The Mattress: The Glasgow Chronicles 4 (4 page)
Chapter Six
Digger night wan
Johnboy lay back in the lap ae luxury, feeling cosy under his blanket, getting aw set fur his first nightshift. He put the back ae wan ae his hauns up tae his wet lips, took a deep breath and let oot an imitation ae a clap ae thunder fae they lips ae his that reverberated aroond the whole ae the digger. He thought he heard Silent let oot a wee chortle fae next door. He’d jist heard the night screw walking past his door in they tackety stud-soled boots ae his, deliberately jangling his bunch ae keys, tae disturb his and Silent’s sleep as he went tae clock-in at the wee box oan the wall, tae prove that he’d been daeing his roonds oan the night shift. The prick wis obviously daeing his best tae make as much racket as he could tae noise-up the two occupants ae the digger.
“Filthy basturt,” Tackety Boots muttered, as he goose-marched back past Johnboy’s door.
Efter arriving at Polmont, it hid taken him a few weeks tae notice the wee boxes that wur scattered aboot the place oan the walls. When he’d found oot they wur fur the nightshift screws tae clock-in tae prove that they wur oan watch and nae sleeping during their shift, they’d become fair game tae him and Silent. Mind you, he hidnae kicked wan aff the wall fur a few months though...no since he’d heard that they’d gone and alarmed them.
He thought aboot Silent lying in the cell next door tae him. When the baith ae them hid first arrived in Polmont, Silent hid telt them at the reception that he wis an apprentice joiner when they’d taken his details. That hid been news tae Johnboy, who’d known Silent since they wur baith ten years auld. The only time he’d seen Silent putting a hammer tae good use wis when he wis breaking the lock aff ae a shoap front door or a garage lock-up. When Johnboy telt them he wis an apprentice joiner as well, they’d noted it doon, bit hid gied him a disbelieving look. Efter their initial six-week assessment period ae being messed aboot and hivving tae march here, there and back and being made tae staun beside their beds wae aw their blankets and sheets folded intae neat square shapes while they wur inspected by a useless basturt ae a screw who thought he wis a sergeant major, they’d baith been allocated tae South Wing. This hid come as a surprise tae Johnboy. He’d thought Silent wid’ve been picked up by the psychiatrist as being an ideal candidate fur Carrick Hoose, the block set aside in Polmont fur aw the boys who wur a wee bit disturbed or aff their heids. No only hid he passed through the assessment unnoticed, bit Silent hid managed tae get himsel a wee cushy number working wae wan ae the joiner-screws while Johnboy hid been shipped aff tae the pallet shoap tae join the mad, the bad and the useless, who the authorities believed widnae benefit fae a stint up in the funny ha-ha suite. Johnboy blamed the psych-quack fur his workplace allocation as the basturt hid hid a go at Johnboy before he’d even opened that gub ae his and it hid been aw doonhill efter that.
“So, ye’re the apprentice joiner wan, eh?” McKenzie, the senior screw, hid asked him oan his first day.
“Ah think ye’re thinking ae somewan else. Ah’ve goat alopecia,” Johnboy hid telt him. “Ah’m allergic tae anything that’s been near a tree.”
“Ho, fucking, ho,” McKenzie hid scoffed, signing Johnboy oot a claw hammer and pointing tae a pallet bench. “Aw the benches ur full, so ye’ll jist need tae share wae that pair fur the time being,” he’d said, nodding at the two boys who wur looking o’er at him wae grins spread across their faces.
His luck hid been in. The Two Johns…John Blair and John Park, who wis also known as Wee Parky, originally came fae the Toonheid, bit wur noo running aboot up in Roystonhill. The baith ae them wur in fur robbing Provi-cheque men. Efter The Mankys put The Big Man oot ae the doo business, back in the sixties, Wee Parky hid ended up becoming wan ae the maist respected and biggest breeders ae quality doos in the toon, despite his age. Him and Skull Kelly, wan ae the original Mankys, who’d goat frizzled in a dookit fire up oan Parly Road when he wis ten, hid been the best ae pals. Between them, they’d been walking encyclopaedias oan fleeing and breeding doos. The Two Johns wur jist coming tae the end ae their sentences and wur due oot in a couple ae weeks time. Baith ae them hid been working as brickies across in Cornton Vale, the new wummin’s nick, bit hid goat slung aff efter the two ae them hid assaulted a screw and a civvy brickie fur gieing them a bit ae lip. Johnboy knew his back wid be well-covered in the workshoap, at least fur a wee while. The pallet shoap wisnae the maist friendly ae places fur a Manky like him. An ugly wee reprobate called Toffee Simpson...the youngest ae the notorious Simpson clan fae Possil...also worked there. He wis McKenzie’s office bum-boy, the wan who haunded oot the hammers and jemmies tae the boys oan the benches and then sat oan his spotty arse, watching everywan oot oan the flair working like demented hens, while he sat kidding oan he wis daeing something important like keeping the claw hammers polished. He’d make McKenzie his tea and the two ae them wid sit doon slurping like a couple ae hauf-wits, sniggering at aw the boys, who wur grafting away, covered in dust and knocking fuck oot ae a hunner pallets every day. As soon as Toffee Bum-boy hid clocked him, he’d started tae sling Johnboy looks that wur meant tae be scary. Johnboy hid decided that if he goat any cheek or lip aff ae the ugly bampot, he wis jist gonnae whack the basturt across the heid wae a hammer. Johnboy also noticed that whenever he made a wisecrack and goat a laugh back fae The Two Johns, Toffee Arse wid make sure Johnboy could see him and then scowl across at him tae let him know that he wis watching him. It hidnae come as a surprise tae find oot that this wan wis as paranoid as his bigger brother, Toby. Wee Parky wisnae that convinced that Toffee Arse could fight sleep, bit nae fucker in the place wid even dare get intae an argument or disagree wae him because ae they aulder brothers ae his. By the end ae his first few days in the pallet shoap, Johnboy hidnae been attacked, which hid come as a big surprise tae him, and he’d soon settled doon and relaxed a bit. As well as hivving back-up fae The Two Johns, he’d found oot later that wan ae the Garngad uglies, another good pal ae his called Freckles Kelly, hid warned Toffee Arse’s best pal, who worked in the borstal kitchens wae Freckles, that if anything happened tae Johnboy in the pallet shoap, then he’d be the first tae cop his whack. Toffee Simpson might’ve convinced himsel he wis a hard basturt and hiv a couple ae big brothers who wur feared across the city, bit everywan knew that Freckles and the crowd he ran aboot wae in Polmont didnae take any nonsense fae anywan, big hard brothers or no.
Efter being shifted through tae South Wing, the only time Johnboy hid seen Silent hid been at meal times and at night when they sat playing Bella wae Freckles’s crowd. Silent and Johnboy’s game plan when they’d first arrived hid been tae keep themsels tae themsels and volunteer fur nothing. They knew hauf the people in the place oan account ae the fact that maist ae them hid been in Larchgrove Remand Home, in Glesga...known as The Grove...or in Thistle Park Approved School, oot in Paisley, wae them when they wur growing up. In Polmont, the nearest him and Silent hid come tae being wae anywan fae the Toonheid in South Wing hid been the crowd fae the Garngad, or Roystonhill as some people knew it as. The Two Johns, alang wae Toffee Simpson and his pals fae Possil, wur in East Wing. None ae the Garngad crowd hid changed since the day Johnboy hid first met them at the Toonheid Swimming Baths when he wis aboot ten years auld. Skull, alang wae Tony Gucci, Paul McBride and Joe McManus, hid brought Johnboy thegither wae them. When he said they hidnae changed, whit Johnboy really meant wis that whit they usually goat the jail fur hidnae changed. They wur aw intae their violence and hid been in and oot ae approved schools, as well as the closed-block up in Rossie Farm, fur attacking other city gang members, the bizzies or anywan else that they took a fancy tae assaulting. Johnboy and the rest ae The Mankys aw thought they wur great, bit couldnae fathom oot why they always wanted tae be fighting and dishing oot sore faces tae people they didnae know, insteid ae making money, like Johnboy and the crowd he ran aboot wae. The Shamrock boys that wur in Polmont when Silent and Johnboy arrived hid consisted ae the best ae the Garngad crowd...or the worst, depending oan whit side ae the fence ye wur sitting oan. There wis an ugly wee buck-toothed gnaff, who’d start a fight in an empty hoose, called Patrick McSwiggan, bit known tae everywan as Patsy. He moaned like fuck fae morning tae last thing at night. Then there wis Tottie, or Thomas O’Malley, another moaner, who wis quite free wae they hauns ae his, and anything else, including the use ae weapons, if he could get his hauns oan wan. Cross him, and ye’d need tae move oan pretty quick. If ye didnae, he widnae stoap till he goat a haud ae ye. And then there wis Frederick Kelly, or Freckles. His uncle, Wan-bob Broon, wis wan ae the right-haun men ae wan ae Glesga’s tap gangsters, Pat Molloy. Freckles hid goat sent tae Polmont fur setting two pit bulls and an American pit bull oan tae two plain-clothed bizzies who’d been daft enough tae kick doon his wee maw’s front door up in Rhymer Street wae a search warrant in wan ae their hauns. Seemingly the polis hid shouted through the letterbox tae Freckles tae open the door because they knew he wis in. When he hidnae responded they’d gone aheid and booted it in.
“Ah’m telling ye, Johnboy. Get yersel a couple ae pit bulls. They’re bloody mental, so they ur. Loyal as fuck as well. While they poxy bizzies wur getting their hee-haws chewed aff, screaming the place doon and upsetting ma wee maw, Patsy, who’d been kipping o’er fae the night before, nipped oot ae the bedroom windae and Ah slung doon the two big boxes ae fags that the bizzies wur looking fur. Ah then nipped intae the bathroom and jumped intae the bath, which wis still full ae manky water. Luckily fur me, that filthy beast, Patsy, hid left the plug in the hole efter he’d hid a bath earlier. Kin ye imagine the surprise oan their coupons when Ah went intae the kitchen, dripping wet, wae a towel wrapped roond that spotty arse ae mine? When Ah demanded tae know whit the fuck wis gaun oan, these two pricks, who wur hunched up thegither oan tap ae ma wee maw’s kitchen units like a pair ae monkeys, dripping wae blood, informed me that Ah wis under arrest,” Freckles hid bleated, a hauf smile appearing across that freckly coupon ae his.
“Christ, whit did yer ma say?” Silent hid stupidly asked him, using up his precious communicating time by talking shite.
“Ma wee maw? She wanted tae know if wan ae them could gie her a light fur her fag as she didnae hiv a match in the hoose,” Freckles hid replied drily, as everywan roond the table, supposedly playing cards, pished themsels laughing.
“So, whit happened tae them?” Johnboy hid asked.
“The dugs? The dirty basturts goat them put doon, so they did. Bang oot ae order, if ye ask me.”
“Aye, they goat the death sentence, so they did,” Tottie hid chipped-in.
“Naw, Ah meant the bizzies?”
“That pair ae tadgers? They goat carted aff doon tae The Royal fur a tetanus jab in they arses ae theirs, alang wae some stitches in their erms, legs and arses.”
“So, how come ye ended up being charged then, if Patsy fucked aff wae the fags and ye wur supposedly in the bath, no hearing them at the door?” Johnboy hid asked, looking at the others wondering if he’d missed something.
“The pricks done me wae assault efter Ah threw them doon the stairs heid first, fur gieing that wee maw ae mine the fright ae her life and damaging her good front door. Total fit-up, so it wis.”
“Tell them whit yer excuse up in court wis, Freckles,” Patsy hid butted in, jist aboot tae pish himsel wae excitement. “Ye’ll like this wan,” he’d said, nodding his heid at Johnboy and Silent.
“Ah telt that Sheriff wan that Ah thought they wur burglars and Ah wis jist protecting that wee maw ae mine’s possessions. ‘Bit, the officers hid a search warrant, Kelly,’ the baldy auld fuck-face hit me wae. Ye should’ve heard the laughter in the court when that cow, Glenda Metcalf, the procurator fiscal, telt him that ‘It’s believed that wan, or aw ae the devil dugs, scoffed the warrant during the frenzied attack, m’lord.’ And they still hid the cheek tae find me guilty, the basturts,” Freckles hid scowled, aw hurt, while the rest ae them hid sat laughing themsels silly that anywan wid’ve hid the cheek tae question Freckle’s obvious innocence.
“That’s terrible, so it is,” Silent, the eejit that he wis, hid persisted.
“Too bloody true it is,” Freckles hid moaned, nodding that heid ae his, wae Patsy and Tottie sitting there clearly in agreement.
“Oh, er, naw, Ah meant fur the poor dugs,” Silent hid said.
“The dugs? Christ, that’s another story, that is. They never belonged tae me in the first place…they belonged tae Greasy Jake. Aye, Ah know, ye’re laughing, Johnboy, bit it wisnae bloody funny at the time, so it wisnae,” Freckles laughed.
Greasy Jake wis the manager ae The Big Man’s scrap yard operation doon beside the Clyde oan the Broomielaw. Nae fucker in the toon crossed Greasy Jake...except fur Freckles, that wis.
“Ah’m telling ye, thank Christ Ah never goat bail. It gied Baby Huey time tae talk Jake oot ae skinning me alive before slinging me in the boot ae wan ae his auld scrap cars and being turned intae a wee square block in that crusher ae his. See, Silent? That’s whit happens when ye dae ungrateful pricks favours, so it is,” an indignant Freckles hid continued tae bleat, exaggerating his hurt and challenging anywan no tae believe he wis lucky tae be alive.
Johnboy crossed his feet oan the mattress tae get mair comfortable and smiled, thinking aboot Baby Huey. He wis another wan ae the Garngad crowd who’d done time wae The Mankys o’er the years. He wis aboot six feet four and ten feet wide and could clear a pub in ten seconds flat. Although he wis only eighteen, Wan-bob Broon hid convinced The Big Man tae employ Baby as a debt collector and when he wisnae breaking people’s erms and legs fur nae paying back their debts in time, he bounced oan the doors ae some ae The Big Man’s pubs in some ae the rowdier hoosing schemes. As much as they goat oan wae the Garngad crowd, they wur jailbait, as far as Johnboy and Silent wur concerned. Due tae aw the shit that wis happening ootside, up in Springburn, Tony hid warned Johnboy tae stay well clear ae the uglies if they came across them inside. Tony hid been right tae be worried. Silent and himsel hid been due tae be released oan Christmas eve morning…aw gaun well. That meant they’d be oot fur the New Year. They never really gied a shit aboot Christmas, bit New Year wis always something else. The problem fur Johnboy and Silent wis that if they wur hinging aboot wae the Garngad uglies, it meant that they’d always be in the spotlight, which in turn, could mean losing remission and they’d no be oot helping the rest ae The Mankys tae keep The Simpson’s in check. Tony hid goat word in tae him that the constant retaliation fae The Simpsons o’er in Possil hid increased dramatically and that they wur noo buckling under the onslaught, trying tae keep themsels fae getting wiped oot by Toffee Arse’s brothers and their gorillas, which hid explained the warm reception Johnboy hid goat when he’d been sent tae work in the pallet shoap. Tony also kept demanding that Johnboy needed tae work harder oan Freckles, tae try and find oot where the fuck Pat Molloy and Freckles’s uncle, Wan-bob Broon, hid disappeared tae o’er the past year.
