Deadfolk by Charlie Williams Page A

Don’t require no deep thinkin’, Blake. Just a bit o’ courage. Woss the first thing a man like you does when someone gives him grief?’
    I wanted to be as honest as I could, so I thought about it for about twenty seconds before answering. ‘Nut him.’
    ‘Right you are.’
    ‘But I can’t nut the Muntons. There’s three of em and they’m the hardest f—’
    ‘You can if you gets one of em alone.’
    ‘I…but…’ The lit end of my fag were about an inch long, and glowed brighter when I pulled on it. It were like a beacon, pointing through the dark to where Legs were stood. Listen to him, it said. Legsy knows what’s what.
    ‘Trust us, Blake. Get one of em alone. Trust us. Trust yerself.’
    That were that, far as that conversation went. Some of his words echoed in my head for a while. Specially the ones about trusting meself and him. I dunno if I dropped off or not, but summat happened. The darkness got darker. It got so dark that most things disappeared. Legs weren’t over there on his couch no more. I weren’t even sure the couch itself were there. And I dunno what happened to me fag. Then I spotted one or two things in the blackness, things what wasn’t there before. Seemed like faces.
    But I couldn’t be sure. More of em was popping up all around the room, though it weren’t really a room no more. I could see they surely was faces now. Fellers and birds—cheeks white, eyes wide, mouths hanging open like they was watching summat on telly that they didn’t like the look of but couldn’t turn away from. It were me they was watching, course. And they was the crowd outside Hoppers.
    I were curled up in a ball, cowering. I knew it weren’t no Munton that were getting to us. It were the crowd. They was hissing at us, jeering, spitting. I had to do summat. I had to turn em around.
    And then it were morning.
    Neck were stiff and gob felt like it’d seen use as a pickling jar overnight. I sat up and stretched a bit. Legs weren’t on the couch no more. I could hear snoring somewhere not far off so I reckoned he’d crashed out in his pit. I went to the kitchen and swigged two pints of water, then lit a fag and looked in the fridge. It were full of beer and pies. I weighed it all up for a while, then shut the fridge and went out the door, closing it quietly behind us. Watch said half five. It were early for us, and I thought about turning back for a kip on the recliner. But then I looked around us.
    Sun were out already. It had rained overnight. The slate on the rooftops glistened like the calm surface of a river. Everything smelled fresh and earthy, though there were nothing but concrete and stone outside Legsy’s flat. I walked down the stairs and headed for Hoppers to pick up my vehicle.
    I had things needed doing.

5
     
    She started first time. That were always her way. Blowing hot and cold. But when she blew hot she didn’t half. I pulled her out of the Hoppers car park, thinking how it were only natural that she’d be right as rain and ready to go this morning. I were feeling that way meself. And last night, when she’d played up on us, I’d been feeling like shite.
    We went home. After a wash and change of clobber I went down the stair and set about getting some scran together. There weren’t much in the cupboard so I made do with half a dozen eggs, eight sausages, a few fried slices, and a cup of tea. Then I sat down in front of the telly and watched this and that for a while. I didn’t have a remote control so my habit were to stick with whatever I found. A weather report said the sun were due to shine all day, which were all right by me. Then the war came on and I drifted out for a couple of hours.
    A bit later I got back in my car and drove her back into town, me touching her the way she liked and her taking us the places I wanted to go.
    Namely the Paul Pry.
    I don’t reckon I’d ever been down the Paul Pry at opening time before. Never had much call for pop at eleven in the morning,