Ghost River Read Online Free PDF Page A

talking here. Ya know the rules. Apollo dragged the tram with a line of piano wire in his mouth. No man can eat a tram, ya fucken imbecile.’
    â€˜And nobody drags one through the street by his gob. It was ate. Piece by piece . Don’t worry about that. I got an old mate, mechanic out there, that took the tram apart at the Preston depot. Apollo lived off that fucken tram for two years. Ate nothing but it. He drunk the sump oil and all.’
    Big Tiny threw his arms in the air. ‘Fuck me. I give up,’ he said, looking across the fire to Tex for support. ‘How much longer we got to put up with this fucken lunatic?’
    With Tex ignoring his pleas, Tiny turned to Sonny and Ren.
    â€˜Don’t ya be listening to a word from his trap. If a government man was able to track down anyone in the Doc’s family they’d have papers signed and he’d be certified and put away for good. The Doc wouldn’t see daylight again. They found no one to put him away cause he had become an orphan. When he was a kid his own mummy put him out on the street one day with a sign round his neck begging someone to take pity on the bastard. He weren’t wanted, by no one. Not even the shirt-lifters would take him home. And no one wants him now.’
    â€˜Up yours, elephant arse,’ the Doc spat. ‘Only one that was left for dead is you. Your old girl looked at you the day you was born and sent a telegram to the fucken circus, hoping for an earner from the sideshows.’
    The Doc stood up, hitched his pants under his armpits and mimicked the performance. ‘Come see the whole world’s fattest baby – also born absent of a brain.’ He bowed, sat down and waved a finger at Tiny. ‘What Apollo done was in all the papers, with a picture of him tucking in the upholstery off a seat. Horsehair, it was. That’s what the sump oil was for. To wash it down. You ever tried eating the stuff?’
    â€˜Horsehair can’t be eaten!’ Tiny screamed.
    The Doc pointed at Big Tiny’s stomach. ‘Was eaten. You’d give it a run yourself, fatman. Could eat your own fucken leg. Between ya mouth and the gut ya could knock the Southern Aurora over. What they call that thing on the back of the train? The caboose. You’d do that for dessert.’
    Tex smiled and Tallboy laughed out loud, while Cold Can giggled quietly to himself. Tiny didn’t find the Doc’s attack on him funny at all. He got to his feet, slammed a foot into the dirt and kicked dust across the fire.
    Ren and Sonny joined in the laughter, thinking the river men were enjoying a joke between themselves. But before they knew it, the joke had got out of hand.
    â€˜Ya know nothing, Doc. Why don’t ya tell these young fellas something of ya own life? Bout the poor kiddie ya killed way back.’
    â€˜You cunt!’
    The Doc charged at Tiny, head-butted him in the guts and knocked him to the ground. The two men rolled around in the dirt like a pair of mongrel pups. The others laughed, until Tiny rolled over and crashed into the coals and the sleeve of the Doc’s suit-coat caught fire. Tex had had enough. He picked up an iron poker and belted the Doc across the back of the legs with it.
    â€˜Knock it off. Both of ya. Fuck this fire up and ya both barred. For life.’
    He gave the Doc a second whack with the poker and turned on Tiny. ‘You fucken goose.’ He raised the poker in the air. ‘Say sorry for what ya said or it’s the same for you.’
    While Sonny seemed to enjoy the spectacle, Ren was shocked by the sudden violence Tex displayed.
    Tiny rolled the Doc onto his side and stripped him of his smouldering coat, stomping on it as he apologised for what he’d said. ‘I went too far there, Doc. You got my temperature going.’
    The Doc picked himself up and brushed the dust from the knees of his pants, which hardly seemed worth it, seeing as the arse was caked in dry