THE PAST AND FUTURE

She said something through the access points of the gate was locked between us in Ashley Road and the land behind Westmoreland House and the Carriage Works.
‘You belong to the cabin?’ said the man wearing a green fluorescent jacket and white hardhat she’d spoken to.
‘No,’ I said. ‘What are you doing in there?’
‘We’re doing an archaeological investigation of the site before any work begins.’
‘Oh yeh?’
A thin string of saliva, stretched between the upper lower lips in the centre of his mouth, opening and closing. I couldn’t stop looking at it, repelled by it, wondering if it would break, or what he might say if I mentioned it.
‘During the civil war the Royalists tried getting in to Bristol through here and we’ve found some trenches dug back there.’
‘Trenches?’
‘Defensive trenches. They’d dig a trench and make a ridge with the earth they’d dug out. They were backfilled after the war. Finding them’s going to hold up work for a while.’
‘Any chance of having a look?’
‘Not at the moment,’ he said. ‘It’d be a health and safety issue, the regs, you know?’
‘Oh, right.’
‘I broke them myself. I’ve just been up the Escher stairs they call them, in the tower...’
‘...I know the ones you mean I can see them from where I live...’
‘...didn’t go all the way up though, they get a bit narrow the higher ones.’
‘You know what’s going to happen here?’
‘They’re inside of the building’s going but the front’s going to stay. I think Kuumba’s going to have a theatre here or something and there’s going to be a Council housing project.’
I pointed to a book lying front cover face up on the ground near where he stood and asked him what it was.