remote cards

In a novel I read once there was a guy who wanted to dig an illegal hole in the street without anyone noticing. He stole gear from the council, put cones round it, and no one asked him anything about it. The three guys with the pick up blocking a lane leading to the roundabout, cones round the van, make me think of that plot device. These guys don’t look like anyone you would trust to close a road. One guy stands in the back of the van, where there is a generator sat, and he hands cones down to the guys in the street who are obstructing more of the road. Coming level with the truck you can see that there is already a hole in the road, big and square. The long haired guy stands staring at traffic, the straggly length of his hair catching in the gusts of wind. Hard hat on his head, yellow vest over his work clothes, he strokes his moustache. They don’t seem to be the most involved of workies, he steps back, forgetting about the great big hole they’ve dug and he stumbles, one foot disappearing, before he manages to catch himself. Standing astride one corner of the hole he gathers himself, steps to one side, grabs a cone, and moves it to cover the edge he just fell over as though that was his intent the whole time.