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<h1>2</h1>
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<p>Friday night and Mac’s Bar was all noise and laughing. The juke box competed with MTV and the karaoke was setting up.
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A couple of kids were over at the bandit, thumbing
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coins and staring at the flashing lights, going for the full epileptic. The joint would be juddering by
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midnight. </p>
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<p>"Who said this place was dead?" Jed straightened up from the pool table to watch two slender blonde girls doing the
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dance they must have been practising in their bedrooms, metronome perfect. Behind the bar it was all bustle and
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hustle, Frank and the girls weaving their own dance in the tight space; in front of it, three deep in the shallows,
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getting to six near the door. </p>
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<p>"Of all da gin joints in all the towns in all the woild, they has ta walk into mine." Neil did GBH to old Bogey..</p>
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<p>"They see you and walk back out again, fast."</p>
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<p>They were up at the held territory of the far corner, squeezed in by the press of new arrivals, close to ten at night
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and it was still warm. Here in the confined space, the moving of bodies added another ten degrees. The heatwave had
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stretched to three weeks and while the puddles of the summer deluge had finally drained and dried to cracked china,
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it was still lush, getting to the hot and sticky stage that's still a rarity in these parts, even with the global
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warming coming on apace. </p>
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<p>Jed had trails of sweat rambling down his cheeks. Neil took a shot, potted and ended up right on line to make another
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drop.</p>
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<p> "Fat man, you shoot a great game of pool." They were a good double act.</p>
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<p>Neil started to laugh just as he was about to take the pot and he sliced the white. It skittered away without
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doing any damage.</p>
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<p> "Cheating rat, you put me off." He turned and held the queue up in both hands. "You don't understand! I could've had
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class. I coulda been a <em>contender</em>. I coulda <em>been</em> somebody, instead of a bum which is what I am."
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</p>
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<p>"Exactly."</p>
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<p>"Yeah, but for a pint, who said it?"</p>
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<p>"Marlon Apocalypse Captain Kurtz Brando. On Da Watafront."</p>
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<p> "Every one a winner. You get the pint." Neil called the barman. "You want another, Jack? Put a smile on your torn
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face?"</p>
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<p>They'd been hunched at the bar, waiting for the pool table to free up, and Jack hadn't been his usual self. Friday
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night was fun night, always had been, but Jack Lorne had a deep side to him that sometimes showed through to make up
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for the mischief. You never could tell just when it would.</p>
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<p>"The town's dead on its feet," Jack was saying. "This is just the nerves jumping. You watch, rigor mortis will set in
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quick as a blink."</p>
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<p>"You're nothing but a pessimist." Jed always got optimistic on Smirnoff Ice. "If it's just the nerves, this place is
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jumping pretty good. Alive and kicking."</p>
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<p>"Pessimist? <em>You're </em>facing ninety days notice. The dairy is about to fold. Donny and Neil are just waiting
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for the axe."</p>
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<p>It was Friday night and he knew he should have shrugged it off, followed the Friday night current and just gone for
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the fun, but it was hard to get the chuckle engine started tonight. Donny had got out of casualty strapped up and
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stiff and nobody believed he had fallen down a flight of stairs, but there was no way he'd finger Ferguson or his
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team of pit-bulls. You just wouldn't win, because it was two of them against three, and then Ferguson would start
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leaning on people. He threw a bit of tonnage in this town and you could walk down River Street and get a sore face
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and cracked ribs from a stranger anytime he said so. Most of the hurt was bruising and some internal stuff that was
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healing slow and sore and every time Jack thought about it he got a hot clench in the middle of his belly while his
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nails dug hard into the palms of his hands and he knew it was just impotence. There was nothing he could do, and
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that was the worst of it. The story of their lives.</p>
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<p>He kept picturing Donny, red hair matted and blood dripping to the grass, turning round in that stupid little circle
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on his hands and knees and moaning like a dying bullock. God, that had been scary. He closed his eyes and flicked
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the picture away. Donny had managed to get to his feet and the pupil of one eye was shrunk down to a pinhole. He had
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started gurgling up the blood he'd swallowed and half of it went over Jack's tee shirt. It had taken them twenty
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minutes to get round to Jed's and a miraculous eight minutes of crazy driving in that souped up little stock-car to
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get to casualty. Jed could wheel it like nobody's business. The doc said Donny was dead lucky he still had his
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kidneys and any brains left, but it didn't seem lucky to either of them. The nurse gave him a jab and rubbed alcohol
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on the dirt and then the young houseman had started in with the needlepoint where they'd shaved the hair. He made a
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good job of it. </p>
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<p>Jack was on ice cold Guinness, taking it slow. It had been a long day and it was taking him a while to shake it
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off.</p>
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<p>"I'll get another job no bother," Jed was saying. "Everybody needs drivers." </p>
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<p>"I sincerely hope do. That means you can start buying drink."</p>
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<p>Tam pushed his way through the crowd and shoehorned into the corner. He had slicked his hair back behind his big red
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ears that glowed with the heat they picked up during the day. Neil was leaking, carrying a couple of stones more
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than a heatwave made comfortable.</p>
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<p>"What's happening?" Tam was up for mischief.</p>
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<p>"Couple of parties ongoing, or we could cut about River Street. The town's one big Mardi Gras tonight, wall-to-wall
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women. Some of them not too sore on the eyeball."</p>
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<p>Jed looked at Jack. "Told you, didn't I?"</p>
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<p>"You just don't know when you're down and out."</p>
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<p> "You okay Jake?" Tam was holding out a ten-spot for the next round and one of the girls behind the bar was volleying
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verbals with him. </p>
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<p>"Sure. Just tired. Got to get my second wind. "</p>
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<p>"You'll be glad to get a lie-in these mornings," Tam said and as soon as he did he realised that might not have been
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the diplomatic thing. </p>
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<p>"Sure, sleep it off. It's time I checked out Australia House. The outback's got to be better than this."</p>
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<p> "Come on you guys," Neil said, barrelling in against them. "It's Friday night and we've got the whole weekend ahead.
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I mean like, hol'on, consarnit, golly-darnit. I'll be a horn-swaggeled bushwackin' side-windin' saddled horn...
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rivvid, ravvid, ravvid...You going to the party?"</p>
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<p>"Maybe," Jack said. "I told Robert we'd show up sometime."</p>
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<p>"You Jed? You coming with the boys or going for a leg under with her indoors. Mrs Round the Block Many Times?"</p>
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<p>Jed aimed hard fingers at Neil's belly, dug in and squeezed hard. Neil yelped.</p>
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<p>"She's not been around. She's a previously enjoyed companion. Who will be enjoyed some more, given half a
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chance."</p>
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<p>"And you're not a sex machine, you're just hormonally automated."</p>
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<p>Jed laughed. Everybody knew he would peel away some time late on and head up to Margery Burns' place for a night on
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the springs. </p>
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<p>"Come on Jed," Tam wanted to know. "Is it the grey hair or what?"</p>
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<p>"None of your business. Do I ask you about the chicks you shag?"</p>
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<p>"All the time!"</p>
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<p>"What chicks?" Neil pumped his fist. "He only knows Pamela. Gets by with a little help from his friends."</p>
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<p>"That's very true," the bar girl agreed, and that broke the mood for Jack. They all cracked up again and handed over
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their empty glasses to start on the next round. </p>
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<p>"Listen," Jed said. "Don't knock it until you try it. Tell you one thing, she's taught me plenty. Swear to god, even
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the neighbours need a smoke afterwards."</p>
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<p>They all fell about.</p>
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<p>"Has she got a daughter?" Jack asked.</p>
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<p>Somebody called for order and Frank the barman bulled round through the crowd and slung an arm round one of the
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dancing girls and the karaoke started with his Friday night version of Meatloaf getting up to naughty by the
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dashboard light. The noise cranked up until it drowned MTV. </p>
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<p>Over by the door a small commotion started and none of them noticed until Donny eased his way in beside them, his
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normally red face a whiter shade of grey. He let out an involuntary grunt when an inadvertent elbow brushed against
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his ribs. Jack could see him grinding his teeth. </p>
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<p>"Jesus, Don. What are you doing out?"</p>
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<p>Donny had taken the bandage off his head and sometime between the golfing disaster and tonight he'd managed to shave
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the rest of his hair down to stubble. His scalp was just as white as his face, and the stitches just to the left of
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his crown looked like a patch of spiky thorns. </p>
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<p>Somebody got one of the stools and shoved it under his backside. Tam shouted up another lager. </p>
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<p>"Stay in on a Friday night? Goes against my religion."</p>
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<p>"You should have stayed in your <em>bed </em>Don. Look at the state of you. You're having a right bad head day."</p>
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<p>He shook it, regretted it. "My ma keeps asking me what happened. She's driving me up the wall. I'm scared I'll crack
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and tell her Ferguson's going to pull the plug on Aunty Jean. And then she'll call the cops and the shit will hit.
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Anyway, I need help, you guys. I haven't had a stiffy for days. It's got me worried."</p>
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<p>"What do you expect? You've just had your ribs caved in, got concussed, and nearly lost a kidney. You have to give
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yourself time to heal."</p>
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<p>"But I wake up hard every morning," Donny said. "What if that's me for life? I mean, I'm only twenty four."</p>
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<p>"And that's six years past your prime. It's all downhill from here on."</p>
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<p>"It's not funny. You know where I can get viagra?"</p>
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<p>"Stick to lager. It'll do you better."</p>
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<p>Over in the other corner, a tableful of girls from the Starlight stage group were out on the town, up on their feet
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murdering Gloria Gaynor, all of them promising that they would survive, though half of them didn't look as if they'd
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see the night out still awake or still standing. One of them was blowing kisses at Jack and he blew one back just
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for the hell of it. </p>
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<p>"Does Kate know you're out?" Jack's sister Linda was amongst the crowd.</p>
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<p>"Kiss my ass, little mother."</p>
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<p>Linda had her arm around Neil's sister Joanne and another girl called Donna Bryce who worked with them in the
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hairdressers. All of them were ready for the karaoke to do the number they'd been practising for the past five
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weeks. The kiss blower pushed her way across.</p>
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<p> "Jack Lorne. Haven't seen you in years. Here, give us a real kiss."</p>
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<p>There was no preamble. She just lunged at him and there was nothing he could do. All the other girls started hooting
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and he held up two fingers to them all. </p>
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<p>"Put him down," Linda ordered. "I know where he's been."</p>
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<p> "Look at that girl go," Neil broke in. "She's eating him alive."</p>
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<p>"That should cheer up his miserable face," Tam said agreeably. </p>
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<p>Jack finally managed to break away. He wiped a hand over his mouth to clear the lipstick. </p>
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<p>"Are you going to Clare Jamieson's party?" the girl asked. </p>
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<p>"Sure," he said. </p>
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<p>"See you there," she said with drink, hope and promise chasing each other in her eyes, gave him a squeeze and went
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back to the group. </p>
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<p>"So we're going to Robert's, for definite," Jack said. "She'll cook my rabbits."</p>
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<p>Neil got to the mike and gathered up Linda and Donna Bryce and Joanne, who sang the doo-wah backing vocals in the
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Starlight show. Neil had a terrific baritone voice that he loved to show off and as soon as the music kicked in,
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they were belting out one of the stage numbers, all in close harmony, making the walls shudder.</p>
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<p>Tam called Frank over and the boys chipped in the kitty money for their party drink. Frank filled two big plastic
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bags and they were just about to leave for Robert's place when there was another commotion at the far door as a new
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group of people pushed their way in. In a crowded bar, you can always tell when the atmosphere changes. It's
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something in the tone of the noise that just alters and gets the nerves on full alert. Even the air seems to turn
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brittle. Jack felt it and looked up. </p>
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<p>Over at the microphone, Neil broke off the song and the girls backing stumbled to a fade.</p>
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<p>"They're he-eeeere." He announced in a high girlish voice.</p>
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<p>Jack turned, aware of the change.</p>
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<p>"The boys are back in town," Neil sang right out against the music, looking at Jack but pointing down the far end.
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Jack followed the direction. He stopped still. A man stared right at him down the length of the bar. Frank the
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barman caught the look and did a double take. </p>
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<p>"Dear oh dear oh dear," Jack said. </p>
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<p>"What's up?" Tam turned and saw the man lift a hand. Beside him another man, squat and shaven headed was looking
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around, obviously searching the faces. He had a big plum-coloured bruise right across his cheek and his lips were
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scabbed and raw. </p>
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<p>The first man jabbed a finger straight at Jack. Donny looked up and saw Seggs Cullen first. </p>
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<p>"Aw, holy fuck!"</p>
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<p>"Is that them?" Tam wanted to know. "Jeez Jake, that's Wiggy Foley. He's just got out of Barlinnie jail. He did six
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for armed robbery. Full stretch for bad behaviour."</p>
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<p>He turned to Jack. "You never hit that psycho with a club, did you?"</p>
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<p>Jack nodded, feeling less heroic than he had when his anger was hot and high. They were stuck here right at the end
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of the bar, on the opposite side from the door. </p>
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<p>"You should have made sure that nutter stayed down."</p>
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<p>Down there, somebody shouted in protest. At the corner of the bar, Donna Bryce's boyfriend, a fellow they knew called
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Ed Kane leant in towards them.</p>
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<p>"Do you guys need a hand?" Ed was dark and wiry. He and Tam sometimes kicked about together. It was a good offer
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under the circs.</p>
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<p>"Thanks Ed." Jack said. "Best not get involved. It's a grudge thing."</p>
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<p>"Any time," Ed said. "You give me a shout." Even in the tension of the moment, Jack thought that was a fine thing to
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say.</p>
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<p>"Nick out the back, Jack," Neil was pushing towards them, microphone still in his hand, still keeping a tune. "Make a
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new plan, Tam."</p>
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<p> "Outamaway... !" It was just an angry growl. Wiggy Foley had recognised Jack all right, just as his eyes had
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promised back there on the sunlit field. They could see people push back as the two hard men shouldered their way
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through and the atmosphere suddenly crystallised. </p>
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<p>"Hey what the fu... ?"</p>
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<p>"He spilled my drink... "</p>
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<p>"Watch it you... "</p>
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<p>Tam grabbed Jack by the collar. "That was really clever, <em>Die Hard</em>. Him of all people."</p>
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<p>He pulled Jack back away from the corner. "Grab these bags, quick."</p>
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<p>For once Jack let himself be led. He hoisted the bags, even though logic and survival instinct told him to dump them,
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but it was Friday night, and some instincts are even more deeply rooted. Tam raised a foot against the bar of the
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door that nobody ever used and kicked it in a downward stamp, proving once and for all that the Tae Kwan Do lessons
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had not been all a waste of time. The door punched outwards and cool night air sucked in. </p>
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<p>"Get going." </p>
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<p>"What about Donny?"</p>
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<p>Donny was moving slowly, as if he was encased in plaster and hurting all over, which was probably true. Neil helped
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him out and down the little alley behind the bar. Tam turned and pushed the door closed again. Foley and Cullen were
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halfway to the corner, shoving people out of the way. They could hear the shouts from halfway down the alley. Tam
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kicked again and the door clammed. He swivelled to the left while Jack went to the right, hoisted two aluminium kegs
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and jammed them in against the door. If there was a fire inside, everybody would burn to carbon, but that didn't
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seem likely the way the beer was flowing. Jack grabbed a wooden pallet and pushed it hard against the casks,
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managing to force a corner against the brick wall to hold it in place. As soon as it locked, something hard hit the
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door on the inside and somebody was bawling incoherently and it was perm any one from two. Cullen or Foley. </p>
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<p>"Right let's <em>getty-fuh</em>," Tam said. Jack picked up the remaining bag, trusting that Jed had the other and
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they scooted down the alley towards the river, knowing they only had a minute before the two pit-bulls got
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themselves back through the crowd and out the front door. He was thinking of Donny, who might make two miles an hour
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if he worked hard at it and picked up speed. </p>
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<p>They turned the corner and caught up with them. </p>
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<p>"You come with me," Tam said, taking Donny by the arm. Across the street Tam's Yamaha Dragstar was canted over on its
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strut, shiny in the summer night light. </p>
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<p>"Can you get a leg over it?"</p>
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<p>"I'm like Jed. I'll get a leg over anything."</p>
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<p>Tam helped him on and the other three disappeared round the corner to where Jed had parked the old Skoda shell with
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the big V6 Saab engine under the hood. They jumped in and the engine growled like a beast. </p>
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<p> Jed grinned. "Fasten your seatbelts kids, it's going to be a bumpy ride."
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<em> </em>"Pop-eyed Betty Davis," Neil guessed correctly.</p>
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<p> "If you gentlemen could tear yourselves away from Hollywood quiz night, I really think we should be in transit."</p>
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<p>Round the corner the bike snorted, purred smoothly and Tam and Donny came cruising past them, just as Foley and
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Cullen came barrelling round the corner in pursuit.</p>
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<p>"Watch this thing shift," Jed said. He slipped on his sunglasses, hit the throttle and Jack was thrown right back
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into the seat. They were across the old bridge and gone in five bare seconds</p>
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<p>Robert Wardell might have been an air steward and as camp as a girl guides jamboree, but he was a mate and he never
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threw a bad party. </p>
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<p>The place was heaving when they got there and Robert </p>
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<p> never Bob, or Rab, always Robert </p>
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<p> had as usual, stored away his collection of china from his long haul stopovers, and lifted the zebra skin that he'd
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smuggled from Kenya. He loved a party and hated a mess.</p>
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<p>"Jack, Thomas! Come away in boys. I though you were never turning up."</p>
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<p>Robert was effusive in his welcome. He bought duty free exotic drink on long hauls and his parties just never ran
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out. Nevertheless, it was always bad form here to turn up empty handed. </p>
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<p>"Just dump it anywhere," he insisted, taking the two of them by the arm, knowing he was the only non-female who would
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get away with it. He was a mate. In primary school he'd always held the jackets when the rest of them were tumbling
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in the mud and they'd always taken care of trouble for him when it showed up. </p>
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<p>"Listen. I've brought a couple of friends I want you to meet."</p>
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<p>"If they're like the usual, forget it," Jack said, completely inoffensively. </p>
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<p>"No, not at all. You think I'd waste them on the likes of you phobic barbarians?"</p>
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<p>He raised a hand and beckoned across the room. Tam and Jack looked at each other, taking in Robert's silk hipsters
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that were just a shade too tight and a lot too purple. He was a dead ringer for Rock Hudson in the old Doris Day
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movies and women always wanted to reform him, with remarkably little success. Or none at all.</p>
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<p>"Ilse and Ingrid, come and meet Jack and Thomas."</p>
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<p>He leaned in to Jack. "You don't see too many of these walking down River Street."</p>
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<p>Jack turned. </p>
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||
|
||
<p>She was one of the most stunning women he had ever seen, and the one next to her was nothing less than a blonde
|
||
vision. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"Be still my beating heart," Tam said. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"Be still your hormones," Robert said.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"Hello," Ilse said, holding out a perfect hand. Jack shook it and forgot to let go. She smiled as if this was nothing
|
||
less than expected. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"We're from Sweden," she said, totally unnecessarily. You never got skin and hair and teeth and everything else in
|
||
packages like this anywhere else in the world with the exception of Estonia and that was just a hop-skip away.
|
||
Robert had got the boys a free flight there a couple of years back for a stag night and they all wondered why he
|
||
still swung the funny way. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"And what brings you here?"</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"Robert did. We work with the airline in Stockholm. Our uncle is the captain of a ship here, so we come to see
|
||
him."</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"That's awfully nice. Would you like a drink?"</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"Of course. That's the other reason we are here."</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Ilse took him by the arm and led him towards the kitchen. Ingrid took the other arm and Tam was left standing with
|
||
Robert, making goldfish faces.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"Don't worry," Robert said. "I've some free flights coming up. There's a million just like them where they come from.
|
||
And the boys are world class."</p>
|
||
|
||
<p> Donny was on the leather settee, propped up in a couple of cushions, spinning some yarn about fighting for a girl's
|
||
honour that got more preposterous by the minute, but he had a sympathetic audience and the sympathy vote was better
|
||
than nothing. With his head shaved and stitched and his face swollen out like a fed hamster, it was all he was going
|
||
to get. They kept the drink coming and minded his bruises and he seemed okay. Jack ended up on a double-seater with
|
||
Ingrid on one side and Ilse on the other and a big bottle of Bailey's Irish cream between them. He was drinking
|
||
double handed, alternating Guinness with sips from their liqueur glasses.. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"Poof's drink," Neil said, flicking through the discs, then he remembered where he was. "No offence Robert."</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"None taken, Big Stuff. I got a crate of the stuff in Gibraltar for next to nothing."</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"It's a total rip off," Jack said. "That's nearly fifteen notes a bottle and most of it's milk."</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"But beautiful," Ilse said. Her hair was short and spiky and so fair it was like fibre-optic. The Irish cream left a
|
||
pale rim round her mouth. "We do not taste this in Sweden, you know. Much too much <em>kroner</em>. Too much money."
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"I'll send you some," Jack said. "Just leave your address and phone number."</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"But the customs men, the Duane, you call it? You know what I mean? They catch it and ask for even more money. My
|
||
father, he make his own drink, with sugar and water and blueberry." She screwed her mouth into distaste. "Not nice
|
||
like this."</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"So why can't you buy it?"</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"Too much money. Your whisky, it costs... " She closed her eyes and did a mental conversion. "Fifty of your pounds
|
||
for a litre. All is taxed you know. They say everybody would just be drunk all the winter."</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>A short-dark haired girl came up and gave the two Swedes the measuring eye. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"Is Kate not coming tonight Jack?" she asked him, but directed the question at them. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"Sure. She'll be here."</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"Well you better not let her catch you then."</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>He shrugged, all innocence. "International relations Jeanette. You got to be diplomatic."</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Ilse leaned over him. "Kate? Is this a friend of yours?"</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>He was about to answer when the old Stealers Wheel number came belting out of the surround-a-sound and Neil was up at
|
||
the microphone. His big voice suited his frame. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p><em>"Don't know why I came here tonight, I got the feeling something ain't right."</em></p>
|
||
|
||
<p>He was pointing at Jake as he sang. Tam picked it up and shoved himself in towards the mike. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p><em>"Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right."</em></p>
|
||
|
||
<p>They stuck their fingers straight at Jack.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><em>"Here I am stuck in the middle with you"</em></p>
|
||
|
||
<p>He woke early, too early, with a minor hangover, glad it was Saturday, and that somebody else was filling in on the
|
||
round. He heard the float trundle past, and the rattle and clank of the crates, wondering just how long he'd be
|
||
hearing that noise in the mornings. Outside the thrushes were competing with the blackbirds, belting it out at the
|
||
top of their voices. He always pictured them, like the boys on a Friday night, trying to get the double message
|
||
across. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p><em>Hey you arseholes, stay off my patch... hey you girls, come and get it. </em></p>
|
||
|
||
<p>A lone robin pitched in, off key, high and shrill. It had hung about the garden since winter, feeding on whatever he
|
||
threw out. It took on all comers, no matter the size or species. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>He lay still, letting himself come to, piecing together the remnants of the night after they had run out the back of
|
||
Mac's bar. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>That had been a hairy moment, and just as well Tam had his Yamaha out in the street and not stuck up in his garage,
|
||
otherwise they'd have been caught down the alley trying to get Donny free and clear. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Close. Too close. And all for what? He'd felt a buzz of sudden adrenaline when the two of them had come in and stared
|
||
him right in the eye, but not the way he had when he had a six iron in his hand and Donny was down in the dirt.
|
||
Foley was a crazy horse, just out of the jail, and god knows what he'd been carrying. If they'd got stuck in that
|
||
corner with no way out, there could have been yellow tape round the front door by midnight. Tam had been thinking on
|
||
his feet. He was a good man to have at your back. Now he'd have to stay clear of those psychos for a bit, and not
|
||
for the first time he wished Donny had kept his big mouth well shut. Even as he said it he knew that was the wrong
|
||
way to think.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Why the hell should they sit still for it?</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><em>Jesus.</em> That's what they spent their lives doing; sitting still and taking what they handed out. In school,
|
||
it was Lorne, Watson, Coogan, Bowie, Cleary. Present and correct. Not Jack or Don or Tom or whatever. It was like
|
||
you were there on their sufferance. The big American firms came in and acted like lady bountiful and thought they
|
||
owned the place and then they found some Korean kids could do the work for half the wage and the yanks were gone in
|
||
a puff of smoke, <em>sorry Jock, but business is business</em>. Got to supply the demand. Keep the shareholders
|
||
satisfied.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>He stared at the ceiling, knowing it would be two hours before the house slowly came awake and wondering how he could
|
||
do it on four hours sleep at night. Saturday morning, hung over or not, he still woke at the same time and lay there
|
||
just thinking, chewing over the week, planning the next, solving the problems of the world and resolving nothing at
|
||
all. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>You get through a lot of thoughts from five until seven. More if you wake at four, and sometimes Jack wished he could
|
||
do what Donny did at the weekends, sleep until eleven, back down the pub, up to the match, back into the pub, kill a
|
||
whole Saturday and be as carefree as a kid. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Close horizons, that's what it was. Donny was taking what they handed down. In less than two months he'd be on the
|
||
scrap and with three hundred more chasing every opening. Chances were he'd still be signing on for benefits a year
|
||
from now. Neil was the same, on ninety days notice. Tam was okay, and as long as they were still building houses on
|
||
every vacant space, he'd still be okay, but when the jobs went, the money went and everything slowed down. Supply
|
||
and demand again. It slowed down and Tam could well be looking for homers and weekend casual stuff, fitted kitchens
|
||
and bathrooms on the grip and the lump, no questions, no tax, no national insurance. No future.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>He shook his head, trying to get his mind on to another tack, but at this time in the morning, minds have a mind of
|
||
their own and he couldn't jump the track to a mellower tune. He wondered if he was turning into a depressive.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Andy Kerr had taken him into the office and laid it on the line. He was going round the banks like the last man on a
|
||
Saturday night, when all the girls have put their coats on and the DJ is packing up the lights. The two new
|
||
stainless steel tank-trucks would have been a good investment, except for the fact that the supermarket that sucked
|
||
up most of the dairy products around here had put the squeeze on, and hard. It was a take-it-or leave it deal. Andy
|
||
had to take their price or go out of business. And if he took their price he couldn't make a profit. A lose-lose
|
||
situation all round.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Jack had gone over the books with Andy. There was no way he could keep his head above water. The dairy was on its
|
||
knees and its days were numbered.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Up at four in the morning wasn't much of a job, but it brought in a wage and it would help put Mike through Uni and
|
||
gave him a chance to haul himself up and get his chin over the bar. Up at four and that gave you time in the
|
||
afternoon to hit the books and watch the tapes and in two years time he might get the chance to put on the swanky
|
||
hat and bat-cape and see his mother in a good suit and a tear in her eye when he graduated. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Business. You got nowhere unless you understood business and until you did that you were dancing to somebody else's
|
||
tune. Andy Kerr, he was a grafter, but he only understood the milk trade, that was all, and look where it was
|
||
getting him: right into bankrupt court and receivership unless a miracle happened. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Jack turned over and thumped his pillow into a better shape, thinking about the night before..</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Ingrid had pressed svelte curves up against him he knew every guy in the place had wanted to trade seats with him.
|
||
Ilse had waylaid him in the kitchen with a more than affectionate lingering kiss, while both his hands were occupied
|
||
with two full pints. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p><em>Clowns to the left ... Jokers to the right. </em></p>
|
||
|
||
<p>And a fool in the middle, that was for sure. He closed his eyes and remembered the suction of the kiss and he knew if
|
||
he'd stayed he'd have tried to get the two of them upstairs for a smorgasbord sandwich. And that would have blown
|
||
everything. Kate would not have been amused. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Just as well Lars Hanssen had turned up. Uncle Lars. <em>Jeez. </em>When he'd come in from the front room the place
|
||
had darkened. He was built like a bulldozer and looked like Thor Sledgehammer or whoever the crazy Viking was that
|
||
used to cut people's hearts out in AD 2000 or some other adventure magazine. He had wheat-fair hair like his nieces,
|
||
but long and shaggy and a big thick moustache, and man, could he shift drink. <em> </em>He had brought a couple of
|
||
bottles of Absolut blue label and seemed determined they would never see the light of day. He was half Finnish and
|
||
half Swede and claimed he was half Laplander as well and nobody except Jack knew the distinction. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"<em>Holigen-goligen</em>!" A big clap on the back and another shot was down his throat. He said it meant the same as
|
||
<em>Skol</em> in the Lapp language and at the end of the night everybody was saying it.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"I go back in three weeks when I have a good screw," he told Jack, and the rest of the guys laughed at that until
|
||
Jack explained the screw was the propeller. "It got twisted on the rocks at Harris."</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>It came out <em>tvisted on de rooks at Horace,</em> but everybody knew what he meant and Jed, he got mischievous and
|
||
started looking out old tracks and belting them out, like <em>Tvisting der Noot Avay</em>, and <em>Tvist and
|
||
Shoot</em> and big Uncle Lars never caught on to the fact he was having the piss ripped out of him. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"<em>Anyvay</em>," he said. "I have another three weeks and then back to Oslo first and then Stockholm. I have twenty
|
||
things to take and some pipes and I stay a week and be back on Skye in another week. Never stop, back and here,
|
||
there and back, all the times, until you get dizzy."</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>He lifted up his glass. "But it is nice to visit with my sister's babies, no? They worry all the time about old Uncle
|
||
Lars."</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Ingrid lifted a balloon glass half filled with ice and Irish cream. Lars took it and gulped half of it and then he
|
||
pulled a face. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"What is this? Are you sick?"</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Jack laughed. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"Like medicine it is!"</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Jed laughed louder. "He talks like Yoda. Drunk he is!"</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"Daft you are!"</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"Uncle Yoda, another drink you want?" Everybody fell about. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"Always another drink," he bellowed, treating Jed to a one-armed bear hug that could have cracked ribs. "And what is
|
||
this <em>Yoda</em>?"</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>It all got a bit foggy after that and Jack remembered Jed sneaking off to finish the night and start the morning with
|
||
Margery Burns; helping Donny into a taxi and wondering what would have happened if he'd stayed. Ingrid being sick in
|
||
the back garden and Ilse leaving her to it and slinging her arms around Jack's neck again, all pliant and boneless
|
||
after a night on the Baileys. Uncle Yoda discovering a taste for the stuff after claiming it was a drink for
|
||
girly-boys, followed by an embarrassed silence that was finally broken by Robert's quick camp: "Suits me sir!"</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><em>.... I feel I'm going to fall off my chair.... and I'm wondering how I'll get down the stair..... </em></p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Gerry Rafferty's nasal voice kept coming back to him, as if there was a tape loop stuck in his head, but that's the
|
||
way it had got later on and Uncle Lars had got to the singing stage and in between times he was doing a deal with
|
||
Robert to take some of the Irish Cream home for his <em>vife</em>. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>.... <em>You started off with nothing and you're proud that you're a self-made man... </em></p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Chance would be fine. Self-made milkman. He closed his eyes listening to the robin song merge with the lyrics in his
|
||
head. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Self made? He'd taken too long going about that and now he could be stuck half way through a degree and nothing to
|
||
show and no money either. He knew he should have bit on the bullet when he was just out of school, but his old man
|
||
had only been gone three years and his mother had still been wading through a swamp of grief, struggling to get to
|
||
the other side and able to cope only with that and there had been nothing for it but Jack to take charge. <em>Self
|
||
made</em>. He could be running his own business by now, or half way up some corporate ladder. Everybody had
|
||
expected him to make it. <em>Jeez</em>, he had expected that himself, and here he was, a soon-to-be-out-of-work
|
||
milkman with a special aptitude for hosing out the trail tankers. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Self made? Or self deluded. Over there on his desk he had a rack of books and a second-hand computer that was
|
||
dinosaur slow and he could rhyme off all the theory, Galbraith, Keynes, carried interest, value addition, double
|
||
entry, equity, bonds, the lot. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>And still he was stuck here well below the middle line and the chances of breaking through were further and further
|
||
away. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p><em>Yet.... </em></p>
|
||
|
||
<p>There was something. It had snagged him on the golf course when Donny had been down in the gully, washing the crap
|
||
off his legs and there had been an oddly sweet scent in the air mixing headily with the coconut oil of the gorse
|
||
bloom, and those dead little trout belly up in the stream. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p><em>The angel's share. </em></p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Donny still had the mud stuck to the end of his dick and Tam had been laughing and pointing, but Jack's mind had done
|
||
the usual and shot off on a different tack. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"We're screwed. First they screw you and then they really fuck you."</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Tam turning round, the only one with a safe job and a decent set of wheels, unless you counted Jed's V6 that needed a
|
||
different scrapyard bodyshell every time he and Neil hammered it round the stock circuit. Tam said: "God helps them
|
||
that helps themselves."</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>His grammar had left some to be desired, but that was true. They were all at the mercy, taking what was handed down,
|
||
and Jack knew he'd never get on that corporate ladder because unless you were at the very top, you were still taking
|
||
what they handed down. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p><em>God helps those.... </em>He closed his eyes, chasing the thought, and a picture of the stunning Ingrid came
|
||
suddenly into his mind. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"You come to Sweden," she had said in a flawless accent, and if it had been a year ago he'd have been on the next
|
||
plane. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p>But there was something else she had said that really snagged him. </p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</body>
|
||
</html>
|