One Day

Saturday 15 July 1989. From Wolverhampton, Emma writes to Dexter in Rome about how she has been working at the Sledgehammer Theatre Co-operative for the past four months. She’s currently in a children’s play about how slavery is bad. One of her co-workers, Sid, used to be on a police procedural TV show and seems annoyed about having to go back to theater, while her other co-worker Candy seems to expect her big break to come any day. Another actor, Kwame, is gets so into his role that he cries a lot in real life. Emma realizes that one of the problems of a democratic theater collective is that people like Sid and Candy (whose ideas Emma dislikes) get a vote too.

After finishing her letter to Dexter, Emma puts it aside, as Gary Nutkin, the play director and co-founder of Sledgehammer, enters the communal dressing room for a pre-show pep talk. Gary warns them, particularly Sid, not to take the bait if the audience reacts to them. As the actors around her warm up, Emma thinks of all her abandoned pursuits from the previous year, like a failed band and a failed novel. She lived with her parents for a while, who couldn’t understand why someone with such a good degree could struggle to find work.

One of the few bright spots of Emma’s previous year was when she went to visit Dexter in his family’s mansion. She did slightly ruin things, however, by arguing with Dexter’s father about the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and calling him a “fascist.” Still, it was clear Dexter didn’t mind that when they met up again later in London at the birthday party of Callum, a mutual friend. When Dexter went on his long period of travel, mostly to places known as “party towns,” he and Emma became pen pals. Eventually, Emma got a phone call about a job at Sledgehammer from Gary Nutkin, who had once directed her in a play (and had awkward sex with her after the cast party). Emma had no ambition of being an actress but thought the job was better than nothing and might offer some small chance to make a difference.

Meanwhile, on that same July 15, 1989, in Rome, Dexter is trying to teach English pronunciation to Tove Angstrom, who is lying with him on cushions in his room. He’s been working as a teacher at the Percy Shelley International School of English. Tove, a Danish woman, is one of his students. Though this made him briefly consider some ethical questions, ultimately it didn’t stop him from having sex with her. Still, Dexter imagines Emma would judge him for his choice. He tells Tove she has to go because he’s meeting up with his parents soon.

In Wolverhampton, Emma continues her letter to Dexter, saying she’s glad her Sledgehammer job ends in two weeks. After hesitating about how to end the letter, she impulsively writes, “God I miss you, Dex.”

In Rome, Dexter finds his mother, Alison Mayhew, sitting and reading at a café table. Dexter likes both his parents and feels lucky. His father, Stephen Mayhew, is 15 years older than Dexter’s mother, whom he  adores. Dexter’s mother studied fashion at one point but now runs an antique shop. She teases him that he’s late and must have been up to mischief. Dexter doesn’t mention Tove and just says he was working on lessons. Dexter asks about his father and learns that he had to lie down back at the hotel room.

Dexter asks his mother for a match for his cigarette, and she wonders to him whether she went too far in trying to be a lenient parent. She is drunk and asks Dexter about his love life, saying that she has to live vicariously through him now that his sister is married. She knows that Dexter has been writing long letters to someone back home and asks if it’s the same girl who shouted at Dexter’s father about Sandinistas. She says she and Dexter’s father both liked Emma, even if Emma did call Dexter’s father a fascist.

Dexter’s mother says she’s sure Emma likes Dexter. Dexter says that’s his curse—everyone likes him. His mother finishes her wine, then the two of them go walking north. She asks how long Dexter is staying in Rome and what he’ll do next, saying she’ll help him with the deposit on a flat. She asks if Dexter still has any interest in journalism, which he mentioned to her once in passing, though she hoped he’d eventually be able to think of something better later. He did a photography project back when he was 16 and thinks he’d like working as a photographer if he had the chance.

Dexter tells his mother he’s considering photography, and she makes fun of him for often putting his thumb on the camera lens during photos. She makes fun of the old photo project he did, and Dexter says it was just an idea. She says Dexter needs to get out of teaching because it clearly isn’t the right vocation for him. She warns him that he has an easy life now but that one day things might be more difficult for him. She says he needs to find a sense of purpose in life. When Dexter gets uncomfortable, she changes the subject and says she wants to take Dexter out to lunch somewhere expensive tomorrow. She hints that she has something serious to talk about but says she doesn’t want to do it currently while she’s drunk.