How Far the World Will Bend

How Far The World Will Bend - Chapter 1

How Far the World Will Bend

When something bad happens

we play it back in our minds,

looking for a place to step in

and change things... Maybe

the exceptional man can change direction

in midair, thread the needle's eye,

and come out whole. But even the hero

who stands up to chance has to feel

how far the world will bend

until it breaks him. He can see

that day: the unappeasable ocean,

the cascades of stone. A crowd

gathers around his body. He sees that too.

Someone is saying: His luck just ran out.

It happens to us all.

--The Hero's Luck, Lawrence Raab

Chapter 1. Queen Alice

London, 1920

"Meg, is that you?" The anxious voice echoed down the hallway, reaching the young woman who had entered the front door. Meg sighed, and left her handbag and gloves on the side table near the entrance.

"Yes, Aunt Lily, it's me," she replied in a clear, soft voice. She removed her hat and checked her appearance in the hall mirror, smoothing down the wisps of soft auburn hair that had escaped from the braid down her back. Her cheeks were pink from the brisk November wind and her blue eyes were brightened from the exercise of walking. She straightened her uniform and moved toward the stairs.

Her aunt called down again. "Mother has been waiting for you-she would like you to pack her valise."

Meg sighed again. It had been a long day at the hospital, and now she had to pack Grandmother Armstrong's valise. Meg longed for a few moments by herself, away from the bustle of the hospital or the busy come and go of the boarding house her aunt managed. That was obviously not going to happen today. Still, she did not mind packing for Grandmother Armstrong or Gran as she called her. Best to do it now, Meg thought resolutely, and headed up the staircase.

It could be difficult living in a home with people who were not your flesh and blood, Meg thought yet again. Margaret Armstrong, known as Meg to her adoptive family, had come to live with the Armstrong family on her sixth birthday. During the sixteen years she had been with them, Aunt Lily reminded her constantly of the generosity and hard work that enabled Meg to continue living in this comfortable row home on the outskirts of London. It did not seem to matter that she worked, first as a nurse in the wards during the Great War and now at hospital, and contributed a portion of her earnings to the household income. She suspected she was often viewed by the woman she regarded as her aunt as one less room available to let.

Not that Aunt Lily treated her unkindly. She had always loved and cared for Meg, who had been educated at the same schools that Lily's daughter, Amelia, attended. She took piano lessons with Amelia, had shared the same drawing instructor, and had the same number of dresses made for her, spring and fall. Meg suspected that Lily was so completely overworked and tired that she had little energy left to lavish affection on any family member. Widowed at a young age, Lily opened her home to boarders to help pay the family's bills. She was a plump and pretty woman who ran her boarding house with such precision and attention to every detail that she had little time to care for herself, let alone her family.

Meg tried to remember this situation whenever her aunt was irritable or tired, and she attempted to help out in whatever way she could at the boarding house. She would play piano and sing for the boarders on the musical evenings arranged by Aunt Lily. She retrieved Mrs. Rawlings' medications from the pharmacist, and read to Mr. Abernathy, whose vision was waning. Meg also checked on the health of the elderly boarders, ensuring they took their medications on schedule and ate properly. She was well thought of by all of the boarders, and Lily appreciated her efforts in her own way.