The Papers of Tony Veitch Read Online Free PDF Page B

indicate carelessness. It meant there was something very serious on his mind.
    â€˜Cam,’ Dave said. ‘Charlie, get the man a drink. What’s it to be?’
    Charlie didn’t move. He knew who was giving the orders.
    â€˜I’m looking for Hook.’
    â€˜He’s not in the night, Cam. What’s it about?’
    â€˜I didn’t say I was looking for you. I’ll explain it to him. Where is he?’
    The voice was light and flat and it made the talking clock sound effusive.
    â€˜Not a clue,’ Dave said. ‘Ah don’t think he’s at home the night. Can ah give him a message?’
    Cam walked past Dave through to the other room. He came back into the doorway.
    â€˜Put on the lights,’ he said to Charlie.
    Charlie did. While Cam was gone, Panda Paterson was studying the girl as if she was on the menu.
    â€˜What’s your name?’ he asked her.
    â€˜None of yer business,’ Sammy said.
    The sound of his voice shocked even him. It had happened by a kind of spontaneous combustion, an accident of the atmosphere. He had become so involved in his awareness of this place, which he had heard of, in the presence of Dave and the others that he had spoken somehow from his sense of themrather than himself. He was left looking round glumly as if trying to find whose voice had come out of his mouth. Panda was studying him like a culture.
    â€˜Her name’s Lynsey,’ Dave said. ‘An’ she’s mine.’
    Panda looked at him.
    â€˜Ye’re goin’ wi’ a male chauvinist pig, hen,’ he said. ‘You’re Dave McMaster.’
    â€˜Ah know who ah am. Who are you?’
    Dave’s brash ignorance was one of the things about him that worried Charlie. Some day he was going to drown himself playing at Canutes.
    â€˜Ah’ll have a pint of heavy,’ Panda said.
    Charlie was filling it out as Cam Colvin came back through. His face showed nothing. He looked at Dave.
    â€˜Tell Hook I want to see ’im,’ he said. ‘Macey. You can bring me word. Where and when. But don’t be slow. Tell Hook that.’
    Panda Paterson took his pint from the bar. He crossed as if to join the others and began to pour the pint very carefully over Sammy’s head. Charlie suspected Panda was staging an exhibition for Cam’s benefit. Mickey Ballater’s face was impenetrable.
    It was a long, long time happening. It was an act of astonishing cruelty, far more sadistic than striking him would have been. The slower that gentle decanting was, the more fully it demonstrated Sammy’s abjectness. The others watched him pass from shock to a strangled anger to a smothered attempt to get up, to a terrible understanding of himself. He closed his eyes and became as still as a corpse. By the time Panda Paterson almost solicitously shook out the last dregs, Sammy’s shame was in poster colours. The others could hardly bear tolook. Panda laid the glass gently on the table, as empty as Sammy’s sense of himself.
    Cam Colvin had been looking on disinterestedly, seemingly preoccupied with something else.
    â€˜Tell Hook,’ he said and went out, followed by the other two.
    Dave didn’t let the silence settle.
    â€˜Get him a cloth!’ he said contemptuously.
    It wasn’t clear where the contempt was aimed. While nobody else moved, Charlie brought a dishcloth and wiped Sammy the way a mother would.
    â€˜Tae hell wi’ it, son,’ Charlie said. ‘Nothin’ wis the right thing to do. Ah would’ve done the same maself. That wis a catchweights contest. You could never be as big a bastard as he could. That’s pure bastard. When he wis wee, he wis showin’ old women half-way across the road. Leave it to John.’
    The humanity of Charlie’s voice began to thaw the room. The girl said, ‘Phoo.’ Macey touched Sammy on the shoulder.
    â€˜Forget it, kid,’ he said, which was like throwing a