31 Hours

Kieran Knowles

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781786822819
• eBook ISBN: 9781786822826
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

John, Doug, Ste, and Neil work on the railways. They won't sell you a ticket and they don't drive a train. What happens when you have to clean up the worst day of someone else's life? Every 31 hours someone takes their own life on the railways in the U.K rail network. It is ten times more likely to be a man. 31 Hours is the story of four men who are employed to clean up after rail suicides. It is the story of four men at work. Four men at home. Four men dealing with their own lives. Their own problems. Dealing with them in their own way. On their own. Silently. It is a story of four men failing to talk. 31 Hours starts with Neil being taken on for the job. The four main characters play the members of the Network Rail 'specialist cleaning branch', trying to grasp they suicide scenes they see, but also swap into other roles, telling the stories of men who have killed themselves through depression, family breakdown and post-traumatic stress. Filled with humour and humanity, it is a high-speed kaleidoscopic journey through masculinity, mental health and messy aftermaths in modern Britain.

Train noise builds to a crescendo.

Lights up the four stand in high visibility orange, with blue helmets equipped with head torches, they are inspecting the aftermath of a rail suicide.

It’s a Tuesday morning.

Despite its initial appearance, this is not a typical job.

Silence for a long time.

JOHN: Fucking hell.

Another long pause.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

STE: “Alright Neil, thanks for coming today, my name is Carl I am the Cleaning Operations Manager, If you get the job, you’ll report to me, this is Catherine who works in HR.”

JOHN: “Hi.”

NEIL: Hello.

STE: “Neil, just to let you know the questions we ask today are standard and were put together by our HR team, they’re fairly simple and aren’t designed to catch you out.”

NEIL: Ok.

STE: “Neil, do you have any questions before we begin?”

NEIL: Err – No.

STE: “Great. Catherine?”

JOHN: “Hi Neil. Nice easy one to start off, what can you tell us about Network Rail?”

DOUG: We work for Network Rail’s specialist cleaning branch.

STE: It is our job to attend accidents.

JOHN: Incidents.

STE: Incidents sorry.

DOUG: We are usually the first on site.

STE: Well, sometimes we get there after the police.

JOHN: But we do tend to be amongst the first to…you know.

DOUG: Get our hands dirty.

JOHN: “Anything to add Neil?”

NEIL: No, that’s about it.

STE: “Right… Ok, thank you for that…”

NEIL: Oh yeh. Shit. You own all the rail, whatsit. Tracks and buildings and stuff.

STE: “Infrastructure”

NEIL: Yeh, sorry, yeh…forgot to mention that.

STE: “Yep.”

NEIL: Sorry, didn’t mean to swear.

JOHN: “So Neil, why are you applying for this position?”

DOUG: It’s our job to facilitate the transport police.

STE: So that they are able to ascertain identity.

JOHN: And stupid as it sounds, cause of death.

STE: Which is usually being hit bloody hard by a train.

DOUG: It’s obviously upsetting at times.

STE: But you can’t let it get to you.

JOHN: “Sorry Neil, I didn’t catch that.”

NEIL: I said I don’t know.

JOHN: “You don’t know?”

NEIL: I can’t think.

JOHN: “Alright.”

DOUG: People underestimate the speed –

JOHN: Definitely.

STE: And the size.

JOHN: Yeh.

DOUG: Of the trains.

JOHN: Normally you see a them from a platform –

STE: But –

DOUG: When you’re at ground level –

JOHN: It can be towering above you.

DOUG: Twelve feet. Lots of power.

STE: Bodies explode.

JOHN: And blood is a chemical waste.

DOUG: So it’s our job to get it cleared up.

NEIL: I mean, I didn’t get fired, but I just wanted to leave because the environment was… I saw this on the website and I thought…it was a good opportunity to…it seemed like I would – could, it was like it seemed like I would be good at it.

JOHN: “Thank you Neil.”

D...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Chapters