Life After Life: A Lovely Day Tomorrow (I), Nov 1940 Summary & Analysis

Ursula is on her back in a pool of water. She smells sewage, plaster, brick dust, gas, and explosives around her. She looks up and sees the frame of the window to her apartment; the curtains are now charred rags. She thinks about how Millie had suggested she move in with her in Phillimore gardens. She tries to take her mind off of her current predicament. She remembers looking out the window in her apartment and turning on the radio to a German station (she had been taking German lessons), but unable to understand anything had put a Ma Rainey record on the gramophone—a gift from Izzie, who had left her house in Holland Park and had decamped to California with her new husband.

Ursula has gotten to know her neighbors over the previous year: Lavinia and Ruth Nesbit, two old, retired spinsters, live on the top floor. The Millers, a large family, live on the bottom floor. Next door to Ursula lives Mrs. Appleyard, a single mother with a baby named Emil, who screams all day and night. They have minimal, polite interaction.

Recently Ursula had visited Pamela, who gave birth to another boy, Gerald. Pamela had been terribly bored to be shut up with so many little boys in Finchley, had returned to London briefly before the nightly raids started, but since then had retreated to Fox Corner to avoid the bombs. Harold is now working the front line, and says that every night is hell at the bombsites.

Ursula is no longer seeing Crighton—the declaration of war had made him guilty, and they had parted ways, even though he was very distraught about it. Ursula had been upset, but she had never been in love with Crighton. She thinks it is a shame, though, that they broke it off—the war made indiscretions easier, as the blackout is the perfect screen for “illicit liaisons.”

Instead, Ursula had begun a relationship with a fellow student from her German class—Ralph. Ralph had fought at Dunkirk (and was shot in the leg, resulting in a permanent limp) and now works in the same building as Ursula. Ralph is sardonic, leftwing, utopian, and nothing like Crighton.

One day when Ursula ran into Maurice at her job, he told her with distaste that it might not look good for her to be courted by a “Red.” He also criticized her for taking German, as though she was getting ready to welcome the enemy. She retorted that he can’t accuse her of being both a communist and a fascist.

In the present, Ursula looks around the wreckage, and can see that most of the wall between her apartment and Mrs. Appleyard’s has disappeared. She can see a dress of Lavinia Nesbit’s hanging through the shattered beams above her. She wonders if she might end up an old maid—if she could be considered an old maid after she had carried on an affair.

The previous day Crighton had sent Ursula a note, asking if she had seen a gold engraved cigarette case that belonged to him. She had found it beneath her bed a few days after he left her. That evening she had done the crossword with Ralph stretched across her lap in the sofa. There was an easy camaraderie and respect between them.

Ursula is very fond of Ralph—not in love with him, but finds him very dependable. Sitting on the couch with him, Ursula had commented aloud that if one small thing could have changed in the past—if Hitler had died at birth—things might be completely different. Ralph wonders if Ursula would have killed Hitler as a baby to prevent it from happening. She thinks that she would, if it would save Teddy.

Teddy had been working on a small farm and wrote poetry, but had applied to the RAF the day after war was declared. He is now in Canada, learning how to fly. Ursula wishes he could stay over there forever.

Ursula had told Ralph abruptly that the raids would be starting soon, and that he’d better leave. She pushed him out the door with a kiss. She hears the planes whine overhead and then the swish and thump of the bombs falling and exploding. She descends the stairs to the cellar, which the residents used as an air-raid shelter. On the way, she passes Lavinia and Ruth, who say Lavinia has forgotten her knitting and are heading upstairs.

The rest of the residents gather in the Millers’ cellar. A tremendous explosion rocks the cellar and everyone goes quiet. Ursula’s heart thumps, and she thinks of Jimmy, who had recently had a few days’ leave from the army and they had gone drinking in the risqué part of town. She asked him to promise not to die as they groped their way home in the darkness, listening to some other part of London being bombed. He had said he would do his best.

In the present, Ursula doesn’t know how long she’s been lying in the pool. Mrs. Appleyard, covered in dirt, dust, and blood, claws over to Ursula, asking if she’s seen Emil. Ursula says she hasn’t, and Mrs. Appleyard disappears. Then Ursula notices Lavinia’s dress once again. Except it’s not just her dress. It’s her body, only without her head and her legs. Ursula starts to panic. She thinks about the explosion—how it had felt like the door to “hell suddenly split open” and her insides were being sucked from her body.

A man’s voice (later revealed to be Mr. Emslie) breaks the silence, as he tells Ursula that there are people trying to get her out. She tries to speak but her words are slurred. The man holds her hand, and she is extremely grateful. Snow falls, and she starts to fall asleep. The man tries to hold her hand tighter and keep her awake, but Ursula imagines herself flying off a roof, floating into the blackout. Darkness falls.