Red North

Six

The room smelled of sex, which wasn't surprising really. But it was fairly clean and warm and I needed to sleep, so I was happy enough. And Tony was only charging me two shillings a night. 

At this rate I could survive on the two hundred 'Southern' pounds I had exchanged for six months at least; the money which Tony had given me for my 'hard currency' was so much.

I awoke in the early evening, not knowing quite where I was. My thoughts turned immediately to Alicia, and I struggled to fight a feeling of deflated despair. I went downstairs to the bar, where Tony was once again installed, serving his regulars. 

"Pour me a pint please, Tony. And one for yourself if you like."

The beer was watery but I didn't complain. Tony seemed pleased to see me.

"I wondered when you'd come round." He said. "You've been asleep for hours already. I thought there was something wrong."

The pub was relatively quiet, and although it was only eight o' clock, Tony seemed to be getting ready to close. Some of the tables at the back of the room were no longer in use; upturned bar stools had been placed on top of them. 

 "I'm OK, I'm just very tired, and I'm worried about my girlfriend. I wonder if you'd be able to find anything out from the police; see if she's been found and where they might have taken her?," I suggested.

"And what makes you suppose t'police will tell me owt?"

They might if I pay for them to have a few drinks, and I'll make it worth your while, of course," I promised. 

I stayed for another drink, but after a while I was the only customer in the place and Tony started closing curtains and sweeping up; I got the message it was time to leave. 

So I returned to my room and fiddled with the old radio on the bedside table. There was no Digital radio, of course, not even an FM dial; just Medium Wave, and only a couple of stations with a strong enough signal. I didn't recognize much of the music they played. It was mostly middle-of-the road lounge music from the 50s and 60s -- I recognized a few tracks by the Hollies or Gerry and Pacemakers, but the rest was a mystery to me. 

The news bulletin at 9 pm was equally alien. The German Head of State, Erich Honnecker, had died in Frankfurt after a short illness -- did they mean Frankfurt an der Oder or Frankfurt am Main? I didn't know if it mattered – Honnecker had died in South America, where he fled after the Berlin Wall came down years ago, as far as I was concerned. 

I'd figured out by now that the North was backed by Russia, but how far did their grip reach in the rest of Europe? 

There were reports of new victories on the Staffordshire front: Leek was back in Republican hands and there was talk of an uprising in Stoke on Trent against the Monarchist occupiers. The news ended and the music returned.  

I tuned the radio to find another station and found one that came in quite weakly amid the static. The music was more modern, American perhaps, but still unknown to me. There were commercial adverts for Coca Cola and Levis jeans, things I'd not heard on the other station. 

I hadn't been listening long when there was a sudden knock at the door. 

"Do you mind turnin' that off," Tony whispered with some agitation. "I've got the cops in downstairs and if they hear you're listening to that, then they're definitely not going to be of any help to you. Listening to radio from the South is against the law!" he explained.

"Mostly they jam the signals, but sometimes at night you pick up one of the fainter stations from Bristol or Norwich, rather than Birmingham or London -- those stations are always jammed. 

"Sorry, I didn't realize what I was listening to. None of these stations is familiar to me," I replied and quickly asked if the police had shed any light on what had happened to Alicia. 

"I had to be very careful what I asked because I didn't want to give the game away," he said. 

"I told them I needed to settle a wager with Norman. He'd bet me that if a young lady from the South turned up mysteriously she'd be suspected of spying and shot on sight. I'd said we'd more likely think she was a refugee and take her in. 

"Well, they liked that. Told me I was half right; but we were both right. Most likely they'd hold her in one of the training camps until they found out who she was. And depending on what they found out, they might give her refugee status, or if she was wanted by the South, they'd offer to trade her for one of our prisoners of war. That happens quite a bit: neither side really wants the extra mouths to feed. So most likely, she's in one of the camps," Tony explained. 

"Right, so these camps, where are they, and who can tell me if she's there?" 

"Well, it's yer lucky day. You see, they only went and told me that yesterday they heard a young foreign lady had turned up at Exchange Street Station and they'd taken her up to the camp near Entwistle, and that's not far from here."

With that, he left and at 10 pm the electricity was shut off completely and I had no choice but to try to get some sleep.