The Restoration of Otto Laird (7 page)

Otto felt so diminished, sometimes, that he didn't realise what an impressive physical presence he remained. Very tall, lightly tanned, thin and with a full head of longish white hair, swept back rakishly from striking brown eyes. When dressed for the occasion – today he wore a blue blazer and a silk cravat, the white hair tumbling down over his collar – he could still attract admiring female glances, much to his astonishment.

So he could take it easy, then, play the wise owl, not make too much of an effort to impress. Moreover, it was clear from the shape of the conversation, and the way that Chloe and her colleagues often finished their sentences with a quick glance over to seek his approval, that, if anything,
they
were here to impress
him.
He felt relieved about that. It took the pressure off. And it bought him some time to regain his mental balance.

Otto had arrived at the restaurant with plenty of questions. There were many things he wanted to know about their plans for the television feature, which was scheduled to begin filming the day after tomorrow. But then he had caught sight of her as she walked into the restaurant and his brain had been completely overturned. The lurching sensation had struck him like seasickness, as if the restaurant were suddenly a small ship and the Thames a raging ocean.

A waiter took their order, and with no more impending interruptions on the horizon the conversation deepened. It looked as if it would be a while until they got down to the nitty-gritty of talking about the documentary, becoming sidetracked into a general discussion about the merits of post-war architecture. Angelo could never resist the topic. Freed from any need to follow the thread too closely, Otto repeated his initial thought once more to himself, in order to confirm it.

She looks exactly like a young Cynthia.

Followed by a question.

What does that signify?

On the plane, he had been struck by that odd sense of foreboding that he was somehow flying back into his past. Now, within a few hours of landing, he had met someone whom a less rational man might suspect to be the reincarnation of his late wife.

When did Cynthia leave us again? he thought. And how old do you think this young woman is?

He caught himself making some mental calculations and stopped.

Idiot. But the resemblance is remarkable, isn't it?

He glanced over at Angelo, who was explaining some of the central precepts of Modernism, and tried to work out whether he had spotted it, too. But from his effusive manner and gently waving hands, it appeared that Angelo had noticed nothing.

But then he had hardly known Cynthia, having been in his mid-twenties when she died. He had very recently joined the practice at the time. Besides, he only ever saw Cyn in middle age – when she was already sick and somewhat changed. He had never known her when she was like this.

As Chloe leaned forward to speak to Angelo and the others, Otto took the opportunity to study her face more closely. He still didn't think he could handle any eye contact, and would have to glance away again if she suddenly aimed those pale-blue eyes towards him. As he had already noted, the similarities lay not just in her features – and my goodness, they are close enough, he thought – but in the gestures, the expressions. That was the most striking part. There was her mode of eye contact as she spoke, moving methodically from one face to the next, gauging and including. Her laugh, too; not so much the sound, but the little throw back of the head – delighting in the moment. And then she did something that truly floored him. As she listened to Angelo, she took off the small bracelet she wore on her left wrist (unthinkingly, as she was still intent on the conversation), and spun it between the fingers of her right hand. Three times in one direction, then three times in the other. Quickly, dextrously – no one else at the table even noticed – and then slipped it back onto her wrist.

Otto sat back in his chair.

I thought I'd never see that again.

*   *   *

The first time he had done so – the first time they had spoken – was in a student café in Bloomsbury in the mid-1950s. But they had already spotted each other some weeks before, at the Architectural Association on Bedford Square, a prestigious college with a reputation for cutting-edge design where the two of them were working towards their professional qualifications. Otto had already been studying there several years. She was newly arrived from the United States. Strange, now, to think that he had ever lived in this city without her.

Cynthia was impressed at first sight by the rake-thin young man with the luminous skin and soulful eyes, whose presentation on Le Corbusier confirmed for her the reputation she had already heard about from others. She and her friends would track around the library the progression of this enigmatic figure, who apparently preferred to live among the poorer communities of Lambeth, rather than take his rightful place among the fashionable young bohemians of Bloomsbury. Otto's evasiveness, together with his obvious intelligence, only added to his allure, and within a few weeks of Cynthia's arrival at the college, he was already firmly established on her radar. For the time being, however, she kept her distance, knowing she was not short of allure herself.

It was common knowledge that Cynthia had taken her first degree at New York's Columbia University. It was also known that she had lived for a while in fashionable Greenwich Village. Rumour had it that she once drank coffee just two tables away from James Dean. The first thing that drew Otto's attention, however, was her headwear. Most days she wore a stylish black beret, tilted down slightly to the left, which she could use very effectively to either shelter from view, or offer up for contemplation, the blue eyes beneath the auburn wave. With the smoke from a cigarette curling constantly around her face, she had all the credentials of an authentic beatnik. Not only was she the kind of person who could appreciate Abstract Expressionism, she looked like someone who might understand the complexities of modern jazz.

Walking alone into the café that particular day, Otto spotted her at a table by the window. She was reading a dog-eared copy of
Orlando,
pausing now and then to stir her coffee with a silver spoon. Settling down at an adjacent table, and calculating the best strategy for interrupting her reading, he was spared further anguish by her glance, smile of recognition and offer of a place at her table. He was impressed at once by her confidence and maturity, if a little taken aback by her cut-glass English accent.

‘You're not from New York, then?'

‘No, I'm Home Counties born and bred. My spell at Columbia was the first time I'd ever been to the States. My father has business contacts in America, you see, which is how I came to study there.'

‘New York must have been exciting.'

‘Yes, I enjoyed it, greatly. But I decided to come back home to complete my studies. And you're Austrian, I hear?'

‘Technically, yes, although I haven't actually lived there since I was young. German remains my first language, however, and the accent I have kept, or so I am told. Are you living near to the college?'

‘Not too far away. I have a place on Marchmont Street – just up the road from here.'

‘And you are renting there?'

She looked a little awkward.

‘No, it's a family heirloom. My parents have owned it for years. It's convenient for my studies and great for the West End. I've heard a rumour that you live somewhere in the far south, is that right?'

‘It's not so far, but it is south of the river. I have a room in Lambeth.'

‘And what drew you down there?'

‘At first, there was a mixing-up with the accommodation. This was a few years ago, when I first came to study here. The forms I filled out for the college were lost, and so I had to find somewhere quickly. And then, once I was there, I grew to like it. The atmosphere is different. They are maybe more like human beings down there.'

They both laughed.

‘You will have to excuse me. My English is still not always so good. I express myself a little oddly on occasion.'

‘It's okay. I understand what you mean. And I think there is probably more truth to your words than you intended. Bloomsbury can feel a little artificial sometimes, although it's a shame that you're so cut off from everyone. You're missing out on a lot – there's quite a vibrant community up here. You should think about leaving the human beings and coming up to live with the Bloomsbury Set. We don't want you sitting down there all alone, brooding away in your attic like some mad genius. You're clearly well ahead on your reading – well ahead of some of the lecturers, from what I've heard. Come north and broaden your scope.'

‘My scope?'

‘Your outlook – your potential.'

‘You think I have potential?'

Cynthia gave him a look, then, holding his eyes with confidence as she drew on her cigarette, the smoke wreathing sensuously around her face.

‘I think you have lots of potential, Otto.'

She paused and stubbed out her cigarette into the ashtray. Her restless hands detached the silver bracelet and spun it between her fingers …

*   *   *

Otto's throat began to tighten at the memory. He was becoming emotional. Tears were squeezing their way out of the corners of his eyes.

Steady, you old fool. Calm yourself. Start blubbing now and the game is up. They'll lock you away for ever.

With a considerable effort, he forced his attention away from the bracelet – how many times he had seen that, in so many places, but don't give in to it, not here – and back to the conversation taking place around him. He was relieved when the food arrived shortly afterwards, and they moved on to the business in hand.

Otto voiced some of the concerns he had previously mentioned to Angelo, but this time only in the most cursory of ways. All pride and suspicion seemed to have drained from him as if the evening's events had sapped his will. He had seen enough to convince him that these young people had sufficient integrity to do their job properly. He should leave them alone to get on with it. Besides, in a sense he felt that he had no choice but to go along with whatever came his way. The bizarre coincidence that he had just come to terms with over dinner seemed to have effectively ruled out any alternative. There was no backing away now, even if he wanted to.

Fate
was one of those words Otto detested – a hangover from the superstitious past. When it came to explaining baffling occurrences, he preferred to think in terms of autonomous bodies, circulating through space-time, and sometimes forming chance events that to the irrational mind might seem to have been preordained. To him, it was a simple question of physics. Nevertheless, he was forced to admit that this particular chance event had affected him strangely. He felt that something was under way over which he had little control.

‘Do you have an itinerary for the filming?' he asked Chloe, for the sake of finding something to discuss.

‘Yes,' she said, ‘it's pretty straightforward. We'll start with three full days, but after that things should be easier for you. Just the afternoon, on the fourth day, and the morning on the fifth. That will give you a little recovery time.'

Good God, thought Otto. They think I might keel over halfway through.

But the news that he would be given some time to himself was welcome.

‘And would it be presumptuous of me to ask what sort of questions you might throw at me? I don't wish to be awkward, but I was hoping for some time to prepare my answers. I'm not as good at speaking off the cuff as I once was.'

‘I won't ask anything especially challenging. But if it's all the same to you, I'd rather not give too much away in advance. Better to keep things fresh, I think, for the cameras.'

‘Of course. I understand.'

‘In general terms, we'll be looking at a number of issues. The condition of the building, the possibilities for a listing, the debate about the merits of post-war architecture. But we don't want anything too heavy or technical. We want the film to be more personal in tone.'

‘I see,' said Otto.

The tone of his voice caused Angelo to look up quickly.

‘We want to explore your emotional journey – your feelings on seeing the building again. That will be the core theme of the documentary. I imagine it will be quite a nostalgic experience for you, and we'd like to capture that as best we can.'

Angelo wondered what Otto might say. His expression looked oddly frozen. Was he about to ruin everything at the last?

Otto's face relaxed.

‘I'm afraid I'm not terribly good at expressing emotion; rather difficult to prise from my shell. But you're welcome to give it a try, of course, if you feel it might be of interest to your viewers.'

He smiled pleasantly at Chloe, and she returned the gesture.

‘Thank you for the opportunity,' she said.

Angelo breathed a silent sigh of relief.

Seven

‘So you're happy then?' Angelo asked Otto, once they were ensconced in the taxi and crossing over Blackfriars Bridge once more. He was surprised at how straightforward it had all seemed.

‘Yes, they seem very nice. I can't say I'm exactly relishing the prospect, but I'm sure they'll make it as painless as possible.'

‘Good … good…'

Angelo glanced over at Otto, but he was looking out of the window, his body turned slightly away. Now wasn't the time for a post-mortem on the evening's proceedings.

A few minutes earlier, as they climbed into the back of the taxi, Angelo – buoyed by the evening's success – had asked Otto if he would like to take a detour via Marlowe House.

‘We needn't get out, or even stop,' he had told him. ‘Just take a peek before the filming begins.'

But he had misjudged the mood.

‘It's late,' Otto said, ‘and I'm feeling tired. I'd rather just get back to my hotel, if you don't mind. I'll see it again, soon enough.'