David Peace - GB84

Monday 4 — Sunday 10 February 1985

Much of the country was flooded. The pound had slipped further. There were unreported power cuts. People swinging in the wind. But the Fat Man was back again –

Fresh from tea at the Savoy with the Minister; dinner at the Ritz with the Board —

Here to save the day –

But not Terry’s day –

The receiver had five million of their pounds. He was on to the Dublin money too. He had paid all their fines. He wanted to end sequestration. He wanted sole control –

Terry’s days were numbered. The clock ticking down. The President’s too –

‘We are not begging and crawling for a resumption of negotiations,’ he shouted. ‘And there appears to be a very real determination to make us accept the principle that pits should close on economic grounds even before getting to the negotiating table —’

But the Fat Man just nodded his fat head. The Fat Man was not going to give up. The Fat Man persuaded the NEC to stay in the capital another twenty-four hours –

For a third fucking day.

‘I am not walking away from the search for negotiations,’ declared the Fat Man. ‘The problem is too big to leave alone.’

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck –

Terry had to get out. Had to get away. Had to get home. He had to find a phone –

Terry made the call. Terry went back inside TUC Headquarters –

‘There is no possibility at all of this Union ever accepting conditions of that kind,’ the President was saying again. ‘No union leaders worth their salt would ever be a party to such measures. Never . Not in a month of bloody Sundays would —’

There was a knock at the door. There was a note passed to the President –

The President read the note. The President looked up at Terry –

Terry blinked. Terry smiled. Terry said, ‘What is it, Comrade President?’

‘It’s your wife,’ said the President. ‘I’m afraid there’s been an accident.’

*

The Jew attends the unveiling of a memorial to Yvonne Fletcher in St James’s Square. The Jew is in a sombre suit and coat, under an umbrella held by Neil –

‘— without the police,’ the Prime Minister is reminding the assembled people, ‘there would be no law and there would be no liberty —’

The Jew nods in his sombre suit and coat, under an umbrella held by Neil –

His eyes never leave her face; hope never leaves his heart –

But she leaves without a word. Not even a goodbye. Without a second glance –

‘Because of her courage, her resilience,’ the Jew is quick to tell Neil in the car, ‘it’s all too easy to forget that behind the Iron Lady mask is a mother and a woman.’

Neil Fontaine nods. Neil Fontaine drives the Jew back to Hobart House –

The National Working Miners’ Committee will be waiting for them.

‘There is still so much to be done, Neil,’ says the Jew. ‘In public and in private.’

Neil Fontaine nods again. Neil Fontaine could not agree more –

He is paying men from the small ads ten quid an hour to stand in doorways.

Neil Fontaine parks the car. Neil Fontaine follows the Jew upstairs to his office –

Chloe shows in Fred and Jimmy. Chloe hands the Jew new reports and a coffee –

‘Did you arrange a time for the meeting with the Chairman?’ asks the Jew.

Chloe bites her bottom lip. Chloe says, ‘I’m afraid he’s unavailable today, sir.’

‘Unavailable? Unavailable to whom?’ laughs the Jew. ‘Unavailable to me?’

Fred Wallace brushes the top of his trouser leg. Jimmy Hearn fiddles with his ear.

Chloe goes over to the phone. Chloe picks it up –

The Jew strides across the room. The Jew slaps the phone out of her hand –

‘Don’t you dare humiliate me again,’ shouts the Jew. ‘Go! You are dismissed!’

Chloe looks at Neil. Neil nods at Chloe. Chloe looks at the door. Neil nods again.

‘What are you waiting for?’ laughs the Jew. ‘A reference? A kiss? A banana?’

Chloe stares at the Jew. Chloe smiles. Chloe leaves the door open on her way out.

The Jew turns to Fred and Jimmy. The Jew says, ‘Now, where were we?’

But Fred and Jimmy are staring at the door. Fred and Jimmy staring at Chloe –

Chloe still standing in the doorway Chloe smiling and pointing at them all –

‘There will be a reckoning,’ she says. ‘There will be a figuring.’

*

Terry took the stairs two at time. Terry banged on the door –

There was no answer —

Terry banged and banged on it. Doors opened up and down the corridor –

All the wrong doors —

Terry put his head against the door. Terry whispered, ‘Please —’

The door opened. Terry fell forward. Into the room. Onto Diane –

‘How long have you been stood out there?’ asked Diane

‘I thought you’d gone,’ said Terry. ‘I thought you’d left me.’

‘I was in the bathroom with the hairdryer on,’ she laughed. ‘Sorry.’

Terry put his arms inside her dressing-gown. Terry held her by her skin –

‘You’re hurting me,’ she laughed again.

‘I want to see you bleed,’ said Terry. ‘I want to see you’re real.’

*

Malcolm got off at Hyde Park Corner and walked up Park Lane onto Curzon Street —

The streets were quiet, the streets empty. The rain was cold, the wind warm.

He walked past Leconfield House to the building next to the Lansdowne Club —

Curzon Street House, a.k.a. the Bunker.

Malcolm went inside the building. Down the stairs and along the corridors —

The stairs quiet, the corridors empty. The air old, the smell worse.

The lights flickered on and off, off and on. The office doors opened and closed –

Deserted silences. Deserted spaces.

Malcolm reached his room. Malcolm took out his key –

They had changed the lock. They had changed the number —

But it opened all the same (it remembered his name).

Malcolm sat down behind his wooden desk in his windowless room —

He reached for his glasses. He took out his files —

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. The Trade Unions. The Morning Star. The Socialist Workers’ Party. The Militant Tendency. Local governments and councils. The Workers’ Revolutionary Party. The National Front. The British National Party. Bulldog . British Movement. Combat 18 –

Counter-subversion. Left and Right. Right and wrong.

They wanted some things to succeed. They wanted some things to fail –

Discrimination and integration. Racism and Socialism –

The nuclear industry and the coal industry.

The lights flickered on and off, off and on. The office doors opened and closed —

Things succeeded. Things failed. Things came together. Things fell apart —

Societies. Governments. Unions. Marriages. Families. People –

Their hearts and their minds.

This was the way the world turned. This was the way the world ended –

A cigarette. A kiss. A wrong number. A look and then silence –

Not with a bang, but with a knock on the door.

*

‘Vote with your feet,’ the Board’s Mr Fixit was urging strikers. ‘Vote with your feet.’

Terry turned into the cul-de-sac. Terry parked the car in front of the house –

There had been pre-executive meetings all last night; there had been fights; accusation and counter-accusation; honourable settlements versus no settlementat all –