00.00 PETE
Pete shouts over the music. ‘Band or ale?’ She’s drinking something the colour of meths. He leans over the table near her ear, ‘Band or ale?’ His nose in her blond hair. ‘O.K?’ She shakes her head, doesn’t know what … Continue reading
00.15 CLARA
How Clara sleeps depends on the sculpture. Not those in the Hepworth, she is safe from them, but the ones that keep appearing in the street. They make the wind different. Like tonight. There is a new dull steel shape … Continue reading
00.21 LYN
Lyn blocks out the men chanting, the women screaming, the ginger drag act. Her boy’s top front tooth is chipped. Holes for two studs in his ear. At first his voice shocked her, hard, very Wakey, twinkly eyes, she bets … Continue reading
00.45 CLARA
When people ask why she came north Clara always says on impulse, but whenever she is awake this time of night she unpicks all the little bits in her decision: retiring two years early, selling the house at the top … Continue reading
01.00 PETE
The shaved head guy at the next urinal says, ‘I go out on a night and piss it all down here, I might as well chuck £40 out of the window.’ Pete can’t go. She better wait. Lyn. The bogs are … Continue reading
01.10 LYN
He comes back, she can feel the cold on him. ‘You been outside?’ ‘No, yeh, needed some air like.’ He sniffs his fingers. ‘You been for a smoke.’ ‘No, I don’t, well I do, weed. Not now, I just needed … Continue reading
02.00 CLARA
On the bottom deck of the Routemaster nightbus Ed Balls, moonlighting as the conductor, is embarrassed to see her again, the last time had been at his wedding, Clara regrets they’ve lost touch but just knows from his eyes that … Continue reading
02.30 LYN
He still tasted of beer in the cobbled Latin Quarter alley. Then against the red brick wall of Switalskis he tasted of pies. Outside the door to the flats downstairs, while she was still deciding, he tasted of dope. Now … Continue reading
02.31 XORIYO
Outside the tent Xoriyo hears churning, snuffling in the sand but out in the bright moonlight there is nothing there, just mole rat holes, dig scrapes, camel dung, she decides to walk home but where the compound was there is … Continue reading
03.10 PETE
He’s serving in an old dusty shop selling hats, birds in cages, glittery high heeled shoes in tall glass cases, Lyn is wearing a fur collar, browsing and asks how much a leopard costs and Pete says ‘Twenty-two thousand eight … Continue reading
04.10 LYN
He is asleep again. Lyn’s eyes are drooping but her mouth is dry from smoke, sex, bright sweet alcohol so she gets herself a glass of water, picks her red dress off the bedroom chair and sits legs curled under … Continue reading
05.15 Xoriyo
Xoriyo listens, learning English. Her Father has told her, listen for the words inside words. cast ford new gate gran peter king cross She asks her Mother, ‘Did you sleep at all in the night?’ ‘Of course, when you were … Continue reading
05.45 PETE
He opens his eyes. ‘You been sitting there all night?’ ‘Yeh, just sitting here.’ ‘Have I been snoring?’ ‘Yeh, I bring you here, all you want’s a cup of tea, a lie down, you’ve been snoring all night. Not what … Continue reading
05.45 LYN
He tastes of- ‘Fuck!’ ‘What?’ ‘Work. I have to go, fuck, shit.’ ‘Chuck a sickie.’ ‘You are joking. Where m’f-‘ ‘Under the-‘ ‘Cheers, look, what um … laters.’ ‘Smday off.’ ‘Yeh?’ ‘Yeh.’ ‘Sound. I mean..’ ‘What?’ ‘you might want to … Continue reading
05.58 PETE
Pete legs it down Back Lane, makes the prison just as Hanley corners in the van, he jumps in and they head up Love Lane to park. Hanley, looks him over, ‘Fucking hell, do you want to go back home … Continue reading
06.12 Xoriyo
The words inside words. field chest by on worth new street park way temple taunt abbot saint david tot mouth She loves the waiting sound, then the pitch rising, the pulling away. She is amazed her brother’s don’t wake, how … Continue reading
06.45 CLARA
Clara pretends this is not the time and that she has not been lying awake this long. She thought that when she retired she would sleep later, but like everything else sleep seems to recede with age. The only thing … Continue reading
07.30 XORIYO
darling ham castle mouth wick tweed wave hay market mother well go central Sitting with the map spread on the bed, her father shows Xoriyo the places, it is a map for trains and had been useless in the minibus … Continue reading
08.00 CLARA
Clara looks outside. She cant help a glance. No sign. All is quiet in Burgage Square. Clara says under her breath, ‘Plan. Section. Elevation.’ It must be easy to draw a tree – a line, then a circle or a line … Continue reading
08.45 PETE
‘Come on what was she like then?” Hanley and Pete are in HMP Wakefield because the previous contractors made a hash of things. Cost driven corporate cowboys, Hanley calls them. ‘Would she be on for a twosome?’ What irks Pete … Continue reading
09.05 XORIYO
out wood fit william south elm all wick bent cast meadow hall field Her Father suggests, ‘Why don’t you see which words might go together?’ She knows William is a name, she has seen photographs in the newspaper of a … Continue reading
09.20 LYN
She breathes in, closes her eyes. Almost metal, not quite glass. Opens her eyes, looks at her phone again. Four texts. Hers, So Ive yr number. ThankU!!!xxx Too much? His, U2! x and Laters. Not enough? An exclamation mark. In … Continue reading
09.35 CLARA
Clara wants coffee but makes green tea. Since she stopped work, she has come to hate the gritty knife scrape on toast, so warms butter in the microwave and dangles her honey on from a teaspoon. At her table by the … Continue reading
09.45 LYN
The balcony is cold, good cold. Deep-breath it-won’t-be-cold-for-long cold. Morning-of-a-good-day cold. Cold that makes Lyn feel elsewhere. Abroad. Rasping scooters, lazy sirens. About to explore a new place. She can’t see the prison. Nothing moving in Burgage Square. Between the … Continue reading
09.46 CLARA
Rilke. Clara knows from her Wakefield Libraries badge that girl’s name is Lyn but she will call her Rilke. Rilke. Lyn a beat, Rilke a pulse. This must be her day off. She spends anxious hours leaning at her window … Continue reading
10.28 LYN
Lyn has glugged orange all morning. She opens another carton. Her stomach’s full but her dry lips crave more juice, her mouth bits, her throat craves gulping. She slides open her wardrobe, looks at her work clothes, going out clothes, … Continue reading
10.47 CLARA
Clara pulls the toaster out from the wall, the coffee grinder, the juicer, the knife block, chasing crumbs from the worktop with a dish cloth, tea towelling the surfaces dry. She repositions the appliances precisely, admires them, all black, brand … Continue reading
11.00 XORIYO
Her mother has gone looking for the boys, her father is putting on his coat. There are only two ways to the big shop, one under the pigeons, the other past the door to Somalia. It was the boys’ fault, … Continue reading
11.02 PETE
Hanley is doing that now watch and learn son thing, kneeling all his tools around him, the job spread, ordered on the floor, the circuit diagram in his head. A head he’s going to have to start shaving soon, there’s … Continue reading
11.15 LYN
Lyn tweets, ‘Anyone know where I can buy mulberries in Wakey? @wakelibs @woodstreetmarket @uniquewakefield’ She clicks History, opens up the Rightmove page, slideshows through the the rooms full of show flat furniture, rereads, ‘This brand new, contemporary, residential development brings … Continue reading
11.45 CLARA
When Clara wants a cigarette she walks up out of Burgage Square, through the car park between the back of Quest and the huge red brick wall of Switalskis out onto Westgate, where she turns right. This morning her head … Continue reading
11.57 XORIYO
Somewhere a child is yelping. Xoriyo and her father sit on the bench outside the main door of Angel Lodge. She waits for him to make his joke about the palm trees planted to make them feel at home, waits … Continue reading
12.05 PETE
Outside the gate he thinks how it would be quicker to nip up to her flat than back along Love Lane for his phone in Hanley’s van. Maybe she’ll be on for quick one, fuck Hofmans, fuck Hanley’s pie, fuck … Continue reading
12.06 XORIYO
‘No worries, no worries. Xoriyo. Xoriyo. No worries.’ Like rolling water in her mouth, fresh, no feathers, no pigeon shit. Smiling makes her warm. Looking up makes her cold. She keeps her head down. ‘No worries. Xoriyo.’ The man Muxsin ran into … Continue reading
12.15 CLARA
Clara sees them from the top of Back Lane, five silhouettes through the gloom under the railway bridge against the sun glare, almost see through like angels, then the orange of Mrs Osman’s scarf, the turquoise and red of the … Continue reading
12.34 PETE
Laters. He decides laters. Don’t rush her, she’ll be waiting. Limps to the Hofmans. Two warm pork pies, two sausage rolls, flakey pastry. He wolfs his roll as he walks, hot fingers, hot mouth, warm stomach. Hanley will be sitting on … Continue reading
12.34 LYN
Responses to her tweet come in. From @wood_street_market, I don’t know because I have a bush in the garden! From @uniquewakefield, Can you still even buy mulberries? There is a wakey link though From @miriamm, berries have been and gone … Continue reading
13.00 CLARA
In Create they perch on the bright chairs and the Osmans seem impressed by her knowledge of the Somali family system: raas the family gathered, qaraabo close relatives, jilib a sub-clan, reer a clan, qolo the tribe. She asks, where … Continue reading
13.30 LYN
Lyn walks to the bottom of Burgage Square and rings Pete. ‘Hi … it’s me, I know you can’t answer, I just wanted to say … say … ‘ She realises she should have thought. ‘Thanks’ Lame! Lame! Lame! ‘I … Continue reading
13.32 CLARA
Clara wants a cigarette so sets off away from the shops, wants to scratch the fronts of her legs, so walks fast to burn out the itching, tugs at the stupid lace collar of the shirt she put on to … Continue reading
13.45 XORIYO
Xoriyo knows what Mother and Father are doing. No one wants to go back to Angel Lodge so they follow the boys. The boys don’t know they are leading the family, they’re just following their noses, excited and full of … Continue reading
14.01 PETE
‘Did anyone ask you to bring drugs or anything else in for them from outside?’ – ‘Have you had any conversation with any prisoner about drugs?’ – ‘Alcohol?’ – ‘Any other banned substance?’ – ‘Have you ever-‘ ‘I forgot it … Continue reading
14.03 LYN
Alan Lumb opens his door and lets Lyn into the hallway of his ground floor flat. She has never met anyone who smells so strongly of tea – somewhere between Earl Grey and chamomile. He is younger than his twitter … Continue reading
14.15 XORIYO
Her mother and father are arguing quietly about the English lady, whether she wanted to meet them because she is kind or whether someone made her meet them and why that might be. The boys are arguing about which way … Continue reading
14.29 LYN
Sugar light brown Flour pl Cinnamon Pecans O Juice Ginger —————- Beer wine Fish/dill/pots/veg? Apples etc Radox Toothbrush Cleanser/cw Air fresh Bics BISCS Looroll Batteries Ramkins
© 2013 Steve Dearden. All rights reserved.
A shaved head in a yellow jacket stops Clara, ‘You can’t go that way.’ ‘Why not?’ A huge motorised green screen is being moved across the end of St. Johns North. ‘They’re filming.’ ‘What?’ ‘A film, come on.’ Soil on … Continue reading
15.05 XORIYO
Her mother and the boys go to the shop with the vouchers they were given at Angel Lodge. Xoriyo likes being with her father without the others, but today he is tight. Yesterday he taught her the queens, but today … Continue reading
15.06 CLARA
There is a market in Wood Street. There seems to be a market in Wood Street every other day, Clara wonders why they don’t just move into the empty shops. All the usual market stuff; cakes and jams, street food, … Continue reading
15.10 XORIYO
Definitely not Wake Field. Definitely Many Different Clothes. A man and a woman wearing big metal necklaces. A lady with blue hair and a red dress. Balloon, she says aloud in English, a word she has just learnt, Pink. Green. … Continue reading
15.25 CLARA
Clara screws up her eyes from the window glare of an empty shop, ‘Well nowadays I just potter about.’ ‘Before this potting about.’ ‘I’m retired.’ Mr Osman raises his eyebrow. She uses the stock, ‘I was a civil servant.’ He … Continue reading
15.30 LYN
The last person Lyn wants to run into is the key lime lady from Mulberry House. No. The last person Lyn wants to run into is Jan. Jan wants to know what happened last night. How she gave them the … Continue reading
15.59 XORIYO
Xoriyo runs round the fountain and then wishes she hadn’t. She wobbles. Things are a bit blurry. There is a man in a grey t-shirt and she feels sick, can’t remember which way father was, realises you can’t hide in … Continue reading
16.00 PETE
They have left him alone. Occasionally he hears movements on the other side of the door. Voices. Like sleeping in the afternoon. Pete thinks of his room at home, pushes all that out of his head. Hanley. Hanley will come … Continue reading
16.05 LYN
Lyn is glad to see that God is in Create Cafe. The mornings she sees him on her way to the library upstairs, she knows she will have a good day. The mornings he is not, she knows will be … Continue reading
16.06 XORIYO
The man in the grey t-shirt walks round the edge of the fountain, crosses the road and goes into Grind. Xoriyo looks at the faces of the people sitting, the man on his bike. No one is looking at her. The … Continue reading
16.10 CLARA
While Nur Osman takes Xoriyo to find a toilet, Clara thinks back to the woman from Wakefield City of Sanctuary accosting her in the street. The way the she kept touching her thin wire glasses and her tight prim lips … Continue reading
17.00 LYN
Preheat oven to 350°. Lyn rings Pete. Pecan Streusel Topping. She says streusal, stroosal, imagines what she will say if he answers while she is saying strooooowsarl. She doesn’t leave a message. She mixes four tablespoons of butter with the … Continue reading
17.05 PETE
A new shaved head comes in, lanky, sleeve rolled up over his scrawny arm putting a cup of tea down. ‘I guessed, milk two sugars.’ ‘Ta. Is my boss sti-’ ‘Hold on hold on they’re just running a few checks. … Continue reading
17.20 XORIYO
Her father is in a good mood. He says, ‘At last we have met an intelligent English person.’ He walks fast. ‘We must get home before your mother starts preparing something.’ ‘Not under the bird bridge.’ ‘OK. Not under the … Continue reading
17.25 LYN
Hot from the shower, Lyn sits in her bra and pants, with a towel round her hair and, saying it like Alan Lumb/Bennett out loud, ‘Gooooogles Pyyyyr-imooos an’ Thiiiiiis-b.’ Wikipedia: “In the Ovidian version, Pyramus and Thisbe is the story … Continue reading
17.35
Mother Jamal Muxsin are standing outside the door of Angel House with all their bags. The driver of the black minibus who shouted at mother that time is there, smoking a cigarette, holding a piece of paper, talking on the … Continue reading
18.05 PETE
The voices have changed. Pete doesn’t know if they are the same people as before, if they are louder or more lively, a new shift maybe, or if it is the sound around the voices that is different. He wonders … Continue reading
19.15 LYN
Soon now. She must stop looking out of the window. She leaves it open. Gets the streusel topping out of the freezer. Now the mulberry mixture: three and a half cups of … mulberries. They look a bit limp. Seven … Continue reading
19.20 CLARA
Whenever Clara puts on music, she wonders why she so rarely does, and how she could possibly forget the pleasure of sound filling a room. Dvorak. Slavonic Dances. She whips the table cloth around like a bullfighter’s cape, snaps the … Continue reading
19.22 LYN
Lyn spreads her hand on the thick tablecloth. She thinks of pearls. If she picks up a knife, a fork, a glass they will be heavy. Lyn sits down and presses her fingers flat into the white, like a fresh … Continue reading
19.23 CLARA
Actually, Clara thinks, there is a rush. Everything happens at the wrong time. The girl’s painted fingernails. Her own mottled hands, make up clogged pores. The absurdity of their skin ever touching in the ways she has imagined. Everything happens … Continue reading
19.30 PETE
Bastards. Bastards. Bastards. They are definitely laughing. Like they are watching a match out there. Pete tries the handle, it twists, he pulls on the door, it opens. ‘Now then now then, Peter lad, calm down.’ Hanley wipes tears from … Continue reading
19.35 LYN
The old woman wraps her pearls in her fingers and presses them to her throat. Lyn checks her phone, checks Burgage Square. It is warm in here, smells of wood, or spice. Over on the worktops there are bags of … Continue reading
19.36 PETE
They sign out and wait to be let out. Pete wonders if everyone knows what has just happened to him, the drugs in his pocket, stupid stupid, the joke, stupid stupid. No one is saying anything, but all the shaved … Continue reading
19.50 CLARA
Clara passes Lyn another kitchen towel. The girl’s a mess of snot and make up and hair and wracks of sobs, trying to speak but her mouth stays open stuck, will not shape words, blonde strands plastered to her lips. … Continue reading
19.53 PETE
Pete legs it under the bridge, up Back Lane, across the road into Burgage Square, her light is on, the glass balcony door slightly open. He wipes his hands on the grass. Sniffs under his arms. ‘Fucking hell.’ He wonders … Continue reading
20.00 XORIYO
Xoriyo closes her eyes but can hear the lights, each one swishing air from her ears. She thought this moving had stopped, the truck, the coach, the airplane, the ship, the airplane, the minibus – then the quiet eyes open … Continue reading
20.15 CLARA
Lyn has left the strainer on the table among tear-sodden clumps of kitchen towel. For a second Clara thinks of running after her but loses herself staring into the iceberg of tissue, plays pavlova blanket Mont Blanc tricks on herself, … Continue reading
20.27 PETE
‘I knew you’d turn up’ ‘Want another one?’ ‘One! You owe me more than one lad. Yorkshire Blonde. Ha ha. Pint of.’ Pete goes to the bar. Hanley has had a few already, shouts across, ‘Let you down did she? … Continue reading
20.40 LYN
Lyn stares into and out through the glass half full a quarter of a bottle a glass she could force over her sweaty head if she wasn’t reading the recipe through its side a little wobbly from the half glass … Continue reading
20.46 XORIYO
For a while they are the only ones left in the minibus while the driver tries to work out where he is going from a screwed up piece of paper. They go up and down a street, up and down … Continue reading
20.57 CLARA
Clara tumbles the crisps and nuts, all except the cashews, back into their bags, folds the mouths down and snaps them with plastic clips. She puts the vegetables in the crisper, the spices alphabetically on their rack, she notices the rice … Continue reading
21.09 PETE
When Hanley finally goes for two more blondes and a couple of shorts, Pete checks his 6% charged phone and reads her texts. So I’ve yr number. ThankU!!!xxx Laters!xxxYes!! Listens to her messages. ‘Hi … it’s me, I know you … Continue reading
21.13 LYN
He was here. Last night. This morning. He was here. The flat is too white. The wood is too wood. She kicks the wall. It is easier to kick the wall than the floor. She kicks the floor. Wine sloshes … Continue reading
21.45 CLARA
Clara sits in her flat with all the lights on. Clara sits in her flat with just her reading lamp on. Clara walks about the flat with all the lights off. She tries with just the bathroom mirror and hob … Continue reading
22.01 XORIYO
She floats on her raft of beds, heavy with heat, fighting sleep, the beat of the TV, waiting for the baby to start crying again, Muxsin whistling across his floppy tongue, Jamal’s wheezing chest, her mother is stroking her head, … Continue reading
22.05 CLARA
There is no one at the desk at Angel Lodge. A few people stand around she makes instant judgements: Hair skin eyebrows, Kurd: ‘Do you know where the Osman family … live, are staying, Nur Osman?’ A shrug. Sari skin … Continue reading
10.21 LYN
All the white sugar brown sugar cinnamon pecan ginger mulberry mush in her tummy is coming to Lyn kneels, one hand stomach one hand head the flat so hot burning lurching all at sea tilt Thinks: air, what time is … Continue reading
22.28 PETE
Pete shouts over the music. ‘Band or ale?’ She’s drinking Absolut and Red Bull. He leans over the table near her ear, ‘Band or ale?’ His nose in her black hair. ‘O.K? Twisted Wheel.’ She shakes her head, ‘You what?’ … Continue reading
22.30 CLARA
After the long prison wall, she avoids the dank bridge and goes up Westgate, past the station entrance, the family court, the art house, Clara is just about to cross the road when she hears something from the Orangery garden. … Continue reading
22.45 LYN
This morning he was here. Now he is not. Today she has spoken to him. To his ansaphone. And stared out of the window. Then the floor. Now the ceiling. Now the crappy wall. Talked to Alan bloody mulberry goooooogle … Continue reading
22.46 PETE
The woman says, ‘Are you the electrician?’ He can’t help an Arnie film voice, ‘Yeh, I am the electrician.’ The woman laughs. ‘Shit.’ Behind the woman he sees Lyn, ‘Hey!’ sees Lyn tilt on the balcony, yelp, her feet go … Continue reading
22.46 XORIYO
Xoriyo surges for the light, must stay awake until her father returns, ’Mother have you slept tonight?’ But she falls back from the edge, plunges. The smiley girl is waving her handkerchief and thousands of tiny birds fly out and … Continue reading
22.46 CLARA
They are both running. The lock takes for ever to click, Clara feels the boy lean over her for the door. ‘No you stay here.’ He is past her, ‘No, you, what if she falls?’ ‘Exactly!’ Clara stands. If the … Continue reading
22.48 LYN
The man from next door is climbing over onto her balcony. She knows it is too late. That she is dead. No one can live this long, upside down, without air, even though the noose is very thin it is … Continue reading
23.09 CLARA
They are still sitting out there on the balcony as if he has just dragged her from the sea. Clara is too tired for Dvorak so puts on Kind of Blue. She saw Miles Davis play in Washington, 1973. All … Continue reading
23.14 PETE
He says, ‘Cold?’ ‘Mm.’ ‘Go in?’ ’N-n.’ ‘Sober yet?’ ‘Mm.’ She is totally gone in his arms, not floppy gone, safe gone. ’N-n.’ He says, ‘You can see that from everywhere, you know you’re nearly home when you see Emley … Continue reading
23.40 LYN
They shoot upwards so quickly she can hardly breath, just hold on to her sister’s arm and they’re spinning, the huge finger snapping them round faster, faster, everyone screaming, and she is fine, if she wasn’t screaming she would tell her … Continue reading
23.59 CLARA
Clara lies awake listening to the statue split the wind into footsteps and wondering whether anyone still sells Lettraset. She will look in the morning, there is bound to be somewhere she can buy hedges, little groups of people, office … Continue reading