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Both Sides of the Story - Westminster Big Ben

Both Sides of the Story - Westminster

An Indiscretion

Baxter felt immense relief at having spoken the shameful word. It cleared his mind, like unblocking a drain. At last, his thoughts could flow freely. He headed back to his desk but froze when he passed his family portrait. Baxter's thoughts went blank again.

He cursed himself and turned for inspiration to the aerial photograph of the largest town in his constituency. How pleasant things look from a distance, he thought. The stark glass and aluminium business parks and shopping centres barely blemished the green and pleasant patchwork of the surrounding farmland. Even the motorway cutting through the shabbier end of town had a rustic charm. From 10,000 feet it could be mistaken for a river. Albeit manmade, without bends and loops.

Yes, how pleasant things look from a distance. As a boy, Baxter's parents had told him his destiny was to achieve high office. He had sensed it, too. It wasn't vanity, though he admitted to being prone to that vice. ("But then, who isn't?" he joked with friends at Oxford.) No, Baxter's destiny was a gut thing, instinctive. At boarding school, he was always top of his form, and at Oxford, he had earned distinctions.

Ah, the debating society, the evenings of fierce intellectual arguments, far more stimulating than the stale speeches in the House. Though we were naive and idealistic back then, Baxter reminded himself with a chuckle. And after Oxford, a career in the City, a good marriage, a respectable fortune amassed, and now public service. Oh, how close he had come to fulfilling his boyhood promise. His parents would have been so proud.

Baxter felt the blood boil in his veins. "Damn it," he spat, "I will not resign!" He strode to his desk and took up his pen. "An indiscretion of sniggering, schoolboy interest to the less than honourable members opposite. But which has not affected my duty to the government, my party, nor my constituents."

His blood went off the boil. How had the press found out? Was it a leak? A rival? It must have been someone at the Conference. There were only party delegates at that fringe meeting. It had been a gut thing, instinctive. The attraction had been immediate, mutual and overpowering. And Baxter had succumbed to it, at the Conference and then afterwards, a few times. Neither of them had wanted to hurt their families. They just both worked late nights and went home to cold empty flats. They had been foolish. Lonely.

Baxter stood and began another circuit of his office. There were so many late nights in the House. Oh, he had worked long, hard hours in the City. But somehow, he had always managed to get home to tuck in the children, even if they were sound asleep. And then he would tell his wife of the day's business, though often, she would be in bed reading. But they always made time to talk before going to sleep. Of course, that was before he entered politics, and they moved north to live in his new constituency, and the distance between his work and home became too great to commute. 

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Outside the window, the sun was setting on the Thames. Big Ben chimed four o'clock. Soon it would be time to make his speech. Baxter stopped pacing and stared across the office at his family. The faces of his wife and children were a blur, and he had to squint to bring them into sharper focus.

"The Prime Minister wears glasses," he consoled himself aloud. "Bugger!"

© 1994, 2019 Robert Fairhead 

Robert is a writer and editor at Tall And True and blogs on his eponymous website, RobertFairhead.com. He also writes and narrates episodes for the Tall And True Short Reads storytelling podcast, featuring his short stories, blog posts and other writing from Tall And True.

Robert's book reviews and other writing have appeared in print and online media. In 2020, he published his début collection of short stories, Both Sides of the Story. In 2021, Robert published his first twelve short stories for the Furious Fiction writing competition, Twelve Furious Months, and in 2022, his second collection of Furious Fictions, Twelve More Furious Months. And in 2023, he published an anthology of his microfiction, Tall And True Microfiction.

Besides writing, Robert's favourite pastimes include reading, watching Aussie Rules football with his son and walking his dog.

He has also enjoyed a one-night stand as a stand-up comic.

Footnote: As I blogged on Tall And True in November 2019, I started working on Both Sides of the Story in February 1994. It was my third submission to the then annual Ian St James Awards, at the time the UK's biggest fiction prize for unpublished writers.

The idea for the story came to me while working out in a gym. The news at the time was full of items about people for whom the public (including me) had little sympathy. Phil Collins was singing his Both Sides song on MTV in the gym, and the music video set me thinking: Could I show both sides of the news in a short story?

So I started writing Both Sides of the Story, as a five-part short story. Westminster, Bosnia, A Council Flat, and The Gym are four standalone vignettes. And Bad News is the fifth and final part, which links and resolves the story.

Please note, my intention in writing this short story twenty-five years ago was not to be an apologist for my characters or their actions. Then, as now, my goal was to follow Phil Collins' lead and try to imagine both sides of the story.

Grammarly

With thanks to skeeze for the Westminster and Big Ben image from Pixabay.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. ~ Maya Angelou

Tall And True showcases the writing — fiction, nonfiction and reviews — of a dad and dog owner, writer and podcaster, Robert Fairhead. Guest Writers are also invited to share and showcase their writing on the website.

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