P. Travers - Mary Poppins Opens the Door

She glanced around at the group of dancers. They were standing still upon the pavement and seemed to be waiting for something. For every face was gazing upwards at Number Seventeen.

"What can they be looking at?" said Michael, as he craned his own head backwards.

Then a glow appeared at the Nursery windows and a dark shape moved across it. The children knew it was Mary Poppins, lighting the evening fire. And presently the flames sprang up. They sparkled on the window-panes and shone through the darkening garden. Higher and higher leapt the blaze, brighter and brighter the windows gleamed. Then suddenly they saw the Nursery reflected upon Miss Lark's side wall. There it gleamed, high above the garden, with its sparkling fire and the mantelpiece and the old armchair and—

"The Door! The Door!" A breathless cry went up from the crowd in the Lane.

What door? Jane and Michael stared at each other. And suddenly — they knew!

"Oh, Michael! It isn't her friends who are going away!" cried Jane in an anguished voice. "It's — oh, hurry, hurry! We must go and find her!"

With trembling hands they hauled out the Twins and dragged them through the gate. They tore at the Front Door, rushed upstairs and burst into the Nursery.

Their faces fell as they stared at the room, for everything in it was as quiet and peaceful as it had always been. The fire was crackling behind its bars and, cosily tucked inside her cot, Annabel was softly cooing. The bricks they had used for the morning's Castle were neatly piled in a corner. And beside them lay the precious box of Mary Poppins' dominoes.

"Oh!" they panted, surprised and puzzled to find everything just the same.

Everything? No! There was one thing missing.

"The camp bed!" Michael cried. "It's gone! Then — where is Mary Poppins?"

He ran to the bathroom and out on the landing and back to the Nursery again.

"Mary Poppins! Mary Poppins! Mary Poppins!"

Then Jane glanced up from the fire to the window and gave a little cry.

"Oh, Michael, Michael! There she is! And there is the Other Door!"

He followed the line of her pointing finger and his mouth opened wide.

For there, on the outer side of the window, another Nursery glimmered. It stretched from Number Seventeen to the wall of Miss Lark's house; and everything in the real Nursery was reflected in that shining room. There was Annabel's gleaming cot and the table made of light. There was the fire, leaping up in mid-air; and there, at last, was the Other Door, exactly the same as the one behind them. It shimmered like a panel of light at the other side of the garden. Beside it stood their own reflections and towards it, along the airy floor, tripped the figure of Mary Poppins. She carried the carpet bag in her hand; and the Matchman's flowers and the parrot umbrella were tucked beneath her arm. Away she stalked through the Nursery's reflection, away through the shimmering likenesses of the old familiar things. And as she went, the daisies nodded on the crown of her black straw hat.

A loud cry burst from Michael's mouth as he rushed towards the window.

Away she stalked through the Nursery's reflection

"Mary Poppins!" he cried. "Come back! Come back!"

Behind him the Twins began to grizzle.

"Oh, please, Mary Poppins, come back to us!" called Jane, from the window-seat.

But Mary Poppins took no notice. She strode on swiftly towards the Door that shimmered in the air.

"She won't get anywhere that way!" said Michael. "It will only lead to Miss Lark's wall."

But even as he spoke, Mary Poppins reached the Other Door and pulled it wide open. A gasp of surprise went up from the children. For the wall they had expected to see had entirely disappeared. Beyond Mary Poppins' straight blue figure there was nothing but field on field of sky, and the dark spreading night.

"Come back, Mary Poppins!" they cried together, in a last despairing wail.

And as though she had heard them, she paused for a minute, with one foot on the threshold. The starfish sparkled on her collar as she glanced back swiftly towards the Nursery. She smiled at the four sad watching faces and waved her bouquet of flowers. Then she snapped the parrot umbrella open and stepped out into the night.

The umbrella wobbled for a moment and the light from the fire shone full upon it as it swayed in the air. Then, with a bound, as though glad to be free, it soared away through the sky. Up, up went Mary Poppins with it, tightly holding the parrot handle as she cleared the tops of the trees. And as she went, the Hurdy-gurdy broke out with a peal of music, as loud and proud and triumphant as any wedding march.

Back in the Nursery the great blaze faded and sank into crimson coals. The flames went down and with them went the shining other room. Soon there was nothing to be seen but the Cherry-Trees waving through the air and the blank brick wall of Miss Lark's house.

But above the roof a bright form rose, flying higher every minute. It seemed to have gathered into itself the sparkle and flame of the fire. For it glowed like a little core of light in the black frosty sky.

Leaning upon the window-seat, the four children watched it. Their cheeks lay heavily in their hands and their hearts were heavy within their breasts. They did not try to explain it to themselves, for they knew there were things about Mary Poppins that could never be explained. Where she had come from nobody knew, and where she was going they could not guess. They were certain only of one thing — that she had kept her promise. She had stayed with them till the Door opened and then she had left them. And they could not tell if they would ever see that trim shape again.

Michael reached out for the box of dominoes. He put it on the sill beside Jane. And together they held it as they watched the umbrella go sailing through the sky.

Presently Mrs. Banks came in.

"What — sitting all alone, my darlings?" she cried as she snapped on the light. "Where's Mary Poppins?" she enquired, with a glance round the room.

"Gone, ma'am," said a resentful voice, as Mrs. Brill appeared on the landing.

Mrs. Banks' face had a startled look.

"What do you mean?" she demanded anxiously.

"Well, it's this way," Mrs. Brill replied. "I was lis-tenin' to a Nurdy-gurdy that's down in the Lane, when I sees the empty perambulator and the Matchman wheelin' it up to the door.' 'Ullo!' I says, 'where's that Mary Poppins?' And 'e tells me she's gone again. Lock, stock and barrer gone. Not even a note on 'er pincushion!"

"Oh, what shall I do?" wailed Mrs. Banks, sitting down on the old armchair.

"Do? You can come and dance with me!" cried Mr. Banks' voice, as he raced upstairs.

"Oh, don't be so silly, George! Something's happened. Mary Poppins has gone again!" Mrs. Banks' face was a tragedy. "George! George! Please listen to me!" she begged.

For Mr. Banks had taken no notice. He was waltzing round and round the room, holding out his coat-tails.

"I can't! There's a Hurdy-gurdy down in the Lane and it's playing the Blue Danube. Ta-rum pom-pom-pom — de-di, de-dum!"

And, pulling Mrs. Banks from the chair, he waltzed her round, singing lustily. Then they both collapsed on the window-seat among the watching children.

"But, George — this is serious!" Mrs. Banks protested, half-laughing, half-crying, as she pinned up her hair.

"I see something much more serious!" he exclaimed, as he glanced through the Nursery window. "A shooting star! Look at it! Wish on it, children!"