Latchford · Meet the driver

Crimson Crush

At the wheel: Dalia Okafor

Volvo XC40

There are other ways to stand firm

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Dalia Okafor has moved a whole room sideways to make space for a late arrival. She gets much less comfortable when someone offers to shift their chair for her.

One chair on its side

Dalia and her friend Mel were laying out the first evening class at the old mill office. There should have been one chair loose in the corner if somebody else came. Dalia made that chair disappear twice: once by putting it in the row and once by volunteering to stand. Mel said there was already enough room, if Dalia would stop insisting the same person had to give up a seat. The argument continued while a man came in with a cello, took one look at them and rested it in the empty place between their feet.

Dalia had started the evening program after years of taking register for a teacher who hated that part of the job. She likes the moment when someone arrives with the item they were too embarrassed to carry through the door last week. Mel teaches three courses and can tell how a room is going to work from which way the coat hooks face. Dalia thinks they'd argue less if he were wrong more often.

How far the Volvo needs to go

She came to the shared track with the Volvo XC40 after the evening class used a rented hall in Nightjar City. The car had just spent a month with its rear seats lowered, bringing boxes of course supplies back and forth. It took her time to remember what the car felt like with its whole weight belonging to itself. The XC40 will follow a clean arc if she commits before the bank starts. When the space narrows she still puts it too far from the edge for a neat exit.

Once, working on the entry with Ruth, she moved her own cone out of the practice bay so Ruth could see a full width of daylight beyond the Volvo 240. Now there is a dent in the side of that cone from a bench leg where Dalia put it down. Ruth offered her the slot back and she was already on her way to do something else.

“You can leave your cello there. He and I will finish deciding whose way it's in.”

Dalia Okafor · Welcoming a musician to class.

The queue progresses without her

At the shared gear table, a newcomer was being asked to move a perfectly good little hatchback to make space for something bigger. Dalia offered the bigger crew her mat, then reclaimed enough of it that both cars still fit. The newcomer thanked her. Mel, who had come to watch, asked why the person at the next table had been allowed to keep a whole empty chair for bags. Dalia nearly said that nobody had asked. Once she'd noticed it she couldn't stop looking at the bags.

That afternoon she carried a half-empty crate down to The Enforcer. Ellis helped her rearrange the practice list so people could find time and space without asking someone else to yield every time. Her first draft didn't contain her own name. Ellis set the draft aside while they waited for her to discover that herself.

A number on a folding chair

Dalia has written her name on a shared booking and means to do an early run when the sightline is good. Mel has offered to come and hold her bag. She has asked him instead to sit where he can tell whether the XC40 is leaving too much space on the left. There is no chair there yet.

For the next class she and Mel tried spreading the room out sideways. The cello case could sit open, a late arrival could take any of two seats, and Dalia could sit down to make the register easier to read. She took the seat closest to the door. Mel noticed that part and left it alone.

“I'd like a real turn with the cone where I put it. You can tell me if it's wrong afterward.”

Dalia Okafor · Booking a practice with Mel watching.

Mic at the pits

Set a chair down

Mack Got a seat for me?

Dalia Okafor That one's mine. I've tried giving it away three times. If you want to sit, we'll move the table sideways again.

Mack Don't tempt me, Dalia.

Meet the voice behind the microphone