SAFFRON JACK
Saffron Jack
Rishi Dastidar
ISBN: 978-1-911027-89-8
eISBN: 978-1-911027-90-4
Copyright © Rishi Dastidar, 2020.
Cover artwork: © Ria Dastidar / Uberpup.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, recorded or mechanical, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Rishi Dastidar has asserted his right under Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
First published March 2020 by:
Nine Arches Press
Unit 14, Sir Frank Whittle Business Centre,
Great Central Way, Rugby.
CV21 3XH
United Kingdom
Nine Arches Press is supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
For my father
‘As for me: I, too, like all migrants am a fantasist. I build imaginary countries and try to impose them on the ones that exist.’
– Salman Rushdie, Shame
In a small room, a border of masking tape. A demarcation down the middle.
The litter of the temporary sleeping space: a mattress, a desk. A TV, a lamp, a rucksack.
Stretched out, a body. Blue torso and yellow legs, bandaged in combat trousers and vest, desert boots. And a crown.
He sleeps, the head resting easy. Until alarm clock gunfire and an explosive sunrise scramble him awake.
Good morning tramper! Here’s a loudhailer with your wake-up warning!
JULLIE HEBBEN EXACT ÉÉN UUR OM TE VERTREKKEN, VÒÒR WE JULLIE LAND BINNENVALLEN. JULLIE HEBBEN EXACT ÉÉN UUR OM TE VERTREKKEN, VÒÒR WE JULLIE LAND BINNENVALLEN. LAAT ALLES ACHTER. NEEM NIETS MEE. JULLIE HEBBEN EXACT ÉÉN UUR OM TE VERTREKKEN, VÒÒR WE JULLIE LAND BINNENVALLEN.
VOUS AVEZ UNE HEURE POUR PARTIR AVANT QUE NOUS N'ENVAHISSIONS VOTE PAYS.VOUS AVEZ UNE HEURE POUR PARTIR AVANT QUE NOUS N'ENVAHISSIONS VOTRE PAYS. LAISSEZ TOUT. NE PRENEZ RIEN. VOUS AVEZ UNE HEURE POUR PARTIR AVANT QUE NOUS N'ENVAHISSIONS VOTRE PAYS.
YOU HAVE ONE HOUR TO LEAVE, BEFORE WE INVADE YOUR COUNTRY. YOU HAVE ONE HOUR TO LEAVE, BEFORE WE INVADE YOUR COUNTRY. LEAVE EVERYTHING. TAKE NOTHING. YOU HAVE ONE HOUR TO LEAVE, BEFORE WE INVADE YOUR COUNTRY.
STOP.
Tense, nervous fingers fidget around, feeling the crown. Remembering, confirming it is his. Sealed and not sutured.
Now cuticles on the end of pipecleaners work their way up a little more to find the clunk of a metallic open-top hat-band.
It is not a dream.
1. You polish it every night.
1.1. No, not that.
1.2. The crown.
1.2.1. Every night.
2. It’s the only way.
2.1. A bit of spit and whatever is to hand. Sometimes just your hand.
2.1.1. What you are wearing.
2.2. It seems to do the trick.
3. Even at the end, you must maintain appearances, the trappings of office.
3.1. Otherwise, what do you have left?
3.2. Yes, it is only symbolic.
3.2.1. Yes, you are only symbolic.
3.3. But it is what is left. What you have left.
3.4. And they’re not taking that away. Not now.
3.5. Not yet.
4. You didn’t think it would end like this.
4.1. But then, no one ever does.
4.1.1. Divine rights and inviolate.
4.2. You get used to being told the position you hold is immortal.
5. By sleight of mind, you come to believe the same.
5.1. That you are immortal.
5.2. Because position and person are one and the same.
5.2.1. As vested in you, represented by you.
6. So they cannot ever touch you, no matter the screw ups you make.
6.1. Because they are not mistakes.
6.2. They are whimsical unpredictabilities with a happy effect; keeping consort and court, mistresses and subjects, on their toes.
6.3. It is not that you are never wrong – who possesses the temerity or sheer bad manners to whisper that to you?
6.3.1. To your face?
6.4. No matter the pattern of choices – some sort of internal coherency can always be found.
6.5. A chain of logic that is clear, and followable.
6.5.1. (Even if ‘followable’ isn’t a word.)
6.6. Even if it is irrational to the outside eye.
6.7. Even if it is irrational.
6.8. Because what does the outside eye know?
6.9. Blinded by the gilded edges of the caravan.
6.10. Always confusing the trappings for substance.
7. Not that the trappings are not substantial.
7.1. Or not necessary.
7.1.1. They are a feint. A distraction.
7.1.2. Be dazzled enough by the shiny shiny, you won’t ask why everything is only being held by a few pieces of tape and string.
7.2. Though someone comes along one day, and says,
7.2.1. ‘Look, look, I can see some rust!’
8. And then it is all over.
9. Not immediately.
10. You keep the motions of the pretence up.
10.1. Blinding the rust-spotters, the string-cutters, the tape-slicers.
10.2. Silencing those who say the rust-spotters, the string-cutters, the tape-slicers should have their say, and keep saying it.
10.3. Imprisoning those who say that the advice is not bad and should be listened to.
10.4. Sending into exile those who suggest you need new advisers –
10.4.1. advisers who should look like, sound like, the people suggesting you need new advisers.
11. Dismissing and diminishing until the only evidence you are actually who you say you are is a piece of tarnished metal.
12. And your unshakeable belief in the purity of your bloodline.
12.1. However diluted it might be.
13. By then, no doubt, the wars have started.
13.1. Because you have given enough hostages to fortune,