Die Tryin' (26 page)

Nick Black turned his head to the side to see Nick XR2 just sitting there, a neutral expression on his face. He wondered when he was going to tell Tony to calm down, when he was going to rein his leash in.

‘I’ll tell you what. You go back to your black bitch,’ Tony said. ‘And you fuck her, and you better make sure you enjoy it, cos if I ever see her again, I’m gonna do it for you, whether you like it or not!’

Nick Black jumped to his feet, and stared at Tony with hate in his eyes.

Tony leapt up, stepped back, and spread his arms out wide. ‘Oh look! She’s grown a pair of bollocks! Come on then hard man, show me what you got!’

Nick Black took in a deep breath. ‘You touch her, Tone…’ he said and pointed at his chest, suddenly not giving a shit if the thing inside Tony was out to play.

‘What?’ Tony replied, a nasty grin on his face. ‘You’ll what?’

Nick Black nodded, and smiled ruefully. He knew deep down he could do nothing. ‘Just don’t speak about her that way,’ he said. ‘You don’t know her and she’s done nothing to you.’

‘Bitch has turned my friend against me,’ Tony replied. ‘That’s what she’s done.’

‘I’m not against you, Tone. You’re fighting against yourself.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

Nick Black shook his head. ‘Nothing. I gotta go.’ He turned to face Nick XR2. ‘I’ll see you later, Nick.’

Nick XR2 smiled thinly and raised his hand. ‘Go on,’ he said. ‘Go.’ Then to Tony: ‘Let him go, Tone.’

Nick Black turned to leave and almost walked into Tony’s huge chest. Tony stood his ground, staring down at him. Nick Black took in a deep breath, and then walked round him, his head lowered, that nagging feeling of weakness not leaving him alone. When he made it past Tony, he almost walked into Charlie, who had just arrived back from wherever he was.

‘What’s going on?’ Charlie asked, a wide-eyed, paranoid look stamped on his face.

Nick Black hadn’t seen him for a few weeks and noted how gaunt and wan he looked; his hair overgrown and wild; his stubble thick. And he knew in that instant something was up with Charlie, something not good. Marco suddenly sprang into his mind, and it made him feel even worse than Tony did right then.

‘How you doing, Charlie?’ Nick Black asked tentatively.

‘I’m okay, Nick,’ he said, and glanced at the carpet.

‘I just popped in to see what’s happening with you all,’ Nick Black informed him. ‘I’m leaving now.’

Charlie’s head twitched. ‘Okay. I’ll see you.’ Nick Black glanced back to see Nick XR2 sitting at the table like some kind of Don Corleone, his henchman, Darth Tony, standing next to him, staring down at Nick Black, his arms crossed over his chest.

Nick Black turned back to Charlie. ‘Yeah, I’ll see you, Charlie,’ he replied and walked away, feeling Tony’s stare burning into his back like a laser.

The short journey to the exit felt like some kind of walk of shame.
Or was it the walk away from a former life? From the people that he used to know?

At that precise moment he couldn’t answer. He would need a little time.

When he made it to the front door of the pub, he took in a deep breath, and walked back outside, not taking a single look back.

*****

‘Fucking Mavro,’ Tony spat as he took another huge swig of Stella. It was his eighth of the day, well past his point of no return.

‘See him?’ Tony asked, continuing with his rant on Nick Black. ‘Comes in here, gets his drugs, then fucks off without even having a drink with us.’ He slurred his words, waving his pint glass on the air as he spoke, Stella spilling out of the sides and onto the carpeted floor.

‘You just don’t like his girlfriend,’ Charlie stated, sipping on the same pint of Guinness he was drinking over an hour ago.

Tony spun round to face him, almost falling off his stool in the process. ‘Don’t talk to me about that bitch!’ he blurted. ‘She’s the one who fucked him up!’

‘Don’t see what either of ’em’s done wrong,’ Charlie continued, and to Nick XR2’s mind it was like he actually wanted to die there and then.

‘You what?’ Tony asked and became perfectly still, his blank, glazed eyes studying Charlie hard.

‘So what if she’s black?’ Charlie asked, knowing what Tony’s real problem with her was. ‘What difference does it make?’

‘Are you fucking me around or what, Charlie?’ Tony retorted, Charlie coming out
Sharlie
.

‘No,’ Charlie replied flatly. ‘Black, white, Greek, Mongolian, what difference does it make? People are people, Tone.’

Tony sighed, and it came out as a long, hard grunt. ‘Listen, prick. You don’t bring ’em to your mate’s sister’s wedding, showing ’em off like a new car. You don’t marry ’em, and have half-breed kids with ’em. You stick to your own, breed with your own, Charlie.’

‘That’s bullshit, Tone. Anyone can have babies with anyone in my book,’ Charlie stated.

‘Yeah? Well, you’re a fucking lowlife as well.’

‘You knew he liked black women from a long time ago anyway, so why are you so surprised when he hooks up with one?’

‘Yeah, if you’re just gonna fuck ’em it’s all right, but not serious. That shit’s forbidden. Now, sort it out Charlie, before I smash this pint glass round your head!’ Tony then turned back to face Nick XR2. ‘Ain’t I right, Nick?’

Nick puffed his cheeks and swung his head from side to side, weighing up the argument in his mind. ‘I agree with Tony in the sense that we should keep the blood pure,’ he then said sombrely.

Tony began grinning.
‘Heey
!’
he cheered. ‘That’s my man! You see, Charlie? This is a man that always talks sense; a man with integrity. You should listen to him.’

Charlie ignored Tony and spoke straight to Nick.
‘Pure? Us?’
he exclaimed. ‘Do you even know your history? Since when are Greek Cypriots pure? The Egyptians; the Persians; the Romans; the Franks; the Ottomans; the English, and now the Turks, have all invaded. What do you think they did? Kept themselves to themselves? Nah, man. They raped, they pillaged, kidnapped our women. Your great great
yiayias
were probably raised in some Turkish harem! And we,
we,
are the descendants of all that. And look at us!’

Tony stared at him with sallow drunken eyes, swaying from side to side on his stool. ‘What’s wrong with us?’ he asked. ‘And what’s a Frank?’

‘When I say ‘pure,’ Nick began. ‘I mean going back the last few generations. If you went back far enough in any race, you’ll find that they’re all descendants of invaders.’

‘Are you trying to say that I’ve got Turkish blood in me?’ Tony asked angrily. ‘You take that back, Charlie!’ he said and pointed his finger at him. ‘I ain’t got no dog in me!’ He then lifted up his FCUK shirtsleeve to reveal his tattoo of Cyprus. ‘You see this? This is us, Charlie. No blacks; no Turks. Only Greeks!’

Charlie shook his head and sipped more of his pint.
‘Patriotism and racism, a winning combo,’
he muttered.

‘What?’ Tony asked.

‘Nothing!’ Charlie replied.

‘Anyway, back to Nick Mavro,’ Nick said, cutting his hand across the air to try and defuse their argument. ‘He has been spending less and less time with us, and that’s something that bothers Tony as well as me, especially after what we’ve been through together.’

‘Well, to be honest with you,’ Charlie began. ‘As much as I love you both, if I had a woman I’d probably want to spend more time with her than you as well.’

‘In that case, if you had a bird I’d fucking chin her!’ Tony said all aggressive, leaning into Charlie—who didn’t flinch, but instead just shook his head.

‘Why does everything have to be about violence with you?’ he asked. ‘Why do you have to solve everything with violence?’

‘Ha! You’re one to talk,’ Tony replied, pointing his finger again.

Alarm bells suddenly began ringing in Nick’s mind. He reached out and touched Tony’s forearm in an attempt to stop him from saying something he may later regret.

‘What do you mean?’ Charlie enquired.

‘You
saying I solve everything with violence. We know what you—’

Lonely
by Akon began blaring out of Tony’s phone, cutting him short. His head twitched down towards it, and Nick knew why—that particular ring tone was set for whenever Maria rang him. And when Maria phoned, Tony stopped whatever it was he was doing to answer her call. Nick honestly believed that if Tony was in the middle of making love to the most beautiful woman on the planet and
that
ring tone played out, he would jump straight off her and run, not walk, but run to the phone and answer it.

Luckily for them, Maria couldn’t have timed it better. Nick was sure Tony was about to say something to Charlie about Taki. They had to keep what they thought Charlie might have done that night to themselves, or Charlie would probably disappear out of their sight, and who knew when he would return and in what state of mind.

‘Maria?’ Tony said, the phone pressed up against his ear, an index finger plugging the other one so he didn’t miss a word.

‘Why are you crying?’ he then asked, and Nick and Charlie glanced uneasily at each other. ‘I’m not angry, Maria,’ Tony said. ‘I said I’m not fucking angry!…
Sorry for what?
What are you sorry about?… I’m in the pub… Okay, I’ll be there soon. Just stay there and I’m coming.’ He then ended the call and stood up, draining the remainder of his pint.

‘What happened, Tone?’ Nick asked in a concerned voice.

Tony took a second to answer while he polished off his drink. ‘I don’t know,’ he said and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. ‘But she sounded bad. She’s at my mum’s, can you take me there?’

Nick XR2 nodded. ‘No problem.’

*****

They got round to Tony’s mum’s in no time, all three of them eager and anxious to find out what was wrong with Maria. Tony rushed up to the house like a man who was late to the hospital for the birth of his first child.

He opened up the front door and burst inside. ‘Maria!’ he shouted.

His mum came juddering out of the front room, tears in her eyes.

Tony went and grabbed her by the forearms. ‘What’s happened mum?’ he asked, his voice laced with both concern and anxiety in equal measure.

‘Bastard!’ his mum spat in reply, and for a split second, Tony thought she was saying it to him. But when she said it again, and kept repeating it over and over like a stuttering CD, tears streaming down her face, he quickly realised that she was talking about someone else.

‘Just calm down, mum,’ Tony said, interrupting her ‘bastard’ chorus. ‘Where’s Maria?’ he then asked, giving her a slight shake.

His mum’s pupils dilated as she finally focused in on her son; it was as if she just now recognised he was standing in front of her. ‘In there,’ she said, cocking her head to the side.

Tony glanced back at Nick and Charlie who had entered the house and stood by the front door watching on like a couple of lemons. Charlie felt like they should be waiting outside; family was family, and domestics should always be kept inside the family. But, when Tony told them to follow him in, he felt like he had permission to enter.

They both followed Tony into the front room, and past his mum, who just stood there wiping tears from her eyes.

Something bad must have happened,
thought Charlie.

And when they entered the front room, his fears were confirmed.

Maria sat on the edge of the sofa, a tissue in her hand. They startled her when they entered, and her head flinched up in their direction. The first thing they noticed was her one puffed up eye like she had an allergic reaction to a bee sting, or severe hay fever. It shouted at them like an angry drill sergeant. Tony—being the experienced fist fighter that he was— knew right away what had caused it. It was the result of a punch, there was no doubt in his mind. The sight of it sobered him up instantly like a water dunking. He jumped over to where she sat and knelt down on the floor beside her.

Once Tony cleared the way and Charlie could now get a good look at her eye, his jaw dropped. He stared at her in shock and awe, wondering how something so beautiful could be turned so ugly by the hand of another human being. He couldn’t help but question how bitter someone had to be to destroy such a thing of beauty.

He watched Tony reach up and delicately touch her eye. She winced and looked away. ‘Who done this to you?’ Tony asked in a neutral voice.

Nick and Charlie both expected to see Tony trash the room; smash the television; break the table in two; rip the curtains to shreds, but he seemed unbelievably calm. It was surreal, almost unnerving.

‘Who done this to you?’ Tony repeated in that same flat, patient voice.

Maria wiped her nose as a fresh stream of tears leaked from her eyes.
‘Mario,’
she replied, and began crying again.

Tony looked back at Charlie and Nick. Nick shook his head in disgust; Charlie nodded his in complete understanding.

‘Why-
why
did he do it?’ Tony calmly asked, rubbing his forehead at the same time. Maria didn’t answer. Instead, she continued to cry. ‘Why did he fucking do it!’ Tony then snapped, and suddenly the Tony who Charlie and Nick expected to be around was peeking out from under the covers.

‘Easy, Tone,’ Nick said. ‘Give her a chance to speak.’ Tony looked away, then back at Maria. He reached out and took her hand. He pulled it towards his lips and kissed it. Maria watched him with that horrible puffy eye.

‘Why did he do it?’ Tony whispered to her.

‘I don’t know,’ she replied, wiping her delicate nose.

‘Did you say anything to piss him off?’

‘No. I…
don’t know
. He came home… drunk, and he was angry… He…’ she trailed off.

‘He what?’

‘He’s not the person I married, Tony!’
She cried out, and it seemed to kick start her as she then started speaking with more fluency. ‘Once we got married, he changed. Almost straight away. Being aggressive, talking to me like I’m nothing but a piece of shit. He’s…
moody.’

‘Probably thinks he owns you now that you’re married,’ Nick said. ‘Now his violent streak is coming out for you to see.’

‘Prick doesn’t deserve you,’ Charlie added, just as Tony and Maria’s mum came back into the room.