Billy Rags Read Online Free PDF Page B

classroom when only one of them was responsible for putting the tintack on teacher’s seat but knowing that they’d all cop for it in the end.
    I wandered down to the Twos during the day and the only one who openly committed himself to the plan was Walter, who was a bit of a Twos denizen. I had my own ideas about that one: knowing Walter, he’d sussed that he didn’t have to push so hard on the Twos as he would on the Threes. There were more starry eyes downstairs.
    â€œSo it’s the all off tonight, Billy,” Walter said.
    â€œYes,” I said. “Coming up are you, Walter?”
    â€œI’ll be there,” he said.
    â€œAnybody else?”
    â€œEverybody likes the idea.”
    â€œSo?”
    â€œYou never know.”
    â€œI do,” I said.
    Walter folded up the newspaper he’d been reading and leant forward, looking me in the face. The usual limpness had gone. The skin on his face was stretched tighter over his skull.
    â€œListen, Billy,” he said. “You know what would be better?”
    â€œTell me, Walter?”
    â€œNot boiling water: boiling fat,” he said. “It clings.”
    He clawed his hands across his face in imitation of the effect his idea would have. He was really living the part.
    â€œOh, that’s lovely, Wally,” I chivvied. “And we’ll all end up with another five apiece. It’s like saying I haven’t got enough bird, please give me some more.”
    Walter relaxed again.
    â€œWhat’s the difference?” he said. “We won’t exactly get a weekend in Brighton for the water.”
    Oh, so you’ve considered that one, I thought. I wonder if we will be seeing you tonight, Walter.
    I got up and left him on the Twos.
    That night there were no weights. All the Threes men came out holding their mugs like testimonials of intent. Everybody took their places in the TV room and waited. Three-quarters of an hour later and there was no sign of Hopper.
    Benny Beauty said: “Maybe he’s had the sense to stay behind his door.”
    I shook my head.
    â€œMaybe he has but not Moffatt,” I said. “I’m on to him. He’s not going to be beat in his first week. He’ll have Hopper down here even if he has to parcel him up.”
    We waited some more. Nothing happened. Then about eight o’clock Sammy Chopping from off the Twos stuck his head round the TV room door.
    â€œHopper’s on the Twos,” he said. “They’ve fetched him in there.”
    â€œSo why tell us?” I said. “What the fuck are they doing about it down there?”
    â€œI dunno,” said Sammy.
    â€œFuck all, that’s what,” I said, getting up. “I knew those sods would chicken out.”
    I could tell everybody was pleased at seeing the ball out of their court and that not one of them wanted to make it down on the Twos so I cleared off down there on my own.
    Both TV rooms were situated on the outside corner of the L, one below the other. I walked past the door of the Twos’ room. The room was empty except for Hopper and his screw.
    I went straight to Walter’s cell. There were about five of them in there muttering about it. I stood in the doorway.
    â€œWhat’s happening, then?” I said.
    Everybody except for Walter looked a bit sheepish.
    Walter said: “We’re just working out the best way of approaching it.”
    He didn’t like it. It was written all over his face. He didn’t like the new boy coming down to his floor and embarrassing him in front of his little enclave, making him look a chicken for not being first in with a mug.
    â€œWhat’s to work out?” I said. “You just go in and you do it.”
    One of them said: “It’s not that easy.”
    â€œListen,” I said. “None of you cunts offered to come upstairs and help us, did you? Not when you thought you’d get away without being in it. So now