The Good Terrorist

She slept until evening. Then she found, in the kitchen, Roberta and Faye, Mary and Reggie. Jasper was not there. Bert had gone to see whether he could persuade Pat to return to him.

Alice, sitting down, said, "I think we should organise a CCU Congress."

"Another democratic decision?" said Faye, laughing.

"I'm suggesting it," said Alice. "I'm putting it forward."

"And I'm in favour," said Roberta. "There are all kinds of members we have never met. A new branch, new groups - we should meet."

"It sounds a good idea," said Reggie in a judicial way, one who would always welcome congresses, discussions, any manifestations of the democratic process.

"Yes, I agree," said Mary. "I've been thinking, it might be just the kind of political party I've been looking for. I've no time for the big bureaucratic parties, anyway."

"When?" said Faye.

"Soon," said Alice. "The sooner the better. The party has grown quite fast. We need to consolidate and formulate policies now."

General agreement, though Faye came in only because Roberta did.

Five days, five nights followed, without Jasper. Bert returned, unfulfilled, and with a gaunt bitter look to him that Alice continued to feel as an improvement. Bert asked where Jasper was; Alice, as usual covering up, said that Jasper had decided to visit a brother. Bert, who had after all spent a fair bit of time with Jasper, was surprised that a brother had never been mentioned. Alice said that Jasper did visit his brother, who was his only "viable relative." This phrase caused Bert to look at her oddly, but she said he had a shitty family, and the brother was the only decent person in it. (Jasper's visits to his brother did in fact happen, if rarely.)

Bert, Alice was pleased to see, missed Jasper, tended to be at a loose end. But they were in a phase of intense activity, for the Congress was to be the weekend after next, in this house, number 43. Message sending and letter writing went on, and they were always running up to the telephone booths at the station.

Alice undertook most of this; but Bert visited the branch in South London to make sure everyone would be inspired to come. Number 45 was asked whether people wished to attend, if not as members or potential members, as delegates or observers. Observers, Alice knew, there would certainly be; and was not surprised when goose-girl Muriel said she would attend. Comrade Andrew said he would have liked to be present, only he would be away.

Both houses could be used as dormitories, if number 43 proved inadequate.

Alice undertook to provide filling but cheap food. For once some contributions to her funds were assured, since delegates would be charged a small fee for their food and lodging. After discussion, this was set at two pounds a head for the weekend.

Alice also said it would be a good thing if all the rubbish remaining in number 45 were to be disposed of, for it gave such a bad impression. As nothing was done, she borrowed the car and made several trips, Philip assisting, to the rubbish dumps.

Philip's misgivings, his hurt over Jim, were being assuaged by the Congress, and the happy atmosphere that was leading up to it.

Bert repeatedly visited number 45 during those five days. He was seeing Comrade Andrew, as Alice knew, for she, too, visited Comrade Andrew, who seemed to want to talk about Bert, making no secret of his plan for him, which was that he should follow the path of job, flat, security, and respectability. And "special training," unspecified but understood. Alice rather wondered at the choice of Bert; why had Andrew changed his mind about him? She herself would not rely much on him. Too easily led, for instance! Was there anything else that Bert discussed with Andrew? Alice was anxious to know, for if the IRA wouldn't have Bert and Jasper (and, by extension, the rest of them, Alice included), then something else of the kind would certainly make its appearance. They all wanted to be of use, to serve! Alice probed Andrew, but he was either not giving anything away, or was ignorant of Bert and Jasper's alternative ideas. Alice probed Bert, but it seemed he was waiting for Jasper to "formulate a commitment appropriate to our resources." Again Alice was thinking, "So much for easy impressions!" - the impression in this case, and she knew that many people thought this way, being that Jasper was Bert's hanger-on, his disciple.

Jasper had several times mentioned Muriel, and this could have given Alice a clue, if her dislike of Muriel did not always rise promptly in her, preventing her from hearing what she might have done. Muriel, Jasper had said, was leaving 45. She was going to begin work. "Real work," he had emphasised, with a proud, but discreet smile, inviting Alice with his eyes and his manner to un derstand him. But what she had needed to hear from him was that he found Muriel as off-putting as she did: he certainly didn't like her, Alice knew that. "Comrade Andrew has fixed it all up, you know, the training and everything." His respect for Andrew clearly made what he felt about Muriel unimportant.

Alice even tried to find out from Muriel what Jasper's plans might be, but as soon as Muriel heard Jasper's name, she said briskly that in her opinion Andrew was "basically" a sound and useful cadre. This seemed to Alice thoroughly off the point. Was it said, she wondered, because of her - Alice's - occasional doubts over Andrew?

These doubts, hard to pin down, because reason easily disposed of them all, crystallised around the fact that Comrade Andrew too often smelled of drink; she could not bring herself to criticise him for his partiality to the goose-girl, because she had learned so long ago and so thoroughly simply to switch off in this area. People had to have all this sex, she knew that; they had to have it with surprising people and in sometimes surprising ways. Just because Comrade Andrew was... what he was, did that mean he had taken a vow of celibacy? No! All the same... Bottles of whisky and vodka stood on the mantelpiece of his room, often replaced.

There was another girl, Caroline, who, it appeared, lived at 45, though she was not much seen. Alice would have liked to talk to her, for she felt drawn to her in some kind of kinship; but Caroline did not feel this, it seemed. At any rate, she remained aloof. She was a short, rather plump woman - or girl, for she was in her early twenties - dark, not unattractive, who gave the impression of smiling a lot. Perhaps it was this easy smile that drew Alice, although her eyes, never off guard, were like hard little brown buttons. Yet the general impression was of good nature, wanting to please. Caroline, said the goose-girl crisply, was not prepared to follow Comrade Andrew's prescriptions for becoming a really useful cadre, but had (Muriel thought, and therefore Andrew must think) tendencies towards liberal idealism.

Caroline had a friend called Jocelin who visited number 45, and who it seemed might even decide to live there. She, unlike Caro- line, was off-putting. A stocky, even heavy woman, with straight blond hair that was parted in the middle and otherwise unregulated, she padded about with firm, deliberate steps, not looking much at anyone, not smiling easily as Caroline did, only nodding indifferently when Alice caught a glimpse of her through a door or coming efficiently through the hall.

There were also a couple of young men who lived in 45, who had not actually been seen by Alice. The goose-girl said that Andrew was "working on them" - apparently with success. They were from the North of England, working-class, unemployed - but, it was thought, only temporarily. These four - Caroline, Jocelin, Paul, and Edward - refused to attend the CCU Congress, but would come to the party afterwards, on Saturday night. There would be, in short, a good many observers around that weekend; and, as far as Alice was concerned, why not?