The Mattress: The Glasgow Chronicles 4 Read Online Free PDF Page B

who’d known Silent since they wur baith ten years auld.  The only time he’d seen Silent putting a hammer tae good use wis when he wis breaking the lock aff ae a shoap front door or a garage lock-up.  When Johnboy telt them he wis an apprentice joiner as well, they’d noted it doon, bit hid gied him a disbelieving look.  Efter their initial six-week assessment period ae being messed aboot and hivving tae march here, there and back and being made tae staun beside their beds wae aw their blankets and sheets folded intae neat square shapes while they wur inspected by a useless basturt ae a screw who thought he wis a sergeant major, they’d baith been allocated tae South Wing.  This hid come as a surprise tae Johnboy.  He’d thought Silent wid’ve been picked up by the psychiatrist as being an ideal candidate fur Carrick Hoose, the block set aside in Polmont fur aw the boys who wur a wee bit disturbed or aff their heids.  No only hid he passed through the assessment unnoticed, bit Silent hid managed tae get himsel a wee cushy number working wae wan ae the joiner-screws while Johnboy hid been shipped aff tae the pallet shoap tae join the mad, the bad and the useless, who the authorities believed widnae benefit fae a stint up in the funny ha-ha suite. Johnboy blamed the psych-quack fur his workplace allocation as the basturt hid hid a go at Johnboy before he’d even opened that gub ae his and it hid been aw doonhill efter that.
      “So, ye’re the apprentice joiner wan, eh?” McKenzie, the senior screw, hid asked him oan his first day.
      “Ah think ye’re thinking ae somewan else.  Ah’ve goat alopecia,” Johnboy hid telt him.  “Ah’m allergic tae anything that’s been near a tree.”
      “Ho, fucking, ho,” McKenzie hid scoffed, signing Johnboy oot a claw hammer and pointing tae a pallet bench. “Aw the benches ur full, so ye’ll jist need tae share wae that pair fur the time being,” he’d said, nodding at the two boys who wur looking o’er at him wae grins spread across their faces.
      His luck hid been in.  The Two Johns…John Blair and John Park, who wis also known as Wee Parky, originally came fae the Toonheid, bit wur noo running aboot up in Roystonhill.  The baith ae them wur in fur robbing Provi-cheque men.  Efter The Mankys put The Big Man oot ae the doo business, back in the sixties, Wee Parky hid ended up becoming wan ae the maist respected and biggest breeders ae quality doos in the toon, despite his age.  Him and Skull Kelly, wan ae the original Mankys, who’d goat frizzled in a dookit fire up oan Parly Road when he wis ten, hid been the best ae pals.  Between them, they’d been walking encyclopaedias oan fleeing and breeding doos. The Two Johns wur jist coming tae the end ae their sentences and wur due oot in a couple ae weeks time.  Baith ae them hid been working as brickies across in Cornton Vale, the new wummin’s nick, bit hid goat slung aff efter the two ae them hid assaulted a screw and a civvy brickie fur gieing them a bit ae lip. Johnboy knew his back wid be well-covered in the workshoap, at least fur a wee while.  The pallet shoap wisnae the maist friendly ae places fur a Manky like him.  An ugly wee reprobate called Toffee Simpson...the youngest ae the notorious Simpson clan fae Possil...also worked there.  He wis McKenzie’s office bum-boy, the wan who haunded oot the hammers and jemmies tae the boys oan the benches and then sat oan his spotty arse, watching everywan oot oan the flair working like demented hens, while he sat kidding oan he wis daeing something important like keeping the claw hammers polished.  He’d make McKenzie his tea and the two ae them wid sit doon slurping like a couple ae hauf-wits, sniggering at aw the boys, who wur grafting away, covered in dust and knocking fuck oot ae a hunner pallets every day.  As soon as Toffee Bum-boy hid clocked him, he’d started tae sling Johnboy looks that wur meant tae be scary.  Johnboy hid