It is 1961, and soon to be 11-years old Scarberian, Daniel Lehman, is standing on Hyde Park corner in London watching the red, double decker bus containing his brother and father disappear into a never-ending stream of traffic. The bus they got on was crowded and the clippy, who was selling tickets, enforced the maximum standing rule by announcing it loudly and then pushing Daniel off the platform at the back of the bus. He isn’t frightened because he is sure that in a few minutes his brother and father will realize he is not on the bus and then make their way back to him. They have to realize he has no money and can’t pay for his ticket.

As he waits, he checks out his surroundings. He finds out that Hyde Park corner has a number of war memorials. He examines the Australian War Memorial, the Royal Artillery Memorial, the Royal Artillery Memorial, the New Zealand War Memorial, and the Machine Gun Corps Memorial. He wonders why all these memorials are on this particular corner. He wonders if his father could tell him why. He was in England for part of the war, but he never talks about it. His standard response to “Did you fight in the war?” is “I fought and fought, but still they took me.” So much for what the one-time shoe salesman had to say about the war.

After what seems like an eternity of walking back and for and watching people get on bus after bus, he eventually realizes no one is going to come and save him. He is lost in a huge, strange city. He doesn’t know what to do and is trying to push away the fear that is beginning to edge its way into his brain. He is wondering how he came to be in the position he is in. He shouldn’t be in London. No one he knows has been to London. He doesn’t even know anyone who has been outside the country. His father doesn’t even own a car, but because he works for an airline, he managed to get he and his brother onto a jet plane that took them across the Atlantic Ocean only to lose him in London.

Daniel is a naturally curious child. He started delivering newspapers at seven-years old and has been reading the newspaper every day before he starts his deliveries. At 11, he knows a lot about what is going on in the world. He knows Fidel Castro is the leader of Cuba and has turned communist. He has read about the French and the pending independence of Algeria. He knows Kennedy is the new President of the United States and Eisenhower was the old one. He knows about the Russians and Sputnik. He knows who Yuri Gargarin is and he has read about Bishop Mikarios who is the President of Cyprus, though he doesn’t know exactly where Cyprus is. And he knows who Adolf Eichmann is and what he did to Jews during the war.

From very early on, Daniel has made a point of noticing and remembering things. He knows they are staying at the Strand Palace Hotel and that the hotel is down the street from Trafalgar Square. All he has to do is to get to Trafalgar Square and then find the Strand and follow it to the hotel. How to do that? It doesn’t occur to him that he could just find the nearest policeman, tell him he is lost and let the cop do the rest. But it does occur to him that he noticed maps in the tube that show the underground routes and a surface street map as well. All he needs to do is to find Trafalgar Square on the map in relation to the underground stop he is at which will be highlighted by a red dot. But first he has to find a tube station. He saw one as his father, brother and he were walking toward Hyde Park. But where? He does not want to walk in any direction if he is only to find our he has gone the wrong way. The best thing to do is to ask someone.

Daniel picks a well-dressed man wearing a bowler hat and carrying an umbrella who is standing on the corner waiting for the traffic light to change so he can cross the street. He looks familiar somehow.

“Sir, can you tell me how to get to the nearest subway station? asks Daniel.

“Subway? I’d be happy to help, but I don’t know what you’re looking for, “ responds the bowler hat.

Daniel is flummoxed. He doesn’t know what the problem is. Then he remembers he’s not at home. He is in London and Londoners call it the tube or the underground. “Sorry. I’m looking for the nearest underground station,” he says.

“Ah, a little American. That depends on where you want to get to. Different lines go in different directions,” says the man with the umbrella who is wondering why the little boy in the tweed blazer and oxford shoes is wandering around alone.

“Trafalgar Square,” says Daniel.

“Piccadilly line then. The tube station is just around this corner,” says the man using his umbrella to point out the right direction.

Daniel wants to tell the helpful man that he is not an American, but the bowler hat has already started to cross the road.

Daniel sets off in the direction the man has indicated with his umbrella, and in a few minutes, he is in the Piccadilly tube station staring at the map that shows the surface routes as well as the path of the underground line. Daniel is surprised at the large spiderweb of streets that all lead toward Trafalgar Square. He decides the easiest thing to do is to trace from Trafalgar Square back to the red dot that shows the station he is at. Several attempts either lead to dead ends or go away from his tube station. Eventually he figures it out. If he follows Piccadilly Street, if will eventually take him to Trafalgar Square.

Daniel leaves the underground station and sets out for his walk. He wishes he wasn’t wearing the sensible shoes his parents insist on buying for him. His toes are pinched and his feet are already sore from the walking he his father and brother did to get to Hyde Park. Once he has found Piccadilly Street, he finally asks himself if he should just ask a policeman for help. It would not be hard to find one. They seem to be all over the place. But some part of him wants to find his way back to his father and brother without having to ask anyone for help. His father, the shoe salesman, survived a war. He should be able to survive a walk. Based on the map he looked at, the first thing he has to do is get to Piccadilly Circus, which he is pretty sure is not an actual circus. From there it was a short distance to Trafalgar Square. He wishes he could have brought the map with him. He would like to be absolutely sure he is walking in the right direction.

As Daniel walks, he realizes Piccadilly is quite the street. There is lots for a kid from Scarberia to see. He passes by an apartment building called the Albany, the likes of which he has never seen before. London is very different than his home city where everything seems new and modern. Everything in London seems old. There are still signs of buildings that were bombed during the war. As he walks, Daniel sees a shopping arcade. It looks like an interesting place and he would like to visit, but he knows his father and brother will be sick with worry about him. He needs to get to the hotel as fast as he can. He is sure that by now, his father has called the police. There are probably a lot of cops looking for him.

Daniel passes by the Ritz Hotel and wishes he were staying there. He wonders if the Ritz Hotel is why people talk about putting on the ritz. He knows there is a song by that name that he heard in an old movie on television. He is getting hungry and all the restaurants he walks by taunt the penniless Daniel. A bookshop called Hatchard’s catches his eye. He has never been in a store that sells nothing but books, especially one which says it was founded in 1797. Daniel continues to walk and passes by the impressive St. James Church and then an outdoor market that looks very interesting. He passes by Fortnum and Mason. He doesn’t know what that is, but a lot of people are going in and out the front doors of the building. He continues to walk past Green Park and eventually he arrives in Piccadilly Circus, which as he expected, is not a circus.

According to the map he looked at, he has to make a turn to get to Trafalgar Square. But the real world doesn’t look anything like the map. He hesitates for a moment and then decides to ask someone for directions. In a few seconds, he is again off to Trafalgar Square. The directions he was given sent him to Coventry Street where he must turn to the right and follow Whitcomb Street until he hits Pall Mall. And then he must turn to the right and Trafalgar Square will be right there. He does, and it is. He walks around looking at street names until he locates the Strand.

As he nears the hotel, Daniel is sure there will be police cars outside. There aren’t. But maybe they don’t look the same as they do at home. When he arrives at the door of the hotel, he assumes the police must be inside. They could be in the lobby. They aren’t. Maybe the cops are talking to his father in their room. As he rides the elevator, he imagines how happy and relieved his father and brother will be to see him.

There are no cops and no expressions of joy at his return. He expected it to be like an episode of Leave It to Beaver he had seen. Beaver got lost and his parents were frantic to find him. When he got back home, everyone was ecstatic. And that was only after he was gone for a couple of hours in their neighbourhood. The reaction Daniel gets on his return makes him think that life is nothing like it is shown to be on television. When his brother Mikey opens the hotel room door, Daniel sees his father sitting on his bed smoking a cigar. He looks over at Daniel and says, “Glad you found your way back.”

That’s it? Glad you found your way. No tears of joy. No expressions of worry. Just a quick comment and that’s all a 10-year-old boy who was lost in London gets?

“Why didn’t you come looking for me?” Daniel asks his father.

“We did. I sent Mikey out to look for you,’ answers his father.

“I went back to Hyde Park corner, but you weren’t there. I looked around and stayed for a while before I came back,” says Mikey.

As it turns out, Mikey did not come back to the hotel and Daniel’s father went out to look for him. He found him in a penny arcade playing a shooting game.

“Why didn’t you call the police?” Daniel asks his father.

“Because I knew you are a smart kid and that you wouldn’t wander off with a stranger or do anything stupid that would put you at risk,” says his father.

What was meant to comfort Daniel didn’t. Later that night as he is lying in bed going over the events of the day, Daniel realizes that something has changed. Somehow, he knows he has learned something about his life and what it will demand of him. It is not good news.