American Histories. John Edgar Wideman

who had gone off to fight the Kaiser’s legions and would never return.

      So many visitors. So many strangers willing to buy a ticket. Such curiosity. The interest not unexpected, of course. Downton Abbey was Downton Abbey, wasn’t it. And always would be, would it not, thank you. Thank goodness. Long lines all afternoon. The endless questions. Adult villagers, farmers, laborers, trades-people wide-eyed as children stringing along beside and behind them, even people in service at other Great Houses streaming in, excited, cowed to speechlessness at certain moments, faces expressing awe or almost reverence of a sort. Like peasants in church. Or country folk at a traveling carnival delighted by an opportunity to be delighted, or delighted by the privilege of a few hours free to play at being delighted. A public, private treat. Or even treatment, you might call it. Church on Sunday morning. A day at a country fair. A slow amble through polished marvels of Downton Abbey led by one of its formidable denizens.

      And, wasn’t that it. Wasn’t a guide, one of us close enough to touch, the touch that made a tour inside Downton utterly unforgettable for the dears.

      No. No-no, Cousin. They flock to view us in our cages. A day at the zoological gardens to observe odd creatures through the bars.

      * * *

      What a perfectly disagreeable idea. Shame on you, you wicked girl. Surely you don’t believe that our guests entertain actual thoughts. Goodness gracious, dear. Why bother ourselves one tad about that lot or their notions. Except to recall that Mr. Bran-son reported money positively poured in today. More tours could produce useful revenue.

      More tours. No-no-no. Please. Never again. Heavens, no . . .

      In bed we watch and listen. Tourists, too. Paying, too. Watch a moment in a TV melodrama when a tour conducted by Down-ton Abbey’s owners surprises them into a sudden awareness of themselves as characters in a show being staged for an audience, watched by an audience. A moment characters did not see coming until the script demands a tour of their imaginary lives.

      Downton Abbey’s characters slightly dismayed when they realize the roles they play consume, not save them. A show may be a long-running hit, yet remains temporary. Empires fall, individual lives, virtuous or villainous, collapse. Sooner or later, no matter how convincingly an actor renders a character, you can only fool some of the people some of the time. And even though a sucker born every minute and fools rush in and writers contrive sudden, unexpected exits and entrances to unsettle or entice viewers, everybody knows that sooner or later, all good things must come to an end.

      After the scene I’m recalling, after tours had been dispensed at Downton Abbey and crowds had passed from room to room, all visitors finally led away, gate locked, big day over, we watch till the episode concludes. Reach this last room. Last scene. Just the two of us, alone, quiet, TV dark, watching ourselves watch an empty screen. Stuck here frightened in our bed. Tour dissolving and we have nowhere else to go. I try to imagine someone watching us, watching through eyes not ours, eyes present, attentive. We need eyes to watch us. Watching as if we are special and eternal as nobility. Eyes that imagine the show we perform worth more of their time.