ye are, ye’re edgy. It’s hard even to talk to you. Ye just seem to get stressed. I would like to have heard ye play, that’s all. I would just like to have heard ye play.
Sorry.
It’s not sorry. Ye dont have to say sorry. I dont need to know yer business. Obviously there’s something. But I dont care.
There isnt anything.
The way ye’re acting.
I didnt know I was acting. It’s Barbara ye’re talking about.
Fiona lay still. After a moment she said, I dont care. Just obviously there was something the way ye were acting. What about him with the funny hat, the man with the whistle? Is that a real instrument or what? I mean like a real musical instrument?
Of course.
He doesnt play in a band though does he? in a real band, I mean like playing a whistle!
Andy chuckled.
Seriously? It’s a real instrument?
Are you kidding?
No.
That’s Joe Wylie. Joe Wylie. He plays everything, the pipes, the flute, sax, clarinet, pibroch, the bloody bassoon. Everything.
What he plays them all?
Andy grinned. He carries the whistle in his pocket.
So he can just come out and play?
Exactly.
He sounds like a busker.
Huh! Joe Wylie! Probably he has busked anyway. He’s done just about everything else. Some buskers are good ye know.
Have you ever?
What?
Been a busker or been busking? however ye say it, have ye? Have you ever done it?
What?
Been a busker on the street?
Yeah, well.
Have ye!
Once or twice.
Did ye make any money?
Eh . . .
Ye would if it was New York or Paris or someplace. London, there’s buskers play down the tube. Imagine it happened here! Fiona chuckled.
It couldnt.
Of course it could.
No it couldnt, not down the subway, they’d get like arrested. The cops would move in. Music’s barred in this town.
Dont be silly.
I’m not being silly. It’s only in controlled areas. Like everything else. Subways are for going to work and other places of confinement. Everything’s controlled. The cops and politicians have it sewn up. Just like the rest of society.
But that’s everywhere!
I know it’s everywhere that’s what I’m saying, society, the whole of bloody society, that’s Scotland, it’s just like . . .
Dont get angry.
I’m no getting angry. We dont have to like it but because it’s the same everywhere. I mean god sake.
Dont get so upset.
I’m not.
Yes ye are. I think ye worry too much.
. . .
Ye shouldnt, she said.
I dont. I just . . . He sighed again. Ye know the song, ‘Go Lie Down’?
No.
Andy sang:
If you dont get angry lie down
go lie down
go lie down
If you dont get angry lie down
yeah just lie down, lie down
you better lie down,
you dont get angry, you lie down
That’s nice.
Yeah. What it means is go away and die. Lying down is the same as dying. If ye dont get angry ye would be as well dead. Least that’s how I see it.
You wrote it?
No, god. It’s an old blues, a great kind of . . . He paused.
I wish ye had played tonight. Why didnt ye? Eh? They were waiting to see. I saw them. They thought ye were going to. When she asked ye, the blonde woman, they were looking to see, him with the ponytail.
Andy was silent. Eventually he said, Look it’s not a big deal. I just didnt want to play, I wasnay like . . . He paused. I just didnt want to.
You write songs as well dont ye?
He shrugged.
So are they all musicians? Your friends? The ones that were there last night? Ye seemed to know them all.
Well not them all.
I just thought it was a bit strange. It looked like ye were going to play and then ye didnt.
He had his eyes open and could see by the shapes that she was looking towards him although she lay on her back. It was too dark to gauge the expression on her face.
I wasnt watching ye, she said, I was at the next table remember. I couldnt help seeing ye.
He shifted side on to her now, raised himself up to rest on his left elbow. I did notice ye, he said.
Eventually.
His chin was resting on his left hand now, he was gazing down at her. Ye were squeezed in at the side – you and yer pal.
Well I wouldnt have gone in by myself. She turned to him. I wouldnt have gone in myself.
Why because ye’re a woman?
Of course.
Ye dont get hassle in there but surely?
Dont be silly.
Seriously?
Women always get hassle.
Yeah but no the Scotia I mean I didnay think in there, it’s got the reputation for being good like I mean a place where women can go.
Huh.
