"Энди Макнаб. Немедленная операция (engl) " - читать интересную книгу автора

Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and muck about inside it, throwing stones and
smashing the glass. There were all the signs up, NO Y, and all the
corrugated iron, boards, and barbed wire, but that just made it more
important that we got inside. We'd get up . on the roof and use the
skylights as stepping-stones in games of dare. It was fun until the kid fell
and died.
I changed gangs. For the initiation ceremony I had to have a match put
to my arm until the skin smoked and there was a burn mark. I was dead
chuffed with myself, but my mum came home from her shift at the launderette,
saw the state of my arm, and went ApeShit. I couldn't understand it.
She dragged me off to the house of the Rubettes' lead singer to moan at
his old girl. The two mums had a big shouting thing on the landing, while we
just stood there giggling. As far as I was concerned, I was in the gang; let
them argue as much as they like.
As I mixed more with the other kids, I started to notice that I didn't
have as much stuff as they did. The skinhead era started and everybody had
to have Docker Green trousers and Cherry Red boots. I said I didn't want
any.
We'd go to the swimming pool once a week, and the routine afterward was
to go and buy a Love Heart ice cream or Arrowroot biscuits out of a jar. I
never had the money for either and had to try to ponce half a biscuit off
somebody. I never tasted a Love Heart, but one day I scrounged enough money
from somewhere and made a special trip to buy one-only to find that it had
been discontinued. I bought an Aztec bar instead and felt very grown up.
Unfortunately there was nobody to show it off to because I was on my own.
I tried the Cubs once but never got as far as having a uniform.
We had to pay subs each week, but I managed to lie my way out of paying
the first few times. Then, on Tuesday nights, we had to have plimsolls to
play five-aside. I didn't have any, so I nicked somebody else's. I got
caught and had the big lecture: "Thieving's bad." That was the end of Cubs.
I knew that older boys got money by earning it, so I got chatting to
the milkman and persuaded him to let me help with his Sunday round on the
estate. He'd give me half a crown, which I used to buy a copy of Whizzer &
Chips, a bottle of Coke, and a Mars bar. That left me with just sixpence,
but it was worth it. It was all very important to me, buying the Coke and
the Mars- bar, because it was grown-up stuff, even if it was only one day a
week.
One of the gang wore "wet look" leather shoes, which were all the rage.
His hair, too, was always shiny, like he'd just stepped out of a bath. At
our house we had a bath only on Sundays.
He had one every night, which I thought was very sophisticated.
We used to go into his bedroom messing around; one day I noticed that
he had a ten-shilling note in his moneybox. As far as I was concerned, he
was loaded and wouldn't miss it. I nicked it, and nothing was ever
said."started nicking more and more. My mum used to have a load of stuff on
the slate in the CoOp. When she sent me for milk and other bits and pieces,
I'd take some extras and put them on tick. I knew she wouldn't check the
bill; she'd just pay it when she had money.
I'd never lived with my older brother. All I could remember was him
coming home from the army with presents. I didn't really know him, and he