Bite Size Stories

Causality

*** *** Weekend Write-In for 26h May 2017 *** ***

"wrong": In 500 words, tell what happens when someone gets it wrong.

Chain

I've spent a lot of time mulling and I think ... no, I'm quite certain, that I can track the moment.

Or one of the moments.

October 1916: the Battle of the Somme - My great grandfather zigs left instead of right. The bullet tears through his shoulder. This creates a wound serious enough to end his army days and have him shipped home to Blighty. In the moment it also incapacitated him before the main attack, meaning he avoided the slaughter that was to come.

In Brighton he ends up in a hospital, attended by a pretty young nurse. Three months later, my great grandparents marry and my grandfather is born in 1919.

Eschewing a staid but comfortable life in the north, he travels south and is caught in the Blitz of 1940. Sheltering in a doorway, he is moved on by an air raid warden's shouted warning 'Get under cover lad!'

A minute later as my grandfather hurried up the street, the building he had been standing next to is completely destroyed. Grateful to be alive and conflicted over his inability to join the service (bad eye sight) , my grandfather makes the decision to help people by himself, joining the air raid wardens. In 1946 he becomes a fireman and devotes his life to helping others.

1952 - My grandfather saves Aggie from a burning building. Overcoming her shyness, she asks if he'd allow her to buy him a drink, by way of thanks. My father was born in 1955, exactly 9 months after the wedding.

Inspired by his father's example, dad decided he could serve people best by getting involved in local politics. After a stint as a councilor in London, he was selected as a candidate for parliament. The party offered him a choice of two constituencies, where they were equally strong.

My father decided to reconnect to family roots by standing in the north, a short distance from his grandfather's birthplace. He was duly elected and one sunny day in 1986, his political adviser told him there was a scheduling clash and he had to decide whether to attend a local meeting or head to Westminster to take part in a debate.

He stayed and after the meeting a passionate young woman cornered him and asked him what he intended to do about an issue he had only thought about in the abstract. Six months later, it was his principal concern and he ended up pushing a new progressive anti discrimination bill through parliament. A year after that, he and my mother announced their engagement. I was born in March 1990.

My parents debated whether a private education for me and my sister made them hypocrites; by then he was a minister and she was a top human right lawyer. In the end we went to a local comprehensive in my father's constituency. 

Because of my background and the demographics of the area, I was bullied; my tormentors were a gang of Asian youths and this caused me to develop racial prejudices. At age 11, I begged my parents to let me go to a different school but my reasons angered my father. He said no.

When I was twenty, my father disowned me, saying my views were intolerable to him and eventually my own politics developed in a decidedly oppositional manner. When my sister entered a relationship with someone of a religion I didn't approve of, and the marriage ended up being abusive, this just cemented my anger and my views.

In 2012 I stood against my own father and took his seat from him - by then my party was gaining traction and through a series of circumstances, our message of England for the English and hatred of other, was hurtling into the mainstream.

In 2019, they asked me if I wanted to stand for the leadership. I said yes. We won in 2027 and I had a moment of clarity and self realization! Bloody hell! What do I do now?

Somehow our rhetoric seemed ... inappropriate for government, but then the moment of wavering passed. My resolve hardened - it was time to show the world Britain meant business and to clear out the trash! I had been elected to do a job and by god, I wouldn't let my people down!

In 2028 we faced another tough choice. Reluctantly I decided that people of my parent's ilk were ultimately traitors to the country. I signed the Treason Act and they started to round up dissenters. That was just the start.

Now its 2040 and elections were suspended a decade ago. We didn't need traitors trying to undo all our glorious policies and of course the next step was to show the world that Britain would not kowtow to other, less enlightened countries.

But somewhere along the way, I now know a wrong decision was made that led to this moment. Now with the nukes heading towards my country and MAD in full effect, I have that sure and certain clarity - but its too late. All I can do is press the button and take the bastards with me - after all I was elected on a platform of strength and I'll be strong ... to the end.