Junk - Melvin Burgess [14]
‘I think you better keep your head down, Skolly,’ hissed Richard.
‘If I can’t blag my way out of this, I’m better off dead,’ I told him. He went down a bit in my estimation that night. It wasn’t professional. Now, whenever I did a job, the thing was to look like you were where you were supposed to be right up until the last minute. But of course, these anarchists were all dressed like mad squatters. I looked like a tobacconist and therefore stood a chance of getting away with it.
I was nervous, mind. I hadn’t done anything like it for years. Christ knows what the missis would say if I got caught.
Richard was taking so long to open the window that I went over to give him a hand, but he got a bit panicky.
‘You’re going to get us caught, Skolly,’ he hissed irritably. ‘Keep your head down.’
‘I’ve only come to lend a few tips…’ But he wasn’t having it. He called the girl, Vonny, to come and take care of me. She tried to make me squat down behind a hedge, but I wasn’t squatting for no one. It never occurred to any of them that I’d forced open more windows than the rest of them put together.
Finally Richard got the window up. There was a bit of a panic as someone came down the road. Even I had to hide behind a telephone box just up the street. Whoever it was trotted past and never saw the open window with the boards off, or they didn’t care. Then we all climbed in one after the other. I was severely out of breath and almost flattened Richard as he pulled me up over the window-sill. Then he fixed the boards so it looked like they were still attached, and we were in.
Inside it was pitch black. They were all talking in whispers. Richard started handing out torches.
‘Don’t let anyone see any light from the street,’ he hissed. He began allocating jobs – helping with the electric, making sure the windows were sealed, checking the gas, seeing if they could get the back door opened. I lit a fag and peered out from behind the boarding on to the street.
‘Would you mind not smoking in front of the windows?’ asked Richard severely.
‘What’s up, we’re in, aren’t we?’
‘It’s best to lie low for a couple of days until we’re established,’ he told me. ‘The longer we’re here before they find out, the better the chances of staying.’
He went off to get the lekky on. I went upstairs to finish my fag on the landing.
Who’d have thought it, me breaking and entering a house with nothing in it to nick? I wandered around a bit but there really was nothing there. It just goes to show the changing face of crime. No one ever used to think of stealing whole houses… and without even having to move them, either.
Jerry was running about sticking bottles with candles in them on the stairs and in all the rooms. Richard soon got the lekky on but we weren’t allowed to put the lights on in case someone saw us. He and Jerry started running in and out of the back door filling the place up with boxes and suitcases and bags. The idea was to get established as quickly as possible. It was a lot more difficult to eject them if they had a houseful of stuff in there with them.
I thought, time to clear off.
I went to see how David was getting on and to say goodbye. He was down in the basement kitchen with Vonny. Someone had brought in a cardboard box full of cooking things – pans, plates, cutlery, a bit of flour and a bit of cooking oil, that sort of thing. They’d got the gas cooker going and he was making a cup of tea.
The whole place looked very nice by candlelight. I thought, They’ve only been in here half an hour and it’s half a home already.
There was an old chair by the work surface. I sat down.
‘Well, David.’
‘This is fantastic, Mr