"M. John Harrison - Suicide Coast" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison John M)

go and see a friend of mine. His name was Ed and I had known him since
the 1980s.

****

Back then, I was trying to write a book about people like him. Ed Johnson
sounded interesting. He had done everything from roped-access
engineering in Telford to harvesting birdsтАЩ nests for soup in Southeast Asia.
But he was hard to pin down. If I was in Birmingham, he was in Exeter. If we
were both in London, he had something else to do. In the end it was
Moscow Davis who made the introduction. Moscow was a short, hard,
cheerful girl with big feet and bedraggled hair. She was barely out of her
teens. She had come from Oldham, I think, originally, and she had an
indescribable snuffling accent. She and Ed had worked as steeplejacks
together before they both moved down from the north in search of work.
They had once been around a lot together. She thought Johnson would
enjoy talking to me if I was still interested. I was. The arrangement we made
was to be on the lookout for him in one of the Suicide Coast pubs, the
Harbour Lights, that Sunday afternoon.

тАЬSunday afternoons are quiet, so we can have a chat,тАЭ said Moscow.
тАЬEveryoneтАЩs eating their dinner then.тАЭ

We had been in the pub for half an hour when Johnson arrived,
wearing patched 501s and a dirty T-shirt with a picture of a mole on the
front of it. He came over to our table and began kicking morosely at the
legs of MoscowтАЩs chair. The little finger of his left hand was splinted and
wrapped in a wad of bandage.

тАЬThis is Ed,тАЭ Moscow told me, not looking at him.

тАЬFuck off, Moscow,тАЭ Ed told her, not looking at me. He scratched his
armpit and stared vaguely into the air above MoscowтАЩs head. тАЬI want my
money back,тАЭ he said. Neither of them could think of anything to add to this,
and after a pause he wandered off.

тАЬHeтАЩs always like that,тАЭ Moscow said. тАШYou donтАЩt want to pay any
attention.тАЭ Later in the afternoon she said: тАЬYouтАЩll get on weтАЩll with Ed,
though. YouтАЩll like him. HeтАЩs a mad bastard.тАЭ

тАЬYou say that about all the boys,тАЭ I said.

In this case Moscow was right, because I had heard it not just from
her, and later I would get proof of it anywayтАФif you can ever get proof of
anything. Every-one said that Ed should be in a straightjacket. In the end,
nothing could be arranged. Johnson was in a bad mood, and Moscow had
to be up the Coast that week, on Canvey Island, to do some work on one of
the cracking-plants there. There was always a lot of that kind of work, oil
work, chemical work, on Canvey Island. тАЬI havenтАЩt time for him,тАЭ Moscow
explained as she got up to go. тАЬIтАЩll see you later, anyway,тАЭ she promised.