Bill watched the television, remote in hand as the update bar crept across the screen, 87%, 92%, almost there and with a flicker the picture appeared. He pressed a few buttons, ran up and down the channels to make sure everything was working and turned to his daughter. ‘There you go Nora, you’re in the 21st century now. That’s the TV up and running.’
A coaxial cable ran across the floor from the back room to the front where the television stood. ‘You’ll need to push this through the hole in the wall by the bookshelves but you’ll have to wait until your flatmate moves his furniture. Can you manage that?’ Yes, she nodded. ‘OK then, so where are you with your broadband?’
‘I’ve rang the company a couple of times but they just say everything is working at their end and ‘have you tried all the phone points?’ I’ve been round the house and tried them all but it’s still not working.’
‘So where’s your main phone connection?’ he said. ‘It’s here, under the stairs,’ and Nora lead her father out of the room and pointed to it on the wall. Bill followed the wire away from the socket and over the banister to the small window in the hall. ‘But the wire is cut.’ he said holding the wires between his fingers, ‘No wonder it doesn’t work.’
The front door was open and Vicki drew on a cigarette as she stood on the step. She leaned back to blow the smoke over her head. ‘What’s this wire here?’
‘Which wire Mam? Everyone stepped outside to have a look. A black wire ran over the door jam and along the wall. Bill traced its path around the corner of the house and up the wall to a small bracket with ceramic fittings. From there it stretched across the road, a twisted copper pair in a black sheath connecting the house to a wooden telegraph pole. ‘That sure looks like a telephone wire to me, but it goes into the house on the other side of the door.’
The penny dropped and his daughter turned her head quickly towards him, eyes wide open and her mouth forming a grin. The pair of them rushed into the house, into the lounge and to the corner of the room closest to the front door. Vicky remained outside. She knocked the ash from her cigarette with a flick of her wrist and smiled, satisfied at her intuition and observance. They pulled the furniture away from the wall and there it was – the missing phone point.
‘Quick, quick!’ Nora screamed, ‘The router is upstairs in Assam’s room.’ She ran upstairs, two at a time and dashed back down with the broadband router in her now shaking hand. ‘Can you plug this in Dad while I grab my laptop, please?’ she managed to plead in all the excitement. Bill bent down to power up the router and slot the connection into the wall-mounted phone point. By this time his daughter had thrown herself onto the sofa, gasping to recover her breath. The lights flashed on the router, stuttering and stammering and after a minute or so a steady green light could be seen. The laptop registered that networks were available and Nora bashed the password that was written on top of the router into the dialogue box.
There was a moment of absolute silence. The whole world had seemed to stop, holding its breath in anticipation. And then came the realisation. Nora raised her hands in the air, threw her head back and shouted in sheer delight ‘Mam, you’re an absolute genius, we’re connected to the internet!’
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 