Waterland

Back at the pub, Tom tells Price how all of history is reality, how “all the stories were once a feeling in the guts” (297), and how he has that feeling now about leaving the pub. He observes that Price feels that about “Nothing,” but claims Price will remember his “history teacher, who gave these crazy lessons” (297). Instead of leaving, though, Tom revisits the scene at the windmill with Mary, telling Price her method of aborting the baby had not worked, so she insisted they visit Martha Clay, propelling Tom into another “fairy-tale,” this one with a witch.

Before reaching Martha Clay’s cottage, Tom mentions a different type of geese that now fills the sky. These geese, “made of aluminum and steel, wooden struts and perspex; and with the trick of laying explosive and inflammatory eggs while still in mid-air” (299), are actually World War II bombers. Despite seeing the bombers, Tom and Mary risk their safety to get an abortion from Martha.

The abortion must be performed in secret, and they finally make it to Martha Clay’s remote cottage, which is ancient and replete with superstition.

Mary herself resembles a witch and seems like someone from another time.