Trash - Andy Mulligan [17]
What could anyone do?
Then they got back in the vans, having found nothing.
I had not thought they would take me, because nobody had said anything to me. I saw the young policeman again, and I saw him nod in my direction, and I realized they were talking about me. It still came as a surprise – I don’t know why – when two police came over and took hold of my arms.
This is going to be very difficult to write about, the next part, but it’s only me that can.
I did not know what to do. I did not make a sound, and I did not move – I was too scared to breathe and I didn’t know which man to look up at. Gardo was right with me at once, and he was talking fast, saying, ‘What are you doing? What’s he done?’ over and over, touching me. My auntie started to scream, and then she fell down on the ground. Immediately there was a great commotion, and I saw how important it was that I was not taken. People were shouting; some were pleading with the policemen, and getting between me and the car. One of the vans had stopped, and some police were coming back, but before I could take in any more, I was walked to the car that had its door open, my arms held hard. Gardo got his arm round me, but someone pushed him off, and I heard him shouting over the top of everyone else, but one of his uncles had hold of him. I got to the car and I tried to back off, but I was dragged and pushed. I was between two big men, and whatever I said, nobody heard me – I twisted, but I was just picked up, and I was in the back seat. Doors slammed, and I saw Gardo again. He was screaming at me, trying to get to me, and a policeman grabbed him by the neck and threw him off. Then the car was moving and I was crying. I saw faces through the window, staring at me, shouting at me, but I couldn’t see anyone I knew, and Gardo was gone.
I was so frightened I felt sick and I couldn’t stop crying.
We were bumping and rocking because the road is so rutted and the driver was going as fast as he could. There was still a crowd around me, and someone was banging on the roof – and then we were through the gates, and on the road. They put their siren on, and we whipped through. Red lights didn’t matter, the traffic police waved us on. For some reason it didn’t feel quite so bad when we were going past stores, and the roads were full of people, and everything was lit up. But when we turned off into smaller roads, there were no people, and soon there were no lights.
I have never felt so lost and lonely, and I still could not stop crying. I said, ‘Where are we going?’
One man said, ‘Where do you think we’re going?’
I said, ‘I haven’t done anything, sir.’
The man said, ‘Keep still, boy – we know that.’
‘I haven’t done anything, sir,’ I said again. I kept saying it through my sobs.
I tried to keep still, like the man had told me to, but I couldn’t. I was rocking backwards and forwards. All you can think about is how alone you are, and how anything can happen now. A little while ago, things had felt safe and ordinary – my auntie, Gardo, the cousins, the fire – and people, all around me. Now! It is like falling through a trapdoor. In a second, every single thing had changed, and you are falling – your friends cannot get to you, nobody knows where you are, and you think, So when do I stop falling? You think, What plan do they have for me that I can do nothing about?
Rat had the envelope. Rat had the ID. I would not give either of them up because we knew more now. We knew about José Angelico, and there was a fight beginning.
The streets and buildings were all grey-cement coloured, and we drove left, right, up, down, and came round fast into a car park, up close to a heavy-looking gate. A policeman with a dog opened it, and we drove through, and down a ramp.