{"id":1938,"date":"2024-02-13T09:56:25","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T09:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1938"},"modified":"2024-02-13T09:58:02","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T09:58:02","slug":"sclater-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/sclater-street\/1938\/","title":{"rendered":"Sclater Street"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sclater Street, Brick Lane, and Cheshire Street don\u2019t quite form a crossroads. There\u2019s half a house difference, where 182 Brick Lane forms a dog leg with Cheshire Street. But that\u2019s what the comrades called it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMeet you at the Brick Lane crossroads,\u201d Mikey said at the branch meeting. \u201cSunday. Early. Make sure you get there before the trots.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rich and Larry nodded, joined in with the Internationale, then wandered off into the Whitechapel night, hoods high against the rain, not talking. Rich didn\u2019t like Larry. He was flaky and didn\u2019t have the level of commitment Rich thought appropriate for a true revolutionary, so it was no surprise when he found a note pushed through his door the next morning. It said, \u201cCan\u2019t make it, sorry. Larry.\u201dhoods high against the rain, not talking. Rich didn\u2019t like Larry. He was flaky and didn\u2019t have the level of commitment Rich thought appropriate for a true revolutionary, so it was no surprise when he found a note pushed through his door the next morning. It said, \u201cCan\u2019t make it, sorry. Larry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cFlake,\u201d thought Rich as he washed in his porcelain sink. He brushed his long hair in the broken mirror over the mantelpiece, picked up a thin bundle of Morning Stars and hurried to his patch on the corner of Sclater Street outside Trower\u2019s newsagents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMorning Rich,\u201d said a voice. He turned to find Mikey holding out a bundle of newspapers. \u201cNo Larry? Looks like you\u2019re on your own today. I\u2019ve got to go to King Street for a meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His heart sank. The only good thing about selling the Morning Star on Sundays was the banter you could generate with the Trots, and Rich was too shy to do that on his own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFuck my luck,\u201d he thought as he watched Mikey stroll confidently down Brick Lane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t look happy, Rich,\u201d old man Trower said from the door of his shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not. I\u2019m flying solo today, Mr Trower.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are always on our own,\u201d the elderly shopkeeper mused. \u201cI learned this lesson as a young man. I was playing in a jazz band in the old Con Club. The band leader was extemporising and went into the wrong key. We all noticed, and being a well-rehearsed combo, we followed, bringing him back on track. It sounded great, but after the concert, he gathered us in the dressing room and angrily claimed we\u2019d thrown him. Then he sacked us all except the drummer, Billy Studz.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s unfair,\u201d Rich bristled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, it was a good life lesson,\u201d the old man answered. \u201cWhen you are at a crossroads, it doesn\u2019t matter which way you take. The road ahead is lonely, and you only have yourself to rely on. The people with power will always blame you if it is wrong for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m at a crossroads right now.\u201d Rich said. \u201cThe Party always seems to abuse my good will. I\u2019m thinking of leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou must do what you must do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rich thought about that for a moment. \u201cYou know what? You\u2019re right. I don\u2019t want to do this anymore. Can you take these for me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He handed the bundle of Morning Stars to the old man, then without a backward look, walked down Brick Lane into the bright sunshine of a new life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rich and Larry nodded, joined in with the Internationale, then wandered off into the Whitechapel night, hoods high against the rain, not talking. Rich didn\u2019t like Larry. He was flaky and didn\u2019t have the level of commitment Rich thought appropriate for a true revolutionary, so it was no surprise when he found a note pushed through his door the next morning. It said, \u201cCan\u2019t make it, sorry. Larry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[{"account":"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211","service":"facebook","timestamp":1752596284,"status":"success"},{"account":"twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305","service":"twitter","timestamp":1752596628,"status":"error"}],"rop_publish_now_status":"done","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1129,1154],"tags":[1156,8,20,1157,1158,1161,1159,1163,1155,9,1160,296,1150,1162,11],"class_list":["post-1938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1129","category-feb-2024-crossroads","tag-brick","tag-he","tag-his","tag-lane","tag-larry","tag-mikey","tag-morning","tag-own","tag-rich","tag-said","tag-sclater","tag-street","tag-thought","tag-trower","tag-was"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-vg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1938"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1941,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1938\/revisions\/1941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}