Hatred

by M J Dees

  Jim arrived at the university to discover that Devi had appointed both Shaw and Murphy, and they were both there with their Unity ties and lapel badges.

  Everyone gave the Unity greeting at the beginning of the meeting except Jim, who was still sneaking in at the back, hoping no-one would notice him.

  “You may have heard,” Devi began, “That we will cut this term a little short to allow our students to take part in the Government’s ‘Work for Unity’ programme. We will require you to deliver your lectures until the end of the term if less than half of your students decide to enrol in the programme.”

  As Jim’s remaining students were foreign and therefore unlikely to sign up, it meant that he would teach until the end of the term. He left the meeting straightaway at the end because, for the first time in the year, he and Annabel were expecting visitors.

  He rushed home to help Annabel with the preparations and arrived before the first guests.

  Jon and Jenny Lee and the Harrises arrived together not long afterward, together with Camila Harris’s brother, Theo.

  “Theo’s a farmer,” said Camila.

  “Interesting,” said Jim. “How did you get that scar over your eye?”

  “Accident with a bit of machinery,” said Theo.

  “Henry! How are you?” Jim offered his hand. “Are you still predicting a long and prosperous reign for this regime?”

  “I see nothing to the contrary, do you?” said Henry. “I think it might change, but it will remain in power.”

  “I hope there is change, otherwise there’ll be chaos.”

  “It’s like the French revolution, in a hundred years, when we have forgotten the lies and minor abuses, they will call this revolution typically British because it is a civilised revolution.”

  “Civilised? You mean like the glorious revolution?”

  “Compared to the French and Russian revolutions, it’s bloodless.”

  Jim thought the glorious revolution was anything but bloodless for the Irish and the Scots, but he kept his thoughts to himself.

  “And it’s a good thing, too, this revolution, Theo joined in.

  “Where is your farm?” Jim asked.

  “I’m a farmer by trade but not by practise. I’m an agricultural inspector.”

  “Inspector?”

  “Yes, the Government sets ‘food security’ quotas to ensure we have sufficient supplies through the winter.”

  “Sounds like the old soviet system.”

  “It is, in a way.”

  “Did you know,” said Jenny. “They are replacing trade unions with workers’ Unity councils? I hear they’re more powerful than the old unions were. They have more power than the bosses.”

  “Are you suggesting that the country is sliding into communism, Jenny?”

  “I hope the present regime maintains itself,” said Henry. “Only yesterday, Anderson made a speech about what happens when a movement allows the radical wing to become too powerful. I don’t think they will turn to communism, I hope not, at least.”

  “There is a tension between the Unity militia, the police and the armed forces,” said Theo. “The entire system is unstable if you ask me.”

  “You’re quiet, Jon,” said Jim. “What have you been up to?”

  “Still teaching,” Jon sighed. “I’m thinking about switching areas though.”

  “To what?”

  “Medicine. This will be my third area of study, after business and then humanities. How about you, Jim, how’s the writing?”

  “What writing?” Jim laughed a nervous laugh. “I heard from Alex White. She’s giving music lessons. Sounds like Logan’s shop is not doing as well as he’d hoped. She said she thought the worst is over and that if the Government can agree tariffs that things might improve. They might even consider coming back.”

  “I remember Logan complaining about not feeling welcome here,” said Annabel. “Some will let people hit them in the face with a toilet brush and not get offended.”

  The doorbell rang. It was Ben and Mila Kumar.

  “Ben! Mila! Come in,” said Annabel. “Mila, I was very sorry to hear about your brother.”

  “Thank you. Sorry we’re late.”

  “Not at all. Let me get you some drinks,” said Jim.

  “No, thanks,” said Mila. “Just water, please.”

  “Whiskey please, Jim.”

  “Starting on the potent stuff, eh, Ben? What’s brought this on?”

  “They’ve pensioned me off,” said Ben.

  “Jesus! But you can still teach somewhere else? It’ll be me next, Ben, surplus to requirements.”

  “I have some good news for you though,” said Ben. “I was talking to my bank manager, and I told him you needed money to build your house. He said you should see him.”

  “Thanks Ben,” said Annabel. “That’s the first bit of good news we’ve had in a while.”

  *

  “You are planning to build it out of wood?” asked Miller, the bank manager Ben had recommended.

  “Yes, it’s cheap, but it’s also sustainable,” said Jim.

  “Sounds like a big shed,” Miller laughed. “Or a dog kennel.”

  Jim hung his head. He could feel this interview going the way of all the other financial appointments in which they had humiliated him. He wondered how he would explain this latest failure to Annabel.

  “Let me introduce you to my colleague, Caleb Rodriguez,” Miller continued, beckoning a man into the room who reminded Jim of Carter.

  “Pleased to meet you,” said Jim, shaking Caleb by the hand. He looked at Caleb for a moment, and then the penny dropped. “Do you know Carter Rodriguez?”

  “We’re related,” said Caleb.

  “He’s an old friend of mine.”

  “Small world.”

  “Isn’t it?”

  “Right, well, I’ll leave you two alone,” said Miller. “Please excuse me.”

  Jim shook Miller’s hand and was glad he had left him alone with Caleb, to whom he was warming.

  “I’ve looked into your case,” said Caleb once Miller had left the room. “And, to be honest, I doubt you’ll get any joy from any British bank at the moment.”

  Jim’s heart sank again.

  “However, there might be a possibility that I can get you something from a private source. This is between you and me, you understand?”

  Jim nodded.

  “Leave me the number of your stretch,” said Caleb with a smile. “I’ll send you a message as soon as I’ve sorted something out.”

  “Well, that’s something, at least.” said Annabel when he shared the news with her.

  “Elijah, Ben Cohen, Logan, they all have savings. You know the emergency fillings that Singh put in?”

  “Are your teeth giving you trouble again?”

  “No, that’s the point. These temporary fillings seem to do the job, so why waste more money on replacing them with proper ones?”

  “Jim, you need to look after your teeth.”

  “We can’t afford it. If these come out, I’ll get more emergency ones on the insurance.”

  Annabel rolled her eyes. Jim wondered whether he would have any students after Easter and, if not, whether they would dismiss him.

  *

  “What is it?” asked Annabel, seeing the expression on Jim’s face as he entered the flat.

  “I had no students for my lecture today,” he confessed. “I only had two on Wednesday.”

  Annabel covered her mouth with her hands and then recovered a little.

  “Call Devi,” she suggested. “We can’t live with this uncertainty.”

  Jim did as she asked.

  “I understand,” said Devi. “I’m used to lecturing in front of eighty to a hundred and fifty. Today I had six.”

  “What are we going to do?” Jim asked.

  “Many of the students that signed up for the Government’s programme still haven’t returned,” Devi explained “But, between me and you, Jim, university edu
cation is being throttled. I brought Ben in for a psychology course and he only had three. See how many turn up tomorrow.”

  Jim thanked Devi and hung up.

  “I only have to survive till Whitsun,” said Jim.

  “How come?” Annabel asked.

  “You’ve heard about this recent Government campaign against grumblers?”

  “Who hasn’t?”

  “The students are being enrolled into that.”

  “Anderson was on the big stretch earlier,” said Annabel. “Warning there would be riots if Britain’s trade partners don’t negotiate better deals.”

  “I heard that work on these great public facility infrastructure projects is faltering already. So much for a Unified new deal.”

  “Anderson said this Government did not negotiate the divorce bill and so they don’t have to pay it.”

  “Their predecessors negotiated it.”

  “Yes, but they changed the name of the party since then.”

  “If you listen to the conversation on the streets, there is much dissatisfaction. Perhaps there will be riots.”

  “I don’t think so,” said Annabel. “People believe what they are told. If the media tells them, there is no problem for three months, then there is no problem.”

  “I went to see Nathan Cox today,” said Jim, slumping down onto the sofa.

  “Who?”

  “The financier that Caleb Rodriguez recommended.”

  “Oh, yes. And?”

  “He hasn’t given up hope of finding the money, but he doesn’t seem to have had much joy either.”

  “Oh.”

  “He was in the military, joined Unity before they came to power. He’s still a member of the party but he says he sees mismanagement all around, thinks the ‘foreigner’ thing is out of proportion and that only lower levels of the party are using it for intimidation. He thinks at the top they are trying to calm things down.”

  There was a knock at the door.

  “Who could that be?”

  “Asher?” It surprised Jim to find Asher Williams on the other side of the door. “Come in. Sit down. Would you like a drink?”

  “No thanks, Jim. I’m not staying, I was just passing and thought I might pop in for a chat. It’s so much easier than texting these days, don’t you think?”

  Jim realised that whatever Asher had to say, he didn’t want anyone snooping on them.

  “You are looking very well,” said Annabel. “Have you recovered from that...”

  “Stroke,” said Asher. “They said it was a minor stroke. I still suffer from a lack of feeling in my left hand and warn me if I dribble a little, but the biggest drawback is not being able to score goals with my left foot anymore.”

  “You never scored goals with your left foot, even before the stroke,” said Jim.

  “That’s true,” said Asher. “I’ve retired from football.”

  “I’m glad you’ve come,” said Jim. “I wanted to talk to you about my writing. There are several things I’m not able to publish at the moment and I thought, if worse comes to worse, I might entrust them to you to see that they might see the light of day at some point.”

  “Let’s hope things don’t get to that,” said Asher. “I have a situation you might help with.”

  “Fire away.”

  “Although I grew up in Wales, my father is Welsh, and I have a Welsh surname. My mother was Polish, and we lived in Poland for a while and I have some investments in Poland.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “Since the Government passed the Overseas Investment Repatriation Act, I have to transfer all the funds from Poland here.”

  “I see.”

  “The economic situation the way it is, what with inflation and everything, I’m looking for some kind of investment which might protect my funds from inflation, do you know what I mean?”

  “I do,” Jim leant forward.

  “I bumped into Ben today and he mentioned you are trying to raise money to build a house.”

  “That’s right.”

  “In the country, he said.”

  “That’s right,” said Jim. “We’ve got as far as the basement, but we are looking for a loan to build the rest of it. If you were minded to lend us some money, we could repay you with a very favourable interest rate.”

  Asher’s stretch beeped.

  “That’s my exercise app,” he said. “Since the stroke I have to keep moving, which is why I go on these evening walks. Bare me in mind and when I know more about the financial situation, I’ll let you know.”

  Asher got up and moved to the door.

  “Thanks for coming,” said Annabel.

  “See you at work,” said Jim.

  “We should go up to the land tomorrow and do some watering,” said Annabel, once Jim had shut the door.

  “Haven’t you seen? There’s a hosepipe ban.”

  “Yes, but it doesn’t apply up there. All our water comes from the stream. I saw a trout in it last time I was up there.”

  “I’m surprised anything survives with all that chicken and cow manure that runs into the rivers.”

  “We’re too far upstream to be affected by that. Why are you so grumpy?”

  “We were told today that all teachers and lecturers will have to undergo a four week ‘overhaul’ during the holidays.”

  Chapter Nineteen – 18 years and 4 months before the collapse

  “This heat is intolerable,” said Jim, opening another bottle of fruit wine in the garden of the un-built country house.

  “It hasn’t rained for weeks,” said Asher, accepting a top up. “We complain when it rains because of the floods, then complain when it stops raining.”

  “Here’s to doing business with each other,” Jim raised a toast.

  “Here’s to helping each other out,” Asher changed the toast.

  The two men drank. Annabel was still pottering around in the garden with Olivia, making the most of the evening light.

  “I hope this solves some of your problems,” said Asher.

  “It does,” Jim confirmed with enthusiasm. “I’ve already settled the previous mortgage and, as soon as Garcia builds something we can live in, we won’t have to pay rent on the other place. The commute will be longer, but that’s a price I’m willing to pay. This is our retirement.”

  “How long will it take?”

  “We expect to have planning permission in two weeks and, if that’s the case, we could move in by October.”

  “It’s all come together.”

  “Yes, and the irony is that it was all because of one of Roberts’ recent laws.”

  The two men laughed. Asher sobered.

  “Although we shouldn’t laugh,” he said. “Have you seen the news?”

  “The murders, yes, but don’t you think it’s the chickens coming home to roost? The fact they are killing each other is a sign of the beginning of the end, don’t you think?”

  “I don’t know,” said Asher. “Everything has been very calm following the killings.”

  “Yes, but when you combine it with this drought and the rumours that the harvest will fail. It’ll create a perfect storm.”

  “You think?”

  “Do you think the EU or the US will slacken the tariffs just because the harvest has failed? They’ll have us by the short and curlies.”

  “And that will play into the hands of Roberts even more. He’ll blame the foreigners for our predicament.”

  “Exactly.”

  “But is the drought not affecting Europe?”

  “In part, but not as badly. It’s a jet stream thing.”

  “It’s climate change. Roberts’s speech is on the stretch. Watch it.”

  “What did he say?”

  “Making excuses for the killings. Almost apologising. Said it was an inevitable albeit tragic consequence of the tough transition our political system is making to rid itself of corruption and greed.”

  “Smart. I guess no-one has sympathy with the e
nemies he bumped off.”

  “You think it was him?”

  “It’s very easy to blame zealots.”

  “He confirmed that they have arrested 77 for being part of a conspiracy which reached deep into Unity.”

  Jim sighed, swiping through posts on his stretch.

  “What is it?” Asher asked.

  “My sister is posting pro Roberts memes on social media. I think she only does it to annoy me.”

  Jim let out a yelp of joy.

  “Jesus! You scared me,” said Asher.

  “It’s an email from my lawyer about the Zhang case. They have thrown out the expert testimony, and they have ordered Zhang to pay most of the costs, so rather than having to stump up for court costs, I think I’ll end up gaining from this whole shambles.”

  “Can he appeal?”

  “I suppose so, but if he does, that’ll take at least two months and give me time to get solvent.”

  “How’s work?”

  “This term I’ve been teaching two students.”

  *

  It was a message from Elijah which drew Jim’s attention to the news that the old King had died.

  “It feels like the end of an era,” Jim confessed to Annabel. “I was always a republican, but at least the prime minister had to report to the monarchy every week.”

  “You don’t think the Duke will succeed him?”

  “Apart from the scandals of the last couple of decades, I think Roberts will take this opportunity to seize complete control.”

  Barely hours had passed when Jim read the news in his stretch that the roles of Prime Minister and President would now replace the previous role of head of state held by the monarchy.

  “I suppose I should be happy,” Jim admitted. “Yet, they had been waiting for this for some time.”

  “Why bother to vote for a president,” said Annabel. “It only wastes time and money.”

  “There will be a vote,” said Jim, reading his stretch. “On the 19th. There will be a referendum to confirm Roberts’s appointment.”

  “So, all the dirt in the media pillorying the Duke and Duchess has been leading up to this,” Annabel observed.

  “I thought there had been a lot of rubbish about them on the stretch,” said Jim. “They must have known the King would not survive his illness and were setting the groundwork. I doubt it will upset the Duke and Duchess. If you believe the rumours, they didn’t want to succeed the King, anyway.”