Bang Up: Prison walls don't just keep criminals in, the keep the outside world at bay by Karen Woods Page B

his nest egg for when he’s out and if anyone gets a whiff of it we’re all dead meat. Just keep your big trap shut. Nobody must know about it, ever.” Rachel stood up and popped a cigarette in the corner of her mouth. Flicking the lighter slowly she held her fag down towards the burning yellow flame. “Gary, I’m scared. It’s only a matter of time before they come looking for us. We’re his family and we’ll be first on the list. Davo is no fucking idiot and he’ll put us in a body bag if he ever finds out.”
    Gary was laid back and it was obvious he wasn’t taking this seriously. This wasn’t his beef and if the shit hit the fan he would drop Mikey in it at the drop of a hat. He was a coward. “Stop being daft, Rachel. Nobody knows about it except us. If we both keep it shut, it will still be there when Mikey gets out of nick. I’m just saying for now, borrow a few ton out of it and sort him out. We don’t have any other option do we?”
    He watched her from the corner of his eye and casually sat back down in his seat. Rachel paced the floor and sucked hard on her cigarette, cheeks sinking in at both sides. A thick grey cloud of smoke filled the living room as she looked over at him. She was angry and her defences were up. “I knew I shouldn’t have told you about the money. Mikey will go mad if he knows I’ve told you,” she rubbed at her arms and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She was fighting with her thoughts. “I had to tell somebody though, what if they come here, what if they find out I’m his mother?”
    Gary stood and cradled her in his arms. He was such a shady character and something about him was just not adding up. “I won’t tell a soul. For one, you’ve not even told me where the money is, have you? How much are we talking anyway, a grand, a few grand, how much?”
    Rachel pulled away from him and sat back down in her seat. She tapped her fingers slowly on the wooden table and kept her eyes low. “Ten grand. It’s a lot of money and we should never speak about it again. I’ll get the cash together for him, somehow, someway. I’ll make sure he’s alright in jail but there is no way I’m touching his money. No way in this world.” Her eyes started to cloud over and she dropped her head low. “I’ve never been a good mother to our Mikey, have I? And I blame myself for the way things have turned out with him. You know how it was when he was growing up. I let him down big time. If I could turn back time, I would. I’d have been a proper mother and done all the things I should have done for him.”
    Gary had heard this story over and over again. He was sick to death of hearing it... Rachel had let Mikey down in his life but what did that matter now? He was a grown man and he should have been able to fend for himself. The apron strings needed to be cut and as far as he was concerned, he wouldn’t have been arsed if he never saw her son again. Rachel snivelled and wiped the end of her nose on her jumper. “I need to see him. My mind’s all over the place at the moment. Do us a favour Gary, nip down to the shop and see if we can get a bottle of vodka on tick until next week. Mr Patel is usually alright with me when I’m a bit short. Just tell him what’s happened and he should be able to hook us up.”
    “Did you pay the tenner back you owed him from last week?”
    Rachel shook her head and ragged her fingers through her thin greasy hair. She raised her eyes to the ceiling and sighed. “Argghh… Did I fuck! I forgot all about it. What am I like? I had the money there to pay him back too. It just slipped my mind.” She was a lying cow and everybody who knew her - she was a full of shit. No loan man would touch her with a barge pole and even the neighbours had got wise to her now. Every night she was banging on a door for a bit of milk, a few rounds of bread, a cup of sugar - this woman had no shame.
    Gary rolled his eyes and stared over at her. It was