Wreckage (23 page)

Course
it’s Tommy’s gaff. Where the fuck
else
would it be? That lad Lenny’s holdin down, he’s done somethin naughty an I don’t envy the poor get. Can’t tell who it is, not with his ed bein held down like that, but it could be Maggie fuckin Thatcher an I still wouldn’t envy the poor get when Tommy gets ahold of em. Bad piecer werk, that Tommy one. Somethin friggin pure
wrong
about that lad, no messin round. Got them
eyes
like … bad, bad man. One bad,
bad
man.

Still, if it’s
his
friggin money I’m not complainin. Big wedge in me shirt pocket like, feels fuckin
boss
in there, it does. Fuckin
top
. Lenny wants me to hurry up, put me foot down like, but in
this
traffic? And
this
bleedin rain?

—Jokin, aren’t yeh, Len?

Big feller doan answer. Just gazes out the window like. Wipers need to go on now cos the rain’s comin down in buckets.

Can smell onions. Onions n tomato sauce an meat. One of em must’ve adder burger before thee got in. Or used it for friggin aftershave cos that’s wharrit smells like. Pure friggin
honks
, lad. One of the weekend whiffs, that burger smell – do a weekend shift an that’s all yeh smell all night, greasy burgers like. Chips as well. An chicken wings. An also sick and piss an even shite on a few occasions, some dirty bastard who’s cacked his kex wantin a lift home. Thee drink
too
much, that’s the problem. Aye we all enjoy a bevy like,
but
some of these young uns … can hardly friggin
stand
, some of em. No lie. Young girls lyin there in the gutters like, showin everythin … not right, lad. Just not fuckin right.

So, yeh, we all need perks, don’t we? Bein a fuckin mobster’s cabbie has its perks, like, an this big friggin wedge in me pocket is one of em. Buy Charlene somethin nice, me first granddaughter, like.
Ice Age
, she
loves
that film.
Loves
it, she does. Al nip into that Toys R Us place on the way home an buy her the DVD. Pure
loves
that film, ar Charlene. Bit partial to it meself, must admit. Makes me laugh. Big kid I am oh aye, the missus –

Shoutin from the back. Lenny’s ignorin it, still holdin the lad down, still just gazin out the winda. Funny feller, that Lenny. Big, gentle feller like, speaks all soft, would never in a million friggin
years
guess that he worked for Tommy Maguire. Or Joey, rather; I mean, Joey’s the brains, the bossman like, Tommy’s just the cold psycho who puts the fear of shite into people. Friggin loves doin it, n all. Bad, bad man, that, tellin yiz. Friggin
hate
it whenever I’ve got him in the back, like – just this yowge friggin menace behind me. Like drivin around with an open friggin
fridge
in me cab, knowmean?

One mad friggin job, this, tellin yeh.
Mad
friggin job. Been at it over thirty years an it gets no easier, in fact it gets
werse
– all the nutters in this city now. Only last year I gave a lift to a girl terned out to be a fuckin merdra. Merdered her friggin boyfriend, like. Strangled the poor sod. Gave her a lift home from the pub like, on the dock road, shouldna done cos I’d
been
drinkin, but, y’know, pretty young gerl seemed upset about somethin carn have her walkin the city onner own at three in the friggin mornin, so I gives her a lift like an at the lights down Catherine Street she jumps out the cab an legs it into the church. Terned out that she later went home an tied her boyfriend to the friggin bed an choked the poor get to death. Friggin pervert, like. Shockin. Just goes to show yeh, dunnit? I mean who’d a thought it, eh? Pretty young gerl like tha …

Shook me up a bit, that did. No messin round. Fair got me goin a bit, that did, when I read about it in thee
Echo
… I mean, what’s happenin ere? What’s happenin to people?

This friggin traffic, lad. Gunner take owers to get to Tommy’s gaff at this bleedin rate. An me belly’s rumblin n all; the smell from the back is makin me hungry for a berger. Big berger with double fries an a Coke. Can’t, tho; doctor’s sworn me off. Dicky ticker. Gorrer stick to salads an boiled fish – salads an boiled fish! Fuck
that
, lad. Gunner gerra big bagger chips an some gravy, I mean they’re only friggin
spuds
. Carn go wrong with friggin
spuds
, can yeh?

Group a scallies blockin the road. Pissed up by the looks. It’s like that film: ‘Some day a
real
rain will come an wash all the scum off the streets.’You
know
it, lad. Fuckin
love
that film, me. No messin. Might treat
meself
to a DVD n all, there’s enough cash in me pocket to buy moren one.
Ice Age
n
Taxi Driver
, sound. Wither big bagger chips. Or a pizza, even; there’s
vegetables
on a pizza. Healthy, like, innit?

FRANKIE MAGUIRE

Best thing I ever did, lar. Best thing I ever did bar
none
. Wake up every mornin in the sunshine with the parrots squawkin on me seven acres an I think: You’ve fuckin well
made
it, Frankie lad. You’ve fuckin
made
it, son. No more drizzle, no more bizzies on me case, this is the fuckin life. It’s made.
You’re
made. This is pure happiness. Oh fuck yeh.

No regrets. Not one. Doan even miss me brudders, an thee probly don’t miss me, either; the postcards I send em probly get binned unread. But I couldn’t give two fucks, man; the parrots squawk somewhere on me seven acres an the sun always shines an I am Top fuckin Man. No regrets. Not one.

JOEY MAGUIRE

When Joseph Ferdia Maguire was eight years old he saw an angel. He was feverish and bed-bound after being pushed in the canal and swallowing water three days earlier by a bigger boy who laughed and threw stones at him as he floundered and yelled and who then ran away, and among his sweat-soaked sheets and the stink of vomit from the bedside bowl Joey had also seen gigantic spiders on the ceiling and zebras hiding in the curtains, but when he was eight years old and seriously ill Joseph Ferdia Maguire also saw an angel at the side of his bed. It was white and tall with a thin face. It cloaked him all cool with its wings and put a cool hand on his forehead and Joseph felt the sickness being sucked out of him into that hand.
He
was special, the angel said in a voice that sounded only in Joey’s head, clear among the clagginess and the buzzing, a deep voice of no determinate gender. Special, and he was being saved for great things.

The fever lifted early the following morning and Joey ate Ricicles and toast and jam for his breakfast. By mid-afternoon he was playing football in the garden with his father Shem and his uncle Dusty. Doctor Muttu came round and declared himself amazed, said Joey must be especially strong to come so quickly out of such a sickness but that he must not exert himself for a week or so just in case. And that he must drink plenty of liquids. And to eat only soup.

That night, before he went to bed, Joey went in to check on his little baby brother, Thomas. He was lying on his back in the cot like a big blancmange and Joey peered at him through the bars and knew instinctively that something was wrong, that a baby’s face should not be purple like that, and he also knew (but
how
was a mystery) to reach gently into the soft and toothless mouth and tweak the tongue and pull it up and away from the back of the throat and this he did. The whoosh of breath then into that tiny mouth was very loud, very deep. He watched through the bars as his baby brother’s face faded from the colour of plums to the colour of strawberry ice cream and then vanilla ice cream and then he went to bed and slept soundly and dreamed that a kindly thin-faced man with wings held him and flew him over the estate, down into people’s gardens, across their moon-blued roofs. It was a reward, the thin-faced man said. A prize for being good. Transvection, although that was a word which Joey did not know.

Joey forgot that dream the next day, as the business of tracking down the boy who pushed him into the canal and making that boy eat dog poo as punishment occupied his thoughts. The angelic visitation, if that is what it was, simply became one blurred moment of his fever and he quickly forgot the incident as he also quickly forgot the delirious episode itself. Now, he does not recall ever being seriously ill as a boy, and indeed all he knows of his childhood is that he had one and that it was unique, that something happened in it to make it unique. There was no thin-faced gentleman, no life-saving gesture, no ecstatic soaring. But it was unique. It was unlike all others. And he
did
find the boy; and he
did
make him eat dogshit. Down on his skinned knees on the park grass, sobbing, vomiting as he lapped.

ALASTAIR

Don’t like this, lar, no way … not really for me this but
fuck
knows av gorra do it … we’ve
all
gorra do it sometimes, like … in this werld … y’know … just gorra be done sometimes, man, no two ways about it … just gorra be done …

Now I must be violent.

Cos I mean if I don’t then it’ll friggin happen to
me
, like … fuckin Darren or Tommy or one of
them
… cos if I don’t, if I
don’t
then –

No. Cos they’re not fuckin gunner
catch
me, are thee? Am not gunner be here. An gunner be
where
am a gunner be

in
that
place.

That post office in that village what was it called the name of it what was it

erm

Cilcain
.

That’s
where am gunner be.

Cilcain
.

But am never gunner get there am I not unless I get friggin violent … pure
gorra
get that dough back, man … an if I avter get fuckin violent to gerrit back then so be fuckin
it
… just gorra be done …

But not
too
… erm … not
too
…

… erm

don’t wanner waste him like or anythin Jeez no … he’s just a friggin kid … just little fuckin babyscals, the two of em … just wanner scare em really … just make em, y’know … what’s the werd … the werd is

Jesus … fuck … sometimes I get so confused … always have been since that time in the Copperas Hill sty when the fuckin bizzies … so many times thee booted me, like … never been the same since … can’t … things I can’t fuckin do like in me
ed
it goes all cloudy this way …

But yeh – violence.
That’s
what’s gorra happen now. Some kind of violence, like.

Just to scare them. Just to get that money back.

First tho av gorra get some kip … pure fuckin knackered me, like … no lie … get back to me nan’s an avver smoke an a birruver kip … maybe gerra birra scran as well … pick up a bagger chips or summin … or somethin … yeh, somethin …

Lights comin on. Moon comin out. When I was a
kid
me nan bought me oner them things, them things that dangle above yer cot like, that hang from the ceiling … forgotten what they’re called … a model of the sky, like, all the stars an the moon … I used to always be tryna catch that moon … it had a face drawn on it … a smiley face … like a smiley god or somethin it was hangin there above me an I was always reachin up for that smiley moon … that model moon … I thought it was God … burrit was just a

that modellin agency, oh aye yeh … they’ll all be leavin there at this time, all them sexy berds like,
that’s
the way I’ll go home … back to me nan’s, like … see them all comin out at this time them dead sexy women … see them … on Duke Street, like … that modellin place … opposite thee Anglican … looks nice at night-time all lit up, thee Anglican does … aye but them models … thee all come out at this timer night … there’s

there’s
one
… friggin arse on her, lar … just perfect like … God in them tight kex … there’s

there’s

im

there’s oner them fuckers

can’t believe it man little fuckin thievin gobshite sittin there on that bench

bastard he made these marks on me face an I need that money I
need
that fuckin

now I must be VIOLENT

FREDDY

Oh yeh fuckin buy
you
, gerl. Fuckin buy
you
now oh
aye
you’ll fuckin
cream
when yeh see the brewsters
I’ve
got stashed, oh aye you an a thousand friggin others includin that Madeleine O’Shea, oh yeh yer all gunner
cream
when yiz see what Freddy lad’s got stashed away can buy yiz fuckin anythin can buy
you

Look at me I’m wearin Diesel

Wearin fuckin
Diesel
I am oh aye

yer all gunner

all gunner

fuck it’s
im

It’s
im

ARGH GERROFF ME GERROFF ME I WANT ME MAM I’VE DONE FUCK ALL GERROFF ME LAD AL GET ME BRUDDER FUCK OFF FUCK OFF GERROFF I’VE

MAM MAM MAM MAM MAAAAAMM

HELP ME SOMEONE HELP ME

DARREN’S VICTIMS: NUMBER 23 (COUNTING ALASTAIR AS ONE)

All I wanted to do was watch the fuckin film. No fuckin
need
for that, man, no fuckin
need
… all’s I wanted to do was toot a little rock an watch me favourite friggin movie like, an now look now look I

—Mmmm. It’s too deep for glue. Sometimes we can simply glue these clean cuts together but not if they’re as deep as this. Has to be suture, I’m afraid.

Me mouth works.
Tries
to: —Wiw … wiw urr ve …

—Don’t talk, you’ll make it worse. It’s very deep.

His fingers are in my cheek. Jesus Christ I can feel his fingers going
through
my face my face through my fuckin
face
shouldn’t be able to do that his fingers in me my face my face what’s HAPPENED TO MY FUCKING FACE

Some blackness as this I’m falling falling into. Painkillers, wharrever they’ve jacked me up with kicking in strong. I can hear another voice,
two
other voices. Two doctors. I hear the words ‘plastic surgery’.