The Call of Wings

The Call of Wings is a short story, written by Agatha Christie which was first published as part of the collection The Hound of Death and Other Stories in 1933. Although most of the other stories in the collection were first published in magazines, no magazine publication of "Wings" has been traced before 1933. In the U.S., the story was published in The Golden Ball and Other Stories in 1971.

Synopsis
Two friends, a millionaire and a poor parson, polar opposites, explore what it means to be truly content.

Plot summary
(may contain spoilers - click on expand to read) Millionaire Silas Hamer and East-End Parson Dick Borrow, after having dinner with their friend Bertrand Seldon, discuss how they are both completely opposite, yet both contentedly happy. Hamer is economically happy because he built up a fortune from his poverty-ridden background, and Borrow is spiritually happy because he aids the poor. The two go separate ways home, and on his way Silas witnesses a homeless man being hit by a bus and killed. Thinking he could have saved the man, Silas goes home mentally troubled.

Before he goes through his front door, he hears a legless piper playing a tune that he feels lifts him off the ground in joy. After hearing this tune for a few days before he goes to sleep, he thinks that he floats around his bedroom with joy, witnessing amazing scenes of red sand, and a completely new colour that he nicknames Wing Colour. However, something constantly pulls him back to the ground every time, causing him physical pain. He talks to his friend Seldon about it, to which the nerve-specialist replies he should talk to the piper and ask about the music.

Silas confronts the piper, and demands to know who he is. In response, the piper draws a picture of the faun god Pan (who has goat's legs) playing his pipes on a rock, and saying "They were evil.", implying that the piper is the god Pan, who had his legs cut off to appear human. Now addicted to the music, Silas feels that his wealth is the only thing stopping him from reaching true happiness. in response, he donates all of his money to Dick Borrow, so that he can help the whole of East London. Deciding to get the train home, Silas waits and the platform with a homeless man. The man, in a drunken stupor, walks to the edge and accidentally falls off as the train is about to arrive. Remembering the man hit by a bus, Silas pulls the man off the tracks and throws him onto the platform, but as a result he himself falls onto the tracks. Before he is killed, he briefly hears a piper playing and the sound of rushing wings.

Characters

 * Silas Hamer
 * Dick Borrow
 * Bertrand Seldon

Publication history

 * 1933: The Hound of Death and Other Stories, Odhams Press, October 1933, Hardcover, 252 pp
 * 1952: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, vol. 3 no. 3, Jun 1952.
 * 1971: The Golden Ball and Other Stories, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), Hardcover, 280 pp