Rugs

The Mizzenwood Times has recently revealed evidence of a planning
scandal involving a local politician and a woman called Jane
Day-Jennings. In 1964, Jane's father, Harvey, started making a model of
Mizzenwood in his attic. It took him four years to complete it, but he
always tried to keep up with any changes in the town, so he continued
working on it until his death in 1988. Jane inherited the house and the
model in the attic. Her father had asked her to continue his work on
the model, so she tried to keep up with the changes too, but she never
shared his enthusiasm. To make it more interesting for herself, she
added in small figures representing people, and she started making up
stories about the people in the town. It was like a soap opera and a
game of chess in one, as she manoeuvred people into imaginary
situations. She liked to think that the model had an influence over
people's lives, like a voodoo doll, but she didn't really believe it
worked.


A woman called Fay moved into a house on the street where
Jane lived, and Jane thought it would be good if Fay had an affair with
the man in the video shop. As she was looking at the model in the
attic, she had a packet of Fruit Pastilles with her. She took one out
and said to it, "From now on, your name is Fay." She put the Fruit
Pastille outside the video shop in the model.


The following week, Jane was buying a newspaper in the shop
and Fay was ahead of her at the counter. Fay asked for a packet of
Fruit Pastilles, and Jane couldn't help thinking that she was at least
partly responsible for this, that the model really was having an
influence over people's lives. She thought of all the affairs she must
have started over the years, and she rushed home to start a few
more.

She used to spend hours every day in the attic, moving people around
the model. And its use wasn't limited to starting affairs. She added in
a conservatory to her sister's house, and her sister's husband suddenly
decided that it might be a good idea to build a conservatory after
all.


One day a local politician came to visit Jane - Councillor
Hughie Appleton. He said that he'd heard about the model from a friend
of her sister, and he was wondering if she'd do him a little favour. A
couple had asked for his help in getting planning permission for a
house and he promised them he'd sort it out. When he heard about Jane's
model, he thought it could be used to influence the planning process.
Jane said that she didn't know how the model could be used to get
planning permission, but he had already thought of that. He took a
little green house out of his pocket - he got it from a Monopoly game -
and he wanted to put it on the model in a place just outside the town.
Jane said that was fine, as long as they didn't mind having a green
house.


They got the planning permission for the house. After this
success, Hughie often used the model to influence the planning process,
and it nearly always worked. It only failed once, and Jane blamed that
on a mouse taking a house from the model.


When Hughie came to see her one evening, he told her that
he'd promised to help someone get planning permission again, but it was
something slightly bigger than a house this time. He had a red hotel
from the Monopoly game, and a little flag to represent a golf course.
He said that he'd been offered a substantial payment in return for his
help in securing the planning permission, and he promised Jane fifty
percent of that payment if they were successful.


They put the hotel and the flag on the table with the model,
but Jane wasn't as confident in its effectiveness as Hughie was. A
mouse really had taken a house from the model on the only occasion when
they failed to get planning permission before, but it wasn't the house
they were trying to get permission for. There was a lot of money at
stake, and she tried to think of other ways to influence the planning
process, just to make sure. One method stood out in her mind -
rugs.


There was a time when her sister never wanted to do anything
but stand outside and smoke, or sit on the sofa and smoke, but then one
day they were visiting a relative's house and in front of the fire
there was a rug with an image of a man fishing. When Jane's sister saw
this she had a sudden desire to go fishing. Jane noticed the effect of
the rug, and she bought a rug depicting a woman working in the garden,
and as soon as her sister saw it she went out to cut the
grass.


Jane joined a rug-making class. She made rugs depicting
people doing household jobs, like washing the dishes or doing the
Hoovering, and they all had an effect on her sister. She'd only do
something if she saw it on a rug. Jane suspected that she only took up
smoking after seeing it on a rug, so she made one with an image of
someone putting on a nicotine patch. She had it mounted on a wooden
frame and she hung it on the wall over the fireplace. Her sister had
her last cigarette an hour after seeing that rug.


So Jane decided to use this method to influence the vote on
planning permission for the hotel and golf course. Her rugs had become
famous in Mizzenwood, and she offered to make one for the Council
Chamber. Her offer was accepted, and she started work on it
straightaway.
Hughie also had something to occupy his mind in the weeks before the
vote. He somehow got the idea that Mary Poppins is a snooker player,
but then when he saw the film 'Mary Poppins' he wondered how she
managed to get a major film out of playing snooker. Some players might
do ads or appear in 'A Question of Sport'. Some might even do
pantomime, but how did Mary Poppins manage to get a film, and a musical
film too?


He couldn't stop thinking about this. When the World Snooker
Championships were on TV, he'd stare at the screen for hours every day.
He had a vague idea that there was some subtle reason why a snooker
player should play the part of a nanny in a musical, but he couldn't
put his finger on what exactly it was. And then when the World
Championships finished he stared at his kids' nanny, Carol, for hours
every day, but he still couldn't find that link between snooker and a
nanny in a musical.


When his Party colleagues came to the house, they'd stare at
the nanny too. He'd explain to them about Mary Poppins and the snooker,
but they'd be too busy staring at Carol to pay any attention. Hughie's
wife wasn't too happy with the staring, or with his explanation of the
staring. She wasn't happy when Carol dyed her hair red either, and she
was angry with Hughie because he said he liked it.


Jane's rug was hung on the wall of the Council Chamber on the
day before the meeting in which they'd vote on the hotel and golf
course. Hughie saw it for the first time during the meeting. It was a
triptych. The left panel depicted a woman looking at a model of the
development, and considering it carefully. The woman in the rug was
Jane's sister - she posed for it by looking at the model of the town in
the attic. She has red hair, and Jane couldn't make the colour look
natural in the rug. It looked as if it was dyed red, and this reminded
Hughie of Carol. He wondered why his kids' nanny would be in the rug,
and then he noticed what she was doing. The model of the town in the
attic was on a table that's covered in green baize, and this was shown
in Jane's rug. As far as Hughie could make out, Carol was bending over
a green table with different coloured objects on it. That could only be
a snooker table. She must have been carefully considering a shot, maybe
trying to get out of a difficult snooker.


The centre panel showed that same woman with her hand in the
air. This was supposed to represent someone voting in favour of the
development after carefully considering the plans, but Hughie saw it as
Carol celebrating after winning the World Championships. The right
panel showed the woman with the red hair playing golf. He wondered if
that was how snooker players spent their spare time, or maybe she was
just relaxing after her win.


Hughie only realised how long he'd been staring at the rug
when the meeting ended. Planning permission for the development had
been rejected, but Hughie's vote wouldn't have made any difference. All
of his Party colleagues had been staring at the rug too. Officially,
they abstained. Hughie said that he was suspicious of the developers
anyway, and Jane blamed the mice again.