The Angel of Bang Kwang Prison Read Online Free PDF Page A

we were both off our heads after a joint. I was never really taken in by his reputation—tough guys aren’t always so tough. As an Italian Aussie, Simon had to deal with a lot of crap from ‘pure white’ Aussies. The Greeks and Italians were called ‘wogs’ and life on the street could be somewhat precarious, especially if you were a signed up member of a biker-cum-Sharpie gang.
    We got along quite well and shared some mad times, thanks to the amount of grass we smoked. He stole a car once when he was completely off his head, resulting in him hitting some poor pedestrian because he was too stoned to steer. Fortunately the pedestrian lived. I regularly came off his motorbike when he was attempting to drive when wrecked but of course I never really hurt myself because I would be equally bombed. Our early dates were quite conservative; we’d eat out at a Chinese restaurant and then go see a movie. Our madder dates would see us skulling bottles of vodka or Bacardi; you would hold the bottle upside down and keep gulping the drink down the back of your throat until the bottle was empty. I was the fastest ‘skuller’ around and was quite proud of myself. These big biker dudes would watch me drink in admiration and give me a round of applause. The silliness started when a paralytic Simon and me would get on his motorbike or behind the wheel of a car and drive up the edge of the cliffs near the beach, as close to the edge as possible, for the sheer madness of it.
    As a nod to the times we had an open relationship. We were both free to indulge our desires with others—well, except, as it turned out, for me. One of my girlfriends was anxious to lose her virginity, preferably with someone she knew. I always prided myself on being a good friend; I asked her if she liked Simon and she said yes. So I asked my boyfriend to do me a favour and sleep with her. I thought it was a very nice gesture on my part. Both parties agreed and shortly afterwards she was no longer a virgin and I even got to watch from the next room while quietly toking on a joint, and listening to ‘Another Brick in the Wall’. She thanked me profusely and I thanked Simon for helping me out and all was right with the world; that is until I wished to indulge myself at a party with an attractive boy called Johnny .
    I dragged Johnny to the master bedroom to act out a few stoned fantasies. Then I duly informed Simon who, to my horror, went utterly berserk. I had never seen what jealousy could do to a person. We were in my friend’s house, celebrating her 14th birthday. I remember there was this fabulous chandelier on the ground that had yet to be hung up. Simon , screaming like a wounded animal, lifted the precious piece and kicked it across the room where it shattered into pieces against the wall. He was like a different person, a mad man. He was chasing the party-goers and trying to lash out at them with his fists and feet. He kept punching the walls and kicking the doors. Everyone fled, either out of the house or upstairs. I cowered in the bathroom, listening to him yelling my name and shouting, ‘Come here you fucking bitch. I’m gonna kill you, I’m gonna kill you all.’
    After a few minutes of this I decided that enough was enough. The fact that everyone was hiding from him was making him worse. He seemed to be relishing in the idea that he was scaring people; it was empowering his performance-tantrum. ‘Screw this!’ I thought; as I went out to confront him. I met him in the dining room and spoke as calmly as I could.
    ‘ Simon stop this. You are just trying to scare the shit out of us. Stop showing off, I’m not afraid of you.’
    While I was not exactly expecting him to hang his head in shame and say sorry in a contrite voice, I didn’t expect what actually happened. I felt like a part of me had stepped aside to watch the unfolding events, because in no way did I think that when he drew back his fist it was to punch me savagely in the face. My