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But when I have to move in Chatham for the fourth time, I do it angrily. The small metal tray in front of me bleats tinny as I push it back into place. I rush off the stage, muttering failed epigrams. As I drop down again, two carriages away, I realize I’ve lost my glasses, without which I can’t read a word, and I’m too ashamed to go back and look for them. This is a fugue of my favorite thing.
Most discussions about whether it is better to travel or to arrive do not consider a third option, which is that it might have been better to stay at home. Like many people, I found it more difficult to return to the world than I imagined in the doldrums of 2021. Was everything always so exhausting? Another epigram bubbles up: ‘What’s the point of going out? We will just end up here again.” Thank you, Homer Simpson.
I may not be able to read my book, but I can still stare out the window. Rochester Castle, with its 12th-century keep, glides by and children are already playing in the grounds. We cross Rainham Marshes and I see scattered groups of birdwatchers who have been there since dawn. Coronavirus remains widespread; the economy is spiraling out of control; the planet is on fire; there is war in Europe. As more travelers join the London service, some for football, others for shopping in Westfield Stratford, it seems to me that no one on this train will ever return to normal, because normality is not where we left it. But who would blame us for trying?
As if to confirm this unexpected revelation of compassion, there is a tap on my shoulder. I look up. Reaching out my glasses is a man in an Arsenal shirt.
Later, safe in the darkness of the Crouch End Picturehouse, there will be a screening of “Quatermass and the Pit” (1967), the 1958 film adaptation of Kneale’s teleplay. The original version concludes with words by Professor Bernard Quatermass, pronounced at amid the smoking ruins of the capital: “Every crisis of war, witch hunts, race riots and purges is a reminder and a warning. We are the Martians. If we can’t control the legacy within us, this will be their second dead planet.”
I’ve seen this movie before. I go to the pub instead.
Andy Miller is the author of “The Year of Reading Dangerously” and the co-host of the podcast “Backlisted”.
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