Coming Up for Air

Bowling decides to approach Lower Binfield via Chamford Hill; although the route is less direct, he wants to see the town for the first time as he did when he was a boy returning from fishing. Driving through the countryside is a strange experience for Bowling: The roads seem wider than he remembered and there are fewer trees. On the outskirts of town, a new housing development and a massive cemetery have been built. Bowling recalls that there used to be an oak plantation where the new houses stand and that, in the summer, anemones used to bloom like a carpet under the trees.

When Bowling arrives at the top of Chamford Hill, he is stunned to discover that the small town he grew up in had been swallowed by a mid-sized manufacturing town. He estimates that the population has grown from about 2,000 to 25,000 since he last saw it. Bowling studies the city and is dismayed to find that none of the old landmarks he knew—such as the market square and the brewery—are visible. Getting lost as he drives through the unfamiliar city, Bowling asks a woman for directions to the marketplace, but she doesn’t recognize the landmark.