David Peace - GB84

Monday 4 — Sunday 10 March 1985

The Jew had hoped to spend the weekend down at Chequers. The Jew was not invited. The Jew has taken to his bed instead. Blankets up to his neck, hands beneath the sheets, he watches her perform –

‘We had to make certain that violence and intimidation and impossible demands could not win. There would have been neither freedom nor order in Great Britain in 1985 if we had given in to violence and intimidation —’

Again and again on the videos he’s made. In the scrapbooks he’s kept –

‘What’s the difference between an egg’, asks the Jew, ‘and our Prime Minister?’

‘You certainly can’t beat our Prime Minister, sir,’ replies Neil Fontaine. Again –

‘Very good, Neil,’ howls the Jew. ‘Very, very good indeed.’

The Chairman is not returning the Jew’s calls. Again. Nor is the Minister –

The Jew’s only friends are working miners and their greedy wives.

The Jew gives Neil the rest of the week off. The Jew needs to be alone. Again –

With his videos and his scrapbooks. Beneath the blankets and the sheets.

Neil Fontaine needs to be alone, too. Neil Fontaine needs to make things right –

Neil Fontaine heads North. Again.

The General comes into the barracks. Everyone stands by their bunk –

The General marches towards the Mechanic. The General puts him at his ease. The General hands him the note.

The Mechanic takes it. The Mechanic opens it. The Mechanic reads it –

The time and the place. The job and the price –

‘There really is only one solution‚’ says the General. ‘Will you do it, David?’

The Mechanic looks up at the General. The Mechanic salutes. ‘Yes, sir, I will.’

*

The funeral marches. In vassal thrall. The pipes and the drums –

‘There will be no recriminations. There will be no talk of victory or defeat.’

The last procession. In villein bonds. The banners and the bands –

‘But make no mistake, victory it is.’

Neil Fontaine starts the black car. He drives on to another village –

‘I don’t want anygloating.’

And another and another, until he’s seen enough (has seen too much) –

‘No amnesty. No forgiveness.’

The door is open. The ashtray full. The telephone ringing by his hotel bed.

*

The Union was sunk. The President spoke on empty decks as the rats stole the lifeboats –

He spoke of the Bolsheviks in 1905. Mao’s Long March. Castro in his hills.

But the real pain. The real trouble. It all started here. Today –

The morning after the strike before , Terry knew that (he’d always known that).

The safety-nets. The cause juste . The material and practical support –

Just smoke up the chimney now , Terry could see that (he’d always seen that).

They had lost the money. They had lost the men. They had lost the strike –

The witch hunts had begun. The whispers. The fingers. The trials. The burnings —

Diane had said they would and Diane had been right (she was always right).

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

There was no answer —

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

The wrong doors.

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

The door opened. Terry stepped forward. Into the room –

Terry looked up. Terry said, ‘What —’

Bill Reed was stood in the middle of their hotel room with Len Glover.

Terry said, ‘What’s happened? Where’s Diane?’

‘Who’s Diane?’ asked Len. ‘Who are you talking about?’

Terry looked at Bill. Terry said, ‘She —’

‘Not in them suitcases, is she?’ laughed Bill Reed. ‘In bits and pieces?’

Terry shook his head. Terry said, ‘I —’

Len took the two cases from him. Len opened them on the double bed –

Thousands and thousands of used English banknotes.

‘More mortgage payments for the President?’ asked Bill. ‘That what this is?’

Terry shook his head again. Terry said, ‘I can explain. Let me show you —’

Len took one arm and Bill took the other. Down the corridor. Into the lift –

Through the lobby of Hallam Towers. Down the steps. To their car –

Bill sat in the back with Terry. Bill said, ‘So where we going, Comrade?’

Terry took them from Sheffield into Doncaster. From Doncaster into Bentley –

‘Here,’ Terry told them. ‘Pull up here.’

Len, Bill and Terry got out of Len’s car on the row of old terraced houses.

Terry led them down the street to the little shop on the corner –

Terry opened the door. Len and Bill followed him inside. Terry shook his head.

‘Is Mr Divan about?’ Terry asked the fat white man behind the counter –

‘Who?’ replied the fat white man behind the counter. ‘Who do you want?’

‘Mohammed Abdul Divan,’ said Terry. ‘He owns this shop.’

‘No, he doesn’t,’ said the fat white man. ‘Michael Andrew Damson does.’

‘May I speak with him, then?’ asked Terry.

‘You are doing,’ smiled Michael Andrew Damson.

‘You’re the owner of this shop?’ Terry asked Michael Damson. ‘Since when?’

‘Since my father died in 1970,’ he said. ‘Now what the bloody hell is going on?’

Len and Bill shook their heads. Len and Bill took Terry by his arms again –

‘But I came here last year and I met Mohammed Abdul Divan and his family,’ shouted Terry. ‘Right where you’re standing, behind that counter —’

Michael Damson shook his head. He said, ‘You’ve got the wrong shop.’

‘They were from Pakistan,’ protested Terry. ‘They owned this shop.’

‘You’re confused,’ said Michael Damson. ‘There’s that bloody many of them.’

Terry shook his head. Terry closed his eyes. Terry began to cry –

Len and Bill apologized to Mr Damson. Len and Bill took Terry away.

Bill sat in the back of the car with Terry. Bill said, ‘So what now, Comrade?’

Terry took them back to his house in the suburbs of Sheffield, South Yorkshire –

Len, Bill and Terry got out of Len’s car in front of Terry’s three-bedroom home.

‘Please don’t say anything to Theresa,’ begged Terry. ‘Not in front of the kids.’

Bill looked at Len. Len looked at Bill –

‘The statements concerning all the money are inside,’ said Terry. ‘Don’t worry.’

‘We’re not worried,’ said Bill. ‘Are we, Leonard?’

Len opened the boot of his car. Len took out a large bouquet of dead flowers –

‘They look a bit past it,’ laughed Terry. ‘Who on earth are they for?’

‘They were for your wife,’ said Bill. ‘But the hospital returned them to me.’

‘That was thoughtful of you, Comrade,’ said Terry, his key in the lock. ‘Thank you.’

Bill and Len followed Terry inside. Through his front door. Into his hall –

Terry switched on the lights. Terry said, ‘Looks like there’s nobody home.’

Len looked at Bill. Bill looked at Len –

They left Terry in front of his hall mirror. They went through his house –

The dead Christmas tree in the front room. The dust-covered presents –

Up the stairs with no carpet. Past the walls with no paint –

The bathtub full of blank sheets of paper. The sink full of brand-new clothes –

Into two empty back bedrooms. The windows broken or open –

The sleeping bags and mucky mags on the floorboards of the front bedroom –