Changes

This week in  my workshops, we’ve been writing about change which has provided some rich inspiration. After all, whether it’s internal or external, change is at the heart of all stories. As our last exercise yesterday we started writing about a character’s ordinary day and then gave each other random elements of change that we had to incorporate. We write just for ten minutes so it’s a real challenge to write a story in that time. Here’s what I did with mine. I don’t normally write about politics but it’s hard to avoid at the moment.

Jeremy looked across at Julie. Good. She was still sound asleep. He loved this part of the day when he could lie in the still warmth of the morning and scroll through the latest news on his phone in peace. It was hard to keep up these days. He didn’t like it. It was making him anxious. Still, every day that Brexit didn’t happen made it more likely that it would never happen. He hung onto that hope, allowing himself to daydream sometimes that he might one day live in a future in which Britain was even more closely allied to Europe and in which all of the Tories had been ousted from power. Where once his fantasies had included Jeremy Corbyn at the helm, he now preferred to have him exiled to a remote island in his imagination and, instead, he saw the Green Party surging forward and reversing climate change. At this point Julie would mention the unicorns. But Julie was still asleep.

He opened up the news and sat bolt upright in bed as he read the opening words of the headline: BREXIT SET TO TAKE PLACE……His screen went blank. What? He leaped out of bed so abruptly that Julie looked up from her nest of pillows and stared at him bleary-eyed. ‘What’s up?’ she said. He couldn’t make sense of it. He didn’t even know. He just had to get his phone charger. ‘Brexit,’ he mumbled and she closed her eyes again like it was just more of the same and like she knew that it was better to stay in the Land of Nod.

Jeremy ran downstairs and plugged in his phone. There was no sound, no indication that it was charging. He turned on the radio. Nothing. In desperation, he tried to turn on the TV. Again, nothing. The power was out.

He was too agitated to even look for slippers or clothes. He darted naked and barefoot down the stone cellar steps, bounding two steps at a time and lunging for the fuse board. But nothing had tripped. Fuck. It must be an actual power cut. Now what was he supposed to do?

He pulled on the jogging bottoms and t-shirt that were lying in the laundry pile and unlocked the front door. Other people were coming out of their houses too. He saw Dave from across the road and walked towards him.

‘What’s up with the power?’ asked Jeremy.

‘Haven’t you heard?’

‘No. What?’

‘They’ve pulled the plug.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Europe. They’ve pulled the plug on the whole country.’

‘But. They can’t…’

‘They did. They’ve had enough. They’ve just unplugged themselves. We’re powerless. Literally.’

‘But they can’t just….’

“Turns out they can. We’re fucked.’

Dave pulled out a cigarette and lighter from his dressing gown pocket. He flicked the switch but no flame emerged from the silver tip.

‘Shit.’ he said. ‘Can’t even smoke anymore.’

Dave started to walk back towards his own house. Jeremy watched him, still trying to process what he’d said. And then he saw Dave stop in the middle of the road, mid-stride, with one hand held up in a gesture of farewell. It was like someone had pressed pause on the CD player in the middle of a game of musical statues. What the actual ?

Jeremy was about to follow him when he heard Julie’s voice shouting to him from the front door. He turned to go back. He saw Julie emerging from the doorway with a newspaper in her hand and then watched her freeze too. She was standing on the front porch like a waxwork from Madame Tussaud’s. Shit. The repercussions were worse than anyone had feared. Much much worse.

And then Jeremy also ground to a halt. And there he remained, standing barefoot in the garden in his mucky jogging clothes, a look of disbelief on his face and his hands held out in a gesture that later alien visitors would interpret as some combination of regret, horror and acceptance. They would read the headline on the morning’s newspaper and nod in understanding.

BREXIT TO TAKE PLACE WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT.

by Beverley Ward