said, finishing the last of his fag. He didn’t like smoking in the street, considering it to be ‘common’, but as it was Christmas and there was no one about to witness this breach of etiquette, it didn’t matter.
‘I’m going home,’ he said, taking one final drag before throwing the butt into the canal. I thought he meant back to the flat.
CHAPTER 4
‘WHAT DO YOU mean he’s gone?’ I shouted down the phone, not caring that there was a woman standing outside the phone box hanging on to every word I was saying. It was a pain having to use the public phone outside the block of flats on Kelvin Road but my mother’s telephone had a lock on it to prevent anyone (i.e., me) from making any unauthorized calls. She was obsessed with what she described as the ‘crippling prices’ British Telecom charged and the use of the phone before six o’clock was strictly prohibited.
‘Even if I’m having a heart attack and you have to call an ambulance,’ she said, making sure the lock preventing the dial going round was good and secure, ‘you can get yourself round to that phone box and ring one from there.’
Eventually I learned how to make a call by tapping out the numbers on the little black buttons the handset rested on but as this could be quite a noisy process I only dared do it when she wasn’t in residence. It was wiser to make my more private phone calls from the public phone box as my mother possessed an unnatural hearing range that could pick up the sound of a mouse farting across the park, let alone my foghorn voice. The less she knew, the less there was for her to worry and get into a state about. Ignorance was bliss as far asmy ma was concerned, although blissful was certainly not how you’d describe my current status quo.
‘He went soon as you left. I drove him down. Only got back yesterday,’ Phil said casually.
‘You mean he’s buggered off? Gone back to London?’ I couldn’t believe that Hush would do such a thing, run off and leave me stranded in Slaithwaite. ‘What about the act?’ I shouted, making the woman outside forget for the moment that she was pretending not to listen.
‘Well, all your drag’s here, wigs and everything, but he’s taken all his records and all the tapes, so you’ve got no show.’ Phil sounded not in the least bit bothered. ‘I don’t know what you’re going to do for an act.’
‘Did you know about this?’ I had every intention of killing him for his duplicity.
‘No, I knew nowt about it, till ten minutes after you’d left to see your mother,’ he whined.
‘Then how come you drove him down to London so bloody smartish?’ He was going to be found dead after I got hold of him, drowned face down in a plastic bucket of mushy peas.
‘Well, I fancied a few days in London and Hush offered to pay me for taking him so I just went. Anyway, you weren’t here to stop him.’ He sounded like he was eating, which only infuriated me all the more.
‘I was at me mother’s!’ I protested, causing her outside to light a fag and move even closer to the box. At this rate she’d be inside with me if the conversation continued in this heated vein.
‘I’m coming back tonight,’ I said, more than a little worried at what the hell I was going to do now.
‘Suit yourself, I’m going down t’ Gemini Club, but you’ve got your key.’ Phil could be maddening at times. Didn’t herealize I had a major disaster on my hands? Abandoned, stranded and with me career in tatters? I mentally dramatized everything then, even real dramas that didn’t require further embroidery.
‘Everything all right?’ the woman asked eagerly as I held the door open for her.
‘Did you get a good earful then, missus?’ I snarled in reply.
‘Couldn’t help overhearing, love,’ she smiled. ‘You’ve got one of those voices that you can’t help hearing. Cheer up, there’s many a disaster at sea.’
I walked around for a bit to calm down and gather my thoughts as I didn’t
‘I’m going home,’ he said, taking one final drag before throwing the butt into the canal. I thought he meant back to the flat.
CHAPTER 4
‘WHAT DO YOU mean he’s gone?’ I shouted down the phone, not caring that there was a woman standing outside the phone box hanging on to every word I was saying. It was a pain having to use the public phone outside the block of flats on Kelvin Road but my mother’s telephone had a lock on it to prevent anyone (i.e., me) from making any unauthorized calls. She was obsessed with what she described as the ‘crippling prices’ British Telecom charged and the use of the phone before six o’clock was strictly prohibited.
‘Even if I’m having a heart attack and you have to call an ambulance,’ she said, making sure the lock preventing the dial going round was good and secure, ‘you can get yourself round to that phone box and ring one from there.’
Eventually I learned how to make a call by tapping out the numbers on the little black buttons the handset rested on but as this could be quite a noisy process I only dared do it when she wasn’t in residence. It was wiser to make my more private phone calls from the public phone box as my mother possessed an unnatural hearing range that could pick up the sound of a mouse farting across the park, let alone my foghorn voice. The less she knew, the less there was for her to worry and get into a state about. Ignorance was bliss as far asmy ma was concerned, although blissful was certainly not how you’d describe my current status quo.
‘He went soon as you left. I drove him down. Only got back yesterday,’ Phil said casually.
‘You mean he’s buggered off? Gone back to London?’ I couldn’t believe that Hush would do such a thing, run off and leave me stranded in Slaithwaite. ‘What about the act?’ I shouted, making the woman outside forget for the moment that she was pretending not to listen.
‘Well, all your drag’s here, wigs and everything, but he’s taken all his records and all the tapes, so you’ve got no show.’ Phil sounded not in the least bit bothered. ‘I don’t know what you’re going to do for an act.’
‘Did you know about this?’ I had every intention of killing him for his duplicity.
‘No, I knew nowt about it, till ten minutes after you’d left to see your mother,’ he whined.
‘Then how come you drove him down to London so bloody smartish?’ He was going to be found dead after I got hold of him, drowned face down in a plastic bucket of mushy peas.
‘Well, I fancied a few days in London and Hush offered to pay me for taking him so I just went. Anyway, you weren’t here to stop him.’ He sounded like he was eating, which only infuriated me all the more.
‘I was at me mother’s!’ I protested, causing her outside to light a fag and move even closer to the box. At this rate she’d be inside with me if the conversation continued in this heated vein.
‘I’m coming back tonight,’ I said, more than a little worried at what the hell I was going to do now.
‘Suit yourself, I’m going down t’ Gemini Club, but you’ve got your key.’ Phil could be maddening at times. Didn’t herealize I had a major disaster on my hands? Abandoned, stranded and with me career in tatters? I mentally dramatized everything then, even real dramas that didn’t require further embroidery.
‘Everything all right?’ the woman asked eagerly as I held the door open for her.
‘Did you get a good earful then, missus?’ I snarled in reply.
‘Couldn’t help overhearing, love,’ she smiled. ‘You’ve got one of those voices that you can’t help hearing. Cheer up, there’s many a disaster at sea.’
I walked around for a bit to calm down and gather my thoughts as I didn’t
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