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By Root 1579 0

as they had to stay there. Then Mary picked up from the table The Use of Explosives in an Urban Environment and leafed through it, first casually, then slowly, taking her time. She handed it to Reggie with a look that was far from “nice.” In the kitchen at that stage were Caroline, Jasper, Bert, and Faye, and suddenly they were all tense, determined not to look at one another, trying to appear indifferent. Reggie studied the manual, and then laid it on the table. He had not looked at the others, sat thinking. Next he and Mary had a long eye-consultation, and he said that they had decided to move into the new flat, ready or not, at once. Only a few moments before, Mary had been saying that they would be here until their flat at least had hot water.

The couple went upstairs, leaving half-finished cups of tea.

“That wasn’t very clever, comrade,” said Bert to Faye, showing a lot of his white teeth.

Faye tossed her head. She was breathing fast, smiling and frowning and biting her lips. “It doesn’t matter,” she stated. “Once they are rid of us, they’ll never want to think of us again. We’re just shit to them, that’s all.”

“All the same,” said Bert, making an effort to be severe, as the occasion demanded, “that was stooo-pid!” He laughed, as at a joke. She laughed wildly, eyeing him with resentment. Then she scrambled up out of her chair and ran upstairs to Roberta. They could hear, over their heads, Robert’s low maternal voice, Faye’s angry raucousness; her complaints to Roberta were being made in her “other” voice, that of her upbringing; Roberta answered in her everyday voice.

The three sat on uneasily. Then Jasper said, laughing, “I don’t see why Alice should sleep all day,” and went up to wake her. Which he did by banging on the door of the room she slept in, where he had slept but now would not. No response. He stepped delicately in, saw the huddled bundle that was Alice turned to the wall, and, finding the dark of the room unlikable, sharply dragged back the curtains. Alice shot up in her bag, eyes screwed up because of the afternoon glare. She saw a black spiky menacing figure outlined against the light, and screamed.

“For fuck’s sake,” he said, disgusted with her.

“Oh, it’s you.” She lay down, as she had before, back to him.

He could not stand this. He knelt by her, at her back, and saw sandy eyelashes tremble on her freckled creamy skin.

“Alice,” he said, quite politely, but firmly. “You do have to wake up. Something has happened.”

She opened her eyes. Did not say, “What?” They remained in that position for quite a time, more than a minute. It was as if, for her, getting up on his order and coming downstairs was going to commit her more than she wanted, commit her again, when she had made a decision.

At her back knelt Jasper. She could feel his warmth on her shoulders, felt in that warmth the determination of his need for her.

She muttered, sounding indifferent, “All right, I’ll be down in a moment.”

He stayed a bit, hoping she would turn and smile. But she looked at the wall, waiting for him to go. He got up off his knees and went out, quietly shutting the door.

“Oh no,” said Alice, breathless, to the wall. “Oh no, I can’t.” But she suddenly got up, dragged on her jeans and jersey, and went down.

Around the table now were Jasper and Bert, Caroline. Jocelin had been summoned from above.

Alice made herself tea, silent, taking her time. She sat down. She listened to what had happened. Then she said, confirming Faye, “It doesn’t matter. They’ll never want to think about us again, once they are gone. Anyway, there’s no reason to connect anything that happens with us. Lots of people have these how-to-be-a-terrorist books.” She did not put this into inverted commas, a joke, as it had been in this house till now. The joke had been worn into ordinariness.

“But they are such bloody law-lovers,” said Caroline. “They’ll probably think it’s their bloody duty to inform, when they connect one thing with another.”

There was a bad moment, during which they looked at one another, acknowledging the truth of it. But Bert