance and would be out of commission for the entire weekend.That meant they and a great majority of commuters would have to getoff at a different stop in order to take another train to reachVictoria Station, their final destination.
The dampearthy stench of the underground, which at first Gwen had foundcharming, was now starting to suffocate her. It felt like they’dbeen down there for hours, hopping on and off trains, changingplatforms, all the while, lugging their suitcases up and downstaircases, many of which did not have escalators. After the secondset of stairs that felt like a slow climb to nowhere, Crispincouldn’t stand the sight of Gwen dragging her suitcase behind her,especially after she had stumbled and let it go. If it hadn’t beenfor the man directly behind her, catching it, it would havecareened all the way to the bottom of the steps, inadvertentlyknocking all those in its wake off their feet.
“Why didn’t you say something?” Crispin had barked at her atthe time, only he was more upset at himself than anything. Heshould have been more attentive. He should have realized that eventhough her suitcase had castors, they weren’t of much help on thestairs.
Gwen tried sohard to keep up, to hold it together, but with all the confusion,she started to feel the beginning stages of an anxiety attackcoming on. Plus, her suitcase was quite heavy, having had to haulit up and down stairs. She didn’t want to seem weak and she wantedto pull her own weight but after a while, her arm muscles hadnothing left in them. She struggled to catch her breath and kepther eyes on Crispin’s back. As she dragged her suitcase up the lastset of steps, the worst possible thing happened. The handle slippedfrom her fingers and it got away from her.
When Gwen hadturned to the man who had caught her suitcase to thank him, thestranger had shut her down with such a soul destroying glare thatshe had nearly broken down and cried. From that point, Crispin hadtaken her suitcase from her and carried both his and hers the restof the way. When she had offered to take his carryon bag for him,he’d snarled at her. They were now both exhausted and overheated.Not that it was hot, it was actually cold and damp, but with theirexertions and wearing coats, the two of them were nearly at the endof their ropes.
“Well?” Crispin asked, watching her stare at the tiny map inher hands.
“I’m trying,” Gwen gasped, overwhelmed. “Maybe we should go upto street level, grab a taxi instead.”
At that,Crispin could only frown. “What? After all this?” On the plane, shehad very excitedly told him she wanted to take The Tube toexperience London like a Londoner. Now she was ready to give up?“Not bloody likely. No freakin’ way. We’re not giving up thateasily! Give me that.” Determined, he snatched it from her andstudied it for a moment.
At his side,Crispin heard Gwen exhale and he watched her out of the corner ofhis eye. Something was not right. That much he could tell.Obviously, she was confused or at her wit’s end. For someone who’ddone so much planning, she shouldn’t be so out of sorts. As it was,she’d been staring at the mangled little map for what felt likeforever. Looking at it himself, he could see that she had circledVictoria Station quite clearly and as luck would have it, theywould only have to catch this last connection.
“We’re almost there. Let’s go.” He tucked the map into his coatpocket and grabbed their bags and started walking again.
With her heartin her throat, Gwen ran to keep up with Crispin’s strides. The ideaof losing sight of him at this point was what kept her focused. Hedidn’t give her time to think. Once again, he hauled both suitcasesdown a set of stairs. She could hear a train approaching. Given thegrowing crowds of late night travellers around them, she needed tobe mindful of staying right up close to Crispin or they might getseparated. That, she would not survive!
On the latestplatform, the train shrieked to a stop in front of them. Amongstthe crowd, Crispin entered ahead of her and looked over hisshoulder. Gwen was right there, but at the last second, for somereason, she froze. The train was packed and he had just stepped inthe door. The automated “mind the gap” announcement had justsounded, signalling the doors were closing, when he literally hadto reach out and yank her in with him, seconds before the doorsshut in her face.
