"Andy McNab - Immediate Action" - читать интересную книгу автора (McNab Andy)

he noticed that my reading was crap and he started teaching me.

I must have been about eight or nine, and I still didn't know my
alphabet. He sat me down and made me go through it. It made me feel
special that he was spending time with me. However, the short lesson
wasn't enough to change me. When I got to secondary school, I had a
rearing age of seven.

I came into school late one day and was walking down the corridor.

The housemaster collared me and said, "Where are you going?"

"To my classroom."

"Where are your shoes?"

I looked down at my plimsolls. I didn't understand what he meant.

Then it dawned on me.

"I haven't had any shoes this year."

I had to go and get a form for my parents to sign for grants. I was on
a free bus pass, free school dinners. I even had to stand in a special
"free dinners" queue in the school canteen. It wasn't just me; the main
catchment areas were Brixton and Peckham, so a lot of kids were in the
same boat. But all the same, it was one particular gang I wanted out
of.

The thieving got stupid. We started by nicking pens from Woolworth's
for our own use, and soon we were stealing stuff for selling. We walked
past a secondhand furniture shop with a few new bits and pieces among
the display on the pavement. A small, round wine table caught my eye;
we ran past and picked it up, then went down to another secondhand place
and sold it for ten bob. We spent it straightaway in Ross's car on
cheese rolls and frothy coffees.

I stole money one day off my aunty Nell's neighbor. I took the pound
note to the sweet shop, and my aunty Nell was behind me without me
knowing. She didn't say anything at the time but phoned up the school.

The headmistress summoned me to her office and said, "What were you
doing with all that money?"

"I found this old mirror," I said. "I got some varnish, done it up,
sold it, and got two quid for it."

I got away with it. I thought I was so clever; everybody else was a mug
for letting me steal from them.