"Simon Ings - The Wedding Party" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ings Simon)

of work is to sort out the illegals who haunt Cricklewood. IтАЩm a sort of
fly-by-night foreman-cum-bus driver. You know what itтАЩs likeтАФtwo navvies
this way, and three navvies that and jump quick in the back of the van
before we all get nicked. Seeing to the casual labor market of Cricklewood
is more than enough to fill my day, and this morning I found myself
seriously wonder-ing if IтАЩm up to this fresh obligation.

But Redson is my lover, the other side of that coin I put such store by.
And call me sentimental but I cannot bear to think of them parted like this.
These two people. These two half-people, I should say, because it seems
even now that they are only the halves of a single person, a person I might
once have drawn together. A person I loved. Hope/Redson. Redson/Hope.

IтАЩve said to her: тАЬCalaisтАЩs as tight as a bitch. So IтАЩll take him through
Ouistreham. TheyтАЩve just axed the frontier post and thereтАЩs boats sailing to
Portsmouth all day.тАЭ

тАЬYou mustnтАЩt,тАЭ she says. тАЬNo. Stop it.тАЭ Her torso flexes uselessly. Her
head bobs and tosses.

I am stroking her neck. тАЬPlease.тАЭ I am shucking her shirt free and
stroking her breast. тАЬPlease.тАЭ

тАЬItтАЩs safer,тАЭ I tell her, тАЬitтАЩs really come on. ItтАЩs so much safer now.тАЭ

My hand does its business. The tears come and I wipe them away for
her. I settle her back in her chair and I know I have won.

Hope has done her business and I have done mine. Redson has
landed up in Sangatte, because itтАЩs safer for us to follow the migrant flow,
because the Snakeheads have their nostrils raised and aquiver for the
innovations of a competitor.

Anyway, I got him out of there last night and paid the Kurd his bloody
fee. Then, soon as we were out of sight, I legged it with Redson back over
the fence, away from the Tunnel, and back onto the highway system. It took
a while to find the vanтАФwhen I go shopping IтАЩm always losing the damn
thing in the multi-storey. ItтАЩs not bigтАФ people movers are taller.

We reached Ouistreham by first light. Redson sat there blinking up at
the buildings like an inner-city kid on an excursion tripтАФheтАЩs a natural tourist,
a camera on legs.

IтАЩve rented us an old villa on the Riva BellaтАФthe white sand beach
near to town. Redson needs to sleep if weтАЩre to make a start tomorrow, but
the end is in sight, the biggest hurdle yet to cross, and the door had swung
open on the room holding all my gearтАФhe saw everything. It took an age to
calm him down. тАЬItтАЩs so much safer now.тАЭ Though surely the size of the van
is clue enough, what I have planned for him.