Junk - Melvin Burgess [9]
‘Will you leave your boots outside for cleaning?’ someone yelled. And, ‘Will Sir be requiring his breakfast in bed?’ That sort of thing. That was okay.
It was out of the open but it was a right mess in there. People had dumped binbags full of rubbish, waste paper, old clothes, even rubble. I slept on top of it for a few nights. I suppose I was feeling depressed. I was thinking a lot about my mum.
Then I thought, Get on with it.
First of all I scooped all the rubbish into binbags and carried it out round the back. I pinched the binbags from someone’s dustbin. I found a broken broom in a skip and gave it a good brush down. It was still a tip, but at least it was a brushed tip.
Since then I’d been collecting bits and pieces – a few wooden crates, a bit of carpet someone chucked out. I couldn’t make it too nice because someone would have nicked stuff or wrecked it. But I’d tried to make it mine. That’s why I was so pleased when I had this idea for a picture. I’d wanted to do a picture. I’d brought my pencils with me but I hadn’t got round to it yet, and now I had this great idea for Gemma.
It was about two miles back to the squat. On the way I had to go past Joe Scholl’s tobacconist. I thought I’d go in and have a Twix. Have a treat. I completely forgot about the begging. You do. You just forget, you buy a bar of chocolate and then you think, Oh, no…
Joe Scholl’s a nice man. He’d given me a few quid a couple of times in the past few days. I think he gave quite a bit of money to the people on the street.
‘You look full of the joys today, David,’ he said, eyeing my dandelions over the counter.
‘Yeah. My girlfriend’s coming to stay,’ I told him. I think I only went in there so I could tell someone the news.
‘Hence the bouquet, eh?’ he said, nodding at the dandelions.
‘Yeah,’ I laughed. I took a Twix bar and dug in my pocket for the money. He didn’t laugh, but then he never did. He always kept his face completely straight, except his eyebrows were permanently up in the air. You hardly ever saw him move his face, even when he was cracking you up with laughter. Deadpan.
‘That’s good news then.’ He didn’t take my money. He just looked at me. ‘Leaving her folks like you did, is she?’ he wanted to know.
I looked at him. ‘Yeah…’
‘How old is she, then, David?’
I didn’t dare tell him how old she really was. I said, ‘Sixteen.’ That’s how old I’d told him I was. I started eating the Twix to hide my embarrassment.
‘Nice.’ He stood there with his hands hanging by his sides watching me. ‘Where you putting her up, then?’ I was beginning to feel miserable again. ‘Honeymoon suite in the Hotel Derry?’
‘Yeah…’ I put the money back in my pocket.
‘Thank you, Skolly, for the free Twix bar.’
‘Oh! Yeah… I’m really sorry. I was thinking…’
‘That’s all right. Not a nice place for a young lady, though, is it, David?’
I just hadn’t thought. He was right! Albany Road was all right for me but not for Gemma. You get all sorts in there – tramps, alcoholics, junkies. Most of them are all right but some of them… Once or twice I’ve seen the alkies with women with them, but you never see any young women in there. The girls all sleep out in doorways, in public…
I never thought why.
‘Here…’ I held out the money again, but he waved it away.
‘Don’t be daft.’
I was about to put it back in my pocket but then I had second thoughts. ‘No, take it. Or I won’t be able to keep coming in.’
‘Ah…’
‘You’ll think I’m begging.’
‘A time and a place for everything, eh, David? I take your point.’ He leaned across and took my money. ‘I’ll give it back to you later on, okay?’
I laughed. He was so funny. His face was funny. He was quite fat and bald, and he always looked as if you’d just given him a mildly unpleasant surprise, as if you’d told him the price of chocolate had just gone up or something.
‘Life is a complicated business,’ he said. Another customer came in and he turned to them. I nodded and started for the door, but he called out, ‘Hang on a minute…’
I stood and waited while he sold a newspaper. I felt dreadful again. I hadn’t thought. I was being