Arthur & George

Connie does not answer; she does not like the logical consequence of this sentence, which is sitting across from her, letting its tea go cold.

'But I said "much of it", Connie. Only "much of it" is fraudulent. If you visit a gold mine, do you find it filled with gold? No. Much of it – most of it – is base metal embedded in rock. You have to search for the gold.'

'I distrust metaphors, Arthur.'

'So do I. So do I. That is why I mistrust faith, which is the biggest metaphor of all. I have done with faith. I can only work with the clear white light of knowledge.'

Connie looks perplexed by this.

'The whole point of psychical research,' he explains, 'is to eliminate and expose fraud and deceit. To leave only what can be scientifically confirmed. If you eliminate the impossible, what is left, however improbable, must be the truth. Spiritism is not asking you to take a leap in the dark, or cross a bridge you have not yet come to.'

'So it is like Theosophy?' Connie is now nearing the extremity of her knowledge.

'Not like Theosophy. In the end, Theosophy is just another faith. As I say, I have done with faith.'

'And with Heaven and Hell?'

'You remember what the Mam told us – "Wear flannel next to your skin, and never believe in eternal punishment."'

'So everyone goes to Heaven? Sinners and the just alike? What incentive-'

Arthur cuts her off. He feels as if he is back arguing about the Tolley. 'Our spirits are not necessarily at peace after we pass over.'

'And God and Jesus? You do not believe in them?'

'Certainly. But not the God and the Jesus who are claimed by a Church which for centuries has been corrupt both spiritually and intellectually. And which demands of its followers the suspension of rational faculties.'

Connie now feels herself getting lost and also wonders if she should take offence. 'So what sort of Jesus do you believe in?'

'If you look at what it actually says in the Bible, if you ignore the way in which the text has been altered and misinterpreted to suit the will of the established Churches, it's quite clear that Jesus was a highly trained psychic or medium. The inner circle of the Apostles, especially Peter, James and John, were clearly chosen for their spiritist capabilities. The "miracles" of the Bible are merely – well, not merely, wholly – examples of Jesus's psychic powers.'

'The raising of Lazarus? The feeding of the five thousand?'

'There are medical mediums who claim to see through the body's walls. There are apport mediums who claim to transport objects through time and space. And Pentecost, when the angel of the Lord came down and they all spoke in tongues. What is that but a séance? It's the most exact description of a séance I've read!'

'So you've become an early Christian, Arthur?'

'Not to mention Joan of Arc. She was clearly a great medium.'

'Her too?'

He suspects she is now mocking him – it would be just like her; and this makes it easier, not harder, for him to explain things.

'Think of it this way, Connie. Imagine there are a hundred mediums at work. Imagine ninety-nine of them are frauds. This means, does it not, that one is true? And if one is true, and the psychic phenomena channelled through that medium are authentic, we have proved our case. We need only prove it once and it is proved for everybody and for all time.'

'Prove what?' Connie has been thrown by her brother's sudden use of 'we'.

'The survival of the spirit after death. One case, and we prove it for all humanity. Let me tell you about something that happened twenty years ago in Melbourne. It was well documented at the time. Two young brothers went out into the bay in their boat with an experienced seaman at the tiller. Sailing conditions were good, but alas they never returned. Their father was a Spiritualist, and after two days with no news he called in a well-known sensitive – that's a medium – to try and trace them. The sensitive was given some of the brothers' belongings, and managed by psychometry to provide an account of their movements. The last he could make out was that their boat was in great difficulty and confusion reigned. It seemed that they were inevitably going to be lost.

'I see that look in your eye, Connie, and I know what you are thinking – that you would not have needed a psychic to tell you that. But wait. Two days later, another séance was held with the same sensitive, and the two lads, who had been trained in spiritual knowledge, came through at once. They apologized to their mother, who had not wanted them to set off, and gave an account of the capsizing and of their death by water. They reported that they were now in exactly the conditions of brightness and happiness that their father's preaching had promised. And they even brought the seaman who had perished with them to say a few words.

'Towards the end of the contact, one of the lads told how the other brother's arm had been torn off by a fish. The medium asked if it had been a shark, and the boy replied that it was not like any shark he had ever seen. Now, all this was written down at the time and some of it published in the newspapers. Mark the sequel. Some weeks later a large shark of a rare deep-sea species, one unfamiliar to the fishermen who caught it, and quite unknown in the waters off Melbourne, was taken some thirty miles away. Inside it was the bone of a human arm. Also, a watch, some coins, and other articles which belonged to the boy.' He paused. 'Now, Connie, what do you make of that?'

Connie reflects for a while. What she makes of it is that her brother is confusing religion with his love of fixing things. He sees a problem – death – and he looks for a way of solving it: such is his nature. She also thinks Arthur's spiritualism is connected, though quite how she cannot work out, with his love of chivalry and romance and the belief in a golden age. But she confines her objections to a narrower basis.

'What I make of it, my dear brother, is that it is a wonderful story, and you are a wonderful storyteller, as we all know. I also think that I was not in Melbourne twenty years ago, and neither were you.'

Arthur does not mind being rebuffed. 'Connie, you are a great rationalist, and that is the first step towards becoming a spiritist.'

'I doubt you will convert me, Arthur.' It seems to Connie that he has just told her a revised version of Jonah and the Whale – though one in which the victims were less fortunate – but that to base any beliefs upon such a story would be as much an act of faith as it was for those who first heard the story of Jonah. At least the Bible is proposing a metaphor. Arthur, because he dislikes metaphor, sees a parable and chooses to take it literally. As if the parable of the Wheat and the Tares were mere horticultural advice.

'Connie, what if someone you knew and loved were to die. And afterwards that person made contact with you, spoke to you, told you something only you knew, some chance intimate detail which could not have been discovered through anyone's trickery?'

'Arthur, I think that is another bridge I shall cross if ever I come to it.'

'Connie, you English Connie. Wait and see, wait and see what turns up. Not for me. I'm all for action now.'

'You always have been, Arthur.'

'We shall be laughed at. It is a great cause, but it will not be a fair fight. You must expect to see your brother laughed at. Still, always remember: one case is all we need. One case and the whole thing is proven. Proven beyond all reasonable doubt. Proven beyond all scientific refutation. Think of that, Connie.'

'Arthur, your tea is now quite cold.'

And so, gradually, the years accrue. It is ten years since Touie fell ill, six since he met Jean. It is eleven years since Touie fell ill, seven since he met Jean. It is twelve years since Touie fell ill, eight since he met Jean. Touie remains cheerful, free of pain, and ignorant, he is sure, of the gentle conspiracy surrounding her. Jean remains in her flat, practises her voice, rides to hounds, makes chaperoned visits to Undershaw and unchaperoned ones to Masongill; she never swerves from insisting that what she has is enough because it is all her heart desires, and she leaves one safe child-bearing year behind her after another. The Mam remains his rock, his confessor, his reassurance. Nothing moves. Perhaps nothing ever will move, until one day the strain attacks his heart and he simply explodes and expires. There is no way out, that is the beastliness of his position; or rather, each beckoning exit is marked Misery. In Lasker's Chess Magazine he reads of a position called Zugzwang, in which the player is unable to move any piece in any direction to any square without making his already imperilled state worse. This is what Arthur's life feels like.