“Did you tell Ben?” Pamela asks.
Jasmine nods. “And Sean. Unfortunately, Lou was present too.”
“That girl has a remarkable ability to position herself next to our candidate,” Pamela arches one eyebrow.
“I don’t think she’ll gossip,” Jasmine reassures. “I made it clear she had to treat it as confidential.”
“So few days to go, now,” Pamela looks around the empty office. “No one needs the distraction.”
As volunteers start to filter in to man the phone lines, Jasmine repairs to Ben’s office, safe in the knowledge he has a breakfast meeting and won’t be in until later. After yesterday’s session with him, she is happy to postpone their next meeting as long as possible. How she wishes sometimes that Labour had chosen someone else, somebody with whom she had absolutely no history. She messages him to let him know Pamela is here, but then gets on with making sure she and Ben don’t overspend their election budget, despite the temptations.
At five o’clock, the evening canvassing teams assemble, ready for the golden hours of canvassing from six till eight. People are home from work; early risers have not yet gone to bed. When Jasmine sees some of their volunteer campaigners coming through the door, she realises she has successfully avoided being alone with Ben all day. There is no further danger now as Ben often teams up with Lou, even though Jasmine is also out tonight as it is all hands in the final days. The polls show the vote is close and every person contacted might make a difference. Considering they started at such a disadvantage, they have done well, testament to Ben’s ability coupled with their hard work. She honestly believes that if she can get him over the finish line and into Parliament, Hayburn will benefit.
He is young, energetic, and committed. Not that she wants to denigrate Sean’s father, who had done so much for her, but working with Ben these weeks has shown her how tired, cynical, and complacent Richard had become. To be fair to him, he had served over a decade as an opposition MP, unable to affect much of magnitude and it would dent anyone’s fervour. Ben, on the contrary, would likely spend his next few years in government, if he won this by-election and then retained his seat at the upcoming General Election. He has hope to motivate him, not endless disappointments to overcome.
Jasmine is standing close by when she hears Ben’s voice. He is talking to Lou. “I won’t be going out with everyone tonight. I’m going to stay behind for a bit and have a word with Pamela. I’ll catch up with everyone later,” he says. “You’ll need another partner tonight.”
“Oh.” And Jasmine can hear the unhappiness in that one syllable. Her mind also cannot help analysing his phrasing.I’ll catch up with everyone later.Notyou,buteveryone.She doesn’t have time to ferret much further before Dave, the rugby league player, chimes in.
“I’ll team up with you Lou,” he says. “My normal buddy isn’t here tonight.”
Lou gives him a big beaming smile, and then everyone is piling out, climbing into cars, headed to a new-build estate on the edges of Hayburn, not far from the Exmore home. For one moment, Jasmine wonders what is so urgent to talk to Pamela about that Ben could not postpone until the morning, but then someone asks her a question and her thoughts switch track.
Jasmine is paired with a newbie tonight, a young art student who talks a lot but much of it nonsense. Despite the difference of only half a decade in their ages, Jasmine feels they are on different planets. The music she likes, the influencers she listens to, the films she watches are all strange. She also seems to be a little spaced. Jasmine begins to worry the student might be under the influence, as she reminds her for the fifth time to keep her fingers clear of letterbox flaps in people’s doors. Quite a few have viciously hard springs that will trap unwary fingers, but by far the greater injury is from dog bites. She has no wish to spend the rest of the evening with her charge in Accident and Emergency.
She is relieved when eight o’clock rolls around and they head for the nearby meeting point, a local pub. Dave and Lou are already there and she leaves her charge in their care while she goes to the bar to order drinks. When she gets back, Ben and a half-dozen others have joined the group. Lou is already flanked on both sides, so Ben takes a seat next to Jasmine. If she thinks this indicates a thawing of their icy relationship, she is sadly mistaken because he hardly says a word to her. He keeps everyone entertained with his anecdotes and laughs at their stories in turn, but his eyes seldom turn her way nor does he solicit any tales of adversity from her. It is a replay of almost everyone of these post-canvassing sessions so Jasmine cannot identify why it feels different.
When the volunteers start drifting home, Ben offers lifts to those who need it, pointedly asking, “Jasmine?”
She nods. She does not read anything into it. He knows her car is in London after helping Natasha Smith and she is certain they won’t be alone, that others will be in the car with them. Sure enough, Ben has a car full as he pulls out of the car park, including Dave and Lou. Jasmine is one of the first he drops off with nothing more than a chorus ofGoodnightsfrom others and a quietSee you tomorrowfrom him. She has no idea if he and Lou sneak off together at the end of the night or not. But as she lies in bed that night, reflecting on the day, she feels something has changed. If only she could tell what exactly it was.
Surprise, Surprise
When you can really do with extra time, it is sure to speed by. Before she knows it, Jasmine is packing up her belongings, ready for her return to London. Whatever happens, she won’t be staying in Hayburn. Growing up with housekeepers picking up after her has made Jasmine a messy person. While she appreciates a clean and orderly life, she is incapable of making it happen herself. The kitchen is fine because she seldom uses it. She has never mastered cooking because she has never been interested in it. The idea of a perfectly crafted, home-made meal has no attraction over a cheap store-bought ready meal if she has to cook it. Her London life is supported by delivered food or pre-cooked dinners, often eaten straight from the container. She brought the same mindset to Hayburn which, unfortunately, has far fewer options. But all it meant was the balance shifted from mainly restaurant-based to primarily supermarket-sourced.
But she has papers everywhere, clothes hiding under furniture, and bits of tech strewn around the rental. By the time she has located all of her belongings and shoved them in a suitcase, she is exhausted. She sits with this evening’s pasta dish and thinks. The television is on but she is not watching it, her mind pre-occupied with the next day. For tomorrow, time runs out. The residents of Hayburn will get their say on who will represent them in Parliament. A win for Ben now massively increases the chance he will hold the seat at the soon-to-be-expected General Election. Richard Exmore’s scandalous demise will have been forgotten by most and Ben will have had many more months to make his presence felt in the constituency. Jasmine is sure he is enough of a political animal to capitalise on every chance of self-promotion that crops up.
But before then, a hundred jobs need to be undertaken. She runs through in her head the people she can count on tomorrow. Much of what they can achieve will depend on how many volunteers actually turn up. Pamela and some of her trusted friends and ex-colleagues will be polling agents. They will be watching over the vote and the subsequent count at every polling station for signs of incompetence or malfeasance. Some will also be tellers, asking those who are voting for their elector numbers or names and addresses, so the campaign can identify those who haven’t yet voted. Volunteers will try to contact those missing, to argue their case with the undecideds, or to offer transport for those who want to vote for Ben. But Jasmine is expecting many traditional Labour voters to stay away, jaded by the stench of treachery and corruption currently surrounding Richard Exmore.
She requires volunteers to man the phone lines and people to drive the cars to pick up voters struggling to get to polling stations. In a poor area like Hayburn, finding drivers who can afford business-class insurance and the fuel racked up on all those miles is hard.
Her thoughts are interrupted by her phone ringing.
“Eleanor? Everything okay?” Jasmine asks, concerned.
“Just wanted to wish you luck for tomorrow,” Eleanor says. “Although I’m sure you won’t need it. I can’t think of anyone better to run a political campaign than you.”
Jasmine glows. Praise from Eleanor is rare, but it means much more when you get it.
“If you don’t win, then it was probably unwinnable,” Eleanor continues. “But I think you will. What time does it all kick off?”
“Polls open at seven,” Jasmine answers. “I’ll need to be at the campaign office about six to sort stuff. We always get people who don’t show up or who call in sick.”
“Long old day for you. I guess you have to stay all night for the count? On top of the early start, that’s hard. Good thing you’re young. How do some of those old codgers manage?”
“They go home.” Jasmine is under no illusions as to how lax some members of Parliament are. Especially those in safe seats.
“I’ll let you go to bed then. Get some sleep, perhaps.” And Eleanor is gone. Jasmine looks at her phone for a minute after her sister hangs up and thinks,How peculiar. But the call is there in her phone log; it wasn’t some weird hallucination. She struggles to recall if her sister has ever rung to wish her luck before. Not for exams or finals, not for her first day of work with Richard all those years ago. She shrugs. It is nice to feel cared for. Probably best not to analyse it too much.
