On Cringila Hill by Noel Beddoe Page A

safe, protected by your brothers.’
    â€˜Is true. And Abdul was there. He caught me up from behind, stood in front of me.’
    â€˜Did he frighten you?’
    â€˜Nah. Not at first. I knew Abdul. He was a fren of mine. He was a good fren of a boy called Jimmy, a boy I used to … know well.’
    â€˜Yes.’ Gordon looks into his notebook. ‘Jimmy Valeski,’ he says.
    Luz has tears in her eyes again. She nods.
    â€˜Then I changed the way I was walkin’ so as not to be near Abdul.’
    â€˜Why did you do that?’
    â€˜He was lookin’ at me – a bad way. I thought, Abdul wants to do somethin’ bad.’ She pauses.
    â€˜You okay?’ Gordon asks.
    â€˜Yeah. I started, I’m gonna tell ya. An’ he run up to me.’
    â€˜What did you do?’
    She balances the baby on her lap, opens her hands, presses the palm of one behind the back of the other and thrusts the hands out in front of herself. ‘I hit him,’ she says, ‘in the middle of his face, like my fren showed me.’
    â€˜You hit him?’
    â€˜Yeah. You open up your hands like this, then you push one behind the other, then, if he runs at you, you get your hands down low, lean forward, hit up under the nose when he comes, weight forward, stiffen your arms last little bit. Smashes the nose bone back into the head.’
    â€˜And you did this to Abdul.’
    â€˜I did.’
    â€˜I’m amazed after that he could do what he did,’ David says.
    â€˜Well, he couldn’ do nothin’ much, I’m tellin’ you.’
    Gordon turns to watch a deep blush feed up into David’s face from his throat.
    â€˜Ah,’ Gordon says aloud. ‘And what happened then?’
    â€˜Knock him down, break his nose I think, blood everywhere. But then there was others behind me, come runnin’ up. I scratch ’em and claw at ’em and they punch my face.’
    Gordon watches as, thoughtfully, she traces a finger first over the line of her nose then her damaged jaw. It’s clear that, standing by the gate, the large young man is close enough to hear what she’s said. He straightens away from the gate. His bunched fists fall by his sides.
    â€˜And they sayin’, “Shut up bitch, shut up bitch,” cos I screamin’, you know, and they wrestle me down, and they sayin’ to Abdul, “Here she is, here she is, do what you said!”’
    â€˜Do what you said?’
    â€˜That was it. “Do what you said.” And they dragged my clothes, you know? And he come and done what he done.’
    â€˜Luz, I’m sorry …’
    â€˜No, said I was gonna tell ya. Tellin’ ya. Then he’s sayin’, “I done it, I done it,” and there’s lights goin’ on in the houses beside the school, and people yellin’, and men climbin’ over the fences.’
    â€˜And the boys ran away.’
    â€˜They did. And this … they stunk, you know – stunk of whisky.’
    â€˜Ah. Abdul too?’
    â€˜Yeah, I think so.’
    Gordon recalls what Edna’s told him, what, in the end, the nature of the act turned out to be, but he can see that, of itself, is not relevant now. He watches for a while, decides to go a little further.
    â€˜Afterwards?’
    â€˜I went to the hospital, and when I could talk I talked to a policewoman, then a detective.’
    â€˜Detective Sergeant Laecey.’
    â€˜Yeah. He was nice, you know? It made me feel good, talkin’ to him. He was kind, like a father.’
    â€˜He is a kind man.’ Gordon sits awhile, thinking. He asks, ‘Did your brothers shoot Abdul?’
    The women laugh together.
    â€˜Ah,’ Luz says. ‘Don’t be so silly.’
    â€˜What about Jimmy Valeski?’
    Later Gordon thinks about his question and realises that he had not known that he was going to ask it, let alone why he asked it.
    â€˜Jimmy? Not talkin’