Book 1: Plainspeak

Open questions

What the story still owes an answer to. A closed one was answered, or set aside by what came after.

Boxes hear whoever stands under themopen

Standing on a neighbour's step puts your meaning out of their box in your own voice, so range belongs to the door, not the speaker.

Completed streetsopen

The office pays the collection money only when all forty doors on Farrow Row have signed and returned; partial returns are logged and unpaid.

Dasu as the street's answeropen

Gordie has named Dasu down the logged line as the one Farrow Row goes to, as she once named the widow at number nine, and she has not yet been told.

Dasu's pay in the floatopen

Dasu's last Register pay is written in the shop book under her name and in Neil's rent book as part payment, and Nell owes her no thanks by Dasu's own order.

Dasu's vanopen

An installer who signs a working box faulty is struck off and her van's units go to whoever the office sends next; Dasu has refused to sign, and the box's voice said Winnie would let her lose the van sooner than put the fuse back.

Fridayopen

Neil will come back on Friday for the rent book and whatever money Nell has by then.

Friday teaopen

Dasu is to sit in Winnie's front room on Friday with plain biscuits whether the box is lit or not.

Gordie's loveopen

The row has heard that Gordie's 'love' is a tool for getting the backs hung, and every 'love' he says now is heard that way.

How Plainspeak worksopen

A grey box listens to a speaker's voice and says the meaning underneath aloud in that person's own voice, half a second behind.

Marthaopen

The woman on the office phone gave the one name, Martha, in Leeds, and Dasu says she was kinder than she was allowed to be.

Martha's word refusedopen

Martha's pencilled refused stands on the board and in her own name on the log beside Gordie's naming of Dasu, and the office is waiting on her report to close.

Neil's envelope on the sillopen

Neil's typed, unsealed brown envelope sits unopened on Nell's back-room sill under her soap tin, handed over from the gate, so Neil's notice is delivered but its contents and Nell's answer are still unread.

Neil's heropen

Neil's broadcast meaning mentioned someone at home he did not want to face empty-handed, and he refused to name her.

Nell's broadcast wish for the back boxopen

The box said in Nell's voice that she wants the last box lit so Neil goes and she has one less face to owe, and Winnie, Gordie and Neil all heard it before she signed.

Nell's commission is publicopen

Nell's box said aloud that she takes half the door money, and the street heard it, so every door she knocks knows she is paid to knock.

Nell's name on the formsopen

Every one of the forty consent forms has a printed collector box on the back carrying Nell's name and the launderette address, typed before Neil ever offered her the work.

Notice to quitopen

Neil will bring Nell written notice on Friday: out of the launderette by the end of the month unless she produces the full three months in cash.

Perry's refusalopen

One flat refusal on Farrow Row means no collection money for anybody, and the street now knows it.

Perry's tobacco tinopen

He carries a flat tin with a soft-edged picture card of a sea captain in the lid, handled for years.

Perry's unspoken halfopen

Perry has said he let noon pass alone, but Walter says there is another half, what he would have shouted up the hull, still unsaid to Dasu.

Stepping out of rangeopen

Perry has shown the street that moving back indoors out from under a box keeps your meaning your own.

The altered box is refusedopen

Martha says biro over a printed collector name goes in a drawer and she cannot change it from the pavement, so Winnie's written name buys nothing.

The altered collector boxopen

Winnie's name is in the box in biro over Nell's struck-out printed name, and nobody knows yet whether the office will pay it, bin it or log it unpaid.

The back-room unitopen

Gordie Pask has the ladder and a boxed unit at the launderette's back door under a bolted bracket, and Nell is about to sign or refuse the docket's back-room line with Neil listening from the flags.

The boxes are still up in Leedsopen

Dasu saw the Leeds units still bolted and lit in March, long after the nine days ended.

The captain cardopen

Perry has handed Nell the picture card from his tobacco tin to mind, and will want it back or not.

The collection money is Nell's aloneopen

The office pays the collection money to the name printed in the collector box, not to the landlord, so Neil's offer of half was never his to make.

The consent formsopen

The trial needs one signed tenant consent form per door and is short of them; Nell has been offered her arrears cleared for hers.

The extension clauseopen

The consent form binds a tenant for the length of the trial or any extension of it, and nobody on the street knows how long that is.

The extension letters on Farrow Rowopen

Every door got the same letter thanking them for continued participation and saying the trial is extended, with no end date given.

The fitting of the backsopen

Dasu brought the ladder and units to the ginnel, then put them back in her van and says nothing goes up on any back door until Winnie says so.

The forgingopen

Nell's box told the street she wanted the forms so she could write the neighbours' names in herself, and Perry said he would watch from his window all night.

The landlord's figureopen

Perry said the landlord may carry a quarter of Maries as the figure and not one word more; whether the office takes that as yes or no is unanswered.

The Leeds letteropen

On the tenth day every door in Leeds got a letter saying the trial had been extended, with no end date given.

The number is deadopen

The office number rang flat on Nell's second attempt, as though the handset had been left off at the far end.

The office clerkopen

A young man in a grey office coat with a clipboard arrived in an office van, saw Nell tear the Collector's letter unsigned, and is waiting for noon.

The postbox at the bendopen

The altered form is written and unposted, and nobody has yet put anything into the office's hands by post.

The representative's visitopen

The office says the collection fee will not be posted but handed over on the street in person by a representative, with no date given.

The shop bookopen

Nell's book on the counter now carries a dated line for the float owed to the launderette, written as Winnie said, and Neil's shortfall under it in Nell's name, and Perry means to check it every morning.

The shortfallopen

The fee did not cover the three months; Neil entered it as part payment and the Friday notice still stands.

The survey sheetopen

Every installer fills a sheet with three questions, the last asking who the street goes to, and the office turns that answer into a printed collector name.

The unnamed calleropen

She answers the number, says to call it the office, refuses to discuss the extension term, and cut the line when her own voice was broadcast.

The widow at number nineopen

She was the Leeds collector because Dasu named her, took the half share, and was the only name on the paper when the street turned on day ten.

The widow's dogopen

The Leeds collector ended with nothing but her dog, according to Dasu.

What happened in Leedsopen

An earlier trial street loved the device for nine days, and what came after that is unsaid.

Who signed for the boxesopen

Every landlord on Farrow Row signed for the units without telling their tenants, and nobody knows who approached them.

Winnie was written to as a signatoryopen

The office letter treats Winnie as a participant although she tore her signed form in half in front of the street.

Winnie's front box chimeopen

Winnie pushed the fuse back in with her own thumb, Perry watching, but the box has stayed dark and nobody can yet say if it is faulty or only slow.

Winnie's front roomopen

Winnie has left her front room exactly as it was when her husband died and will not be honest inside it.

Winnie's reprinted formopen

The office enclosed a fresh consent form with Winnie's name and door number already printed on it, as though her torn one had merely been mislaid.

Winnie's signature on the frontopen

The reprinted form now carries Nell's name in the collector box but Winnie's door is still unsigned, and Winnie will decide in the morning.

Writing instead of speakingopen

Leeds learned the boxes only hear voices and went silent, passing notes on pencils tied by the door; Perry likes the idea.

Dasu's fitting sheetclosed

Dasu laid the folded fitting sheet on the counter as Winnie's, and Winnie holds it unread, saying she will read it at her own table.

Dasu's silenceclosed

Dasu came to the kerb when the woman arrived and said nothing at all.

Martha's signatureclosed

Dasu recognised the signature on Nell's letter as the same name on every Leeds letter, which ties the voice on the dead phone to the woman who ran that street.

Nell's collector letterclosed

A separate letter addressed to Nell by name with Collector typed under it lies unopened on the launderette mat.

Nell's rentclosed

Her landlord arrives with the rent book while the box above her door is already live.

Question three, unansweredclosed

Martha has asked Gordie aloud whose street Farrow Row is and he has not answered, and she may carry his silence to the office as a refusal.

The blank third lineclosed

Martha has offered Nell a fee paid on the spot, in the open, to whoever writes a street name on question three of the survey sheet.

The bundle on Perry's stepclosed

The unsigned forms and Nell's rent book are sitting weighted on Perry's doorstep until somebody moves them.

The bundle on Perry's tableclosed

The forty unsigned consent forms are now indoors at the house of the one man who refuses to sign.

The dry clickclosed

Winnie's dark front box gave one dry click after the handover and stayed dark; Gordie called it a unit thinking about it and kept his thumb on his phone pouch.

The empty floatclosed

Nell has no change for the machines and no money in the drawer for the next day's trade.

The extension letterclosed

Neil has already rung the office about an extension letter, which means letters exist before they reach Farrow Row's doors.

The fee in Nell's fistclosed

Nell holds cash paid for naming her own street, with Neil at her elbow and her forty-way promise said aloud under a live box.

The form back in Nell's handsclosed

Winnie has offered to return the altered form so Nell can write her own name back in the collector box, or keep it and let nobody be paid.

The forty-way promiseclosed

Nell has said aloud under her box that the collection money will be counted out on the pavement in forty equal shares, refusers included.

The pencilled refusalclosed

Martha has written Winnie's answer in her own pencil on the back of the office notice, unsigned, and says she will tell the office the box was refused with Dasu listening.

The re-entered arrearsclosed

Neil has the rent book open and the pen uncapped to undo Nell's PAID unless she produces collection money or cash.

The rung-in lineclosed

Gordie will ring Winnie's dark box in from the box at the bend in the morning, and the office may order it swapped onto the inside of her door frame.

The second paymentclosed

Neil is paid again when signed consent forms are handed in, and has offered Nell half to collect them door to door.

The ten minutes indoorsclosed

The woman from the office has offered Nell ten minutes out of range and promised to say the rest of it in the street afterwards.

Whose money is the forty waysclosed

Winnie has pointed out that Nell's promise to split the money forty ways never said where the money came from.

Winnie's demand for the collector boxclosed

Winnie wants Nell's printed name struck out and her own written into the collector box on the reprinted form.

People

Dasunight 2

She put her own coins beside Perry's tin, held the bag for his quarter of Maries, and told him she would not make him say it twice.

Gordie Pasknight 26

Gordie says he named Dasu because she is who the street always goes to, claims he only said what he saw, and will wire only what Nell signs.

Marthanight 15

Gave her surname, Hale, down the logged line and took the word refused as her own judgement, then heard the office read back Gordie's naming of Dasu.

Neilnight 10

Neil stands on the one flagstone past the bolt he has worked out is outside the box's range, refuses to cross the sill, and will put down whatever is said as said.

Nellnight 1

Nell holds the pencil an inch above the back-room line, having taken Neil's envelope from the gate and refused to sign until Gordie answers Winnie.

Nell's landlordnight 2

Named Neil in the world, he held Hebble's door open without entering, asked for a yes or no on the last door, and was left outside with no answer, promising to carry only the figure.

Perrynight 6

He said aloud to Dasu in the shop that he let noon pass and signed nothing by his own doing alone, and bought a quarter of Maries; none of it was recorded by a box.

The installernight 1

A woman around fifty in a hi-vis vest over a cardigan who hangs the units and tells people the truth about them first.

Walternight 10

At Perry's shoulder he pressed him to say the other half to Dasu, the part he would have sent up the hull, and then stop listening for him.

Winnienight 4

Winnie stands in the back-room doorway with a coal-dusted hand on the frame, demanding Gordie say why he named Dasu before Nell signs, and says Dasu will sit at her table as a guest, not as anyone's answer.

Places

What each looks like, where it is, and what it makes people do.

Farrow Rownight 1

Dasu's old van now stands at the kerb under Gordie Pask's keys, and backs fitting starts at the bend tomorrow at nine.

Looks likeTwo rows of terraced fronts curving to a bend, a grey box lit over nearly every door, vans nosed up at the kerb by the launderette.

Hebble's corner shopnight 29

The lit box over its door is dead on a cut cable, and a fist-sized hole in the back wall behind the counter now lets in daylight and drifting plaster over the brass weights.

Looks likeSmall corner shop with a biscuit tin and brass-weight scale on the counter, plaster dust on the weights, a hole through the back wall and a cut cable hanging

WhereStands at the far end of Farrow Row from the bend, opposite end to Nell's launderette and the kiosk.

Its rulesBiscuits sold loose by weight; buying Maries is read as owning a wrong; the counter is now out of any box's range.

Nell's launderettenight 1

Dasu's hi-vis vest hangs on a hook by the till with her name pinned to it, owed till Friday, and the shop book lies shut beside the torn letter.

Looks likeNarrow shop on the bend, a row of cold front-loaders, a scuffed counter with the shop book open, steam-yellowed notices and a lit grey box over the door.

The Bend Kiosknight 28

The office rings back into it and asks for people by name, and Gordie named Dasu from inside it.

Looks likeA coin kiosk at the bend with a shelf for coins and a receiver, the one place on the row with no box over it.

WhereStands at the bend of Farrow Row a few doors past Nell's launderette, beside the postbox.

Its rulesOne person inside; coins are short; the office logs every line by time, can ring back to demand a voice, and nothing said can be crossed out.

Winnie's front roomnight 24

A new grey unit is now bolted inside her front door frame over the old pale square, its face looking across the room at the pipe rack.

Looks likeLow ceiling, faded brocade settee and two armchairs, a pipe rack on the mantel, gold-rimmed cups behind glass, a coal fire banked low.

Its rulesWhoever stands in the front room is now in range of a box.

Institutions

The things in the world that act and have no face: what each is for, and what it does to people.

The Fault Linenight 27

The printed footer on an installer's docket: a front unit logged dark by tenant is replaced first and refitted on the inside of the door frame.

ForTo leave no front unit on a trial street dark without a replacement or a rung-in line.

What it does to peopleOnce a man has seen a thing, he cannot cross it out; nothing moves on the street until the dark one is settled.

Who knows it from insideGordie Pask carries its phone; Martha's office receives what it logs; Dasu once rang it from Leeds.

The Installers' Registernight 25

The office's list of approved installers, from which Dasu is struck off at noon unless the street's Collector countersigns Winnie's box faulty.

ForTo have every unit on a trial street either working or signed for as faulty by a named hand.

What it does to peopleAn installer who will not certify is struck off and her van's units go to whoever is sent next; a Collector's countersignature can save her.

Who knows it from insideMartha signs its letters; Dasu is on it until noon; the widow's street in Leeds was refitted from it.