Vulgar Things. Lee Rourke

Чтение книги онлайн.

Читать онлайн книгу Vulgar Things - Lee Rourke страница 14

Автор:
Жанр:
Серия:
Издательство:
Vulgar Things - Lee  Rourke

Скачать книгу

think I’d better get going now … I’m walking into Southend today.’

      ‘I did wonder about your stick …’

      ‘This thing … I just bought it from 2nd Hand Rose …’

      ‘Good old Tony … I’m hoping to have him in here one day … Ha ha! I’m only joking.’

      ‘Okay. Bye.’

      ‘Bye.’

      Long Road is so named for obvious reasons and it takes me quite a while to reach the end of it. Once I cross the creek, back onto the mainland, I find it easy along the sea wall from Benfleet and before I know it I’ve reached Leigh-on-Sea. I take a rest at the Crooked Billet pub, feeling quite at ease with my stick. I order a pint of beer and sit outside at one of the many tables overlooking the estuary and fishing boats. I order a seafood platter from Osborne’s Cockle Shed to accompany my beer. The sky’s beginning to open out into a vast blue, which seems to fade to milky white the closer it gets to the horizon. I drink and eat and think of nothing.

       towards the sea

      Here I am now, and Southend is busy. I’m not ready for it. The streets are teeming with all sorts of people: mostly gaggles of teenagers on skateboards in low-cut jeans with their arses hanging out. The place feels alive, buzzing. People are going this way and that, groups of scruffy men with bulldogs shouting at each other, smoking weed and drinking Tennent’s Super. Old ladies jostle for position through the general brouhaha of mothers and their assorted children hanging around the High Street on their way to M&S. I notice a crowd of people gathering around Waterstones; at first I think there’s a celebrity in town, but on closer inspection I realise what’s attracting the crowd: it’s the local ‘owl man’. The same one I remember seeing in my youth, when I came here on holiday. I hated him back then, too. He’s standing there with his pet owls, showing them off in broad daylight, allowing all manner of people to have their photo taken with these two magnificent creatures. The owls – both tethered at the leg by a rope – are passed from child to teenager, to mother to random man, eager parents snapping away with their phones. It’s a terrible sight. Those poor things. Those beautiful creatures. I walk over to the ‘owl man’.

      ‘Are you aware these are nocturnal creatures?’

      ‘I have authenticated approval from the council … I’m doing them no harm. They’re well looked after …’

      ‘It’s wrong.’

      ‘I don’t care what you think, mister … I have the papers to prove it.’

      ‘I don’t care about your fucking papers, you’re holding these beautiful creatures captive … it’s wrong. It will always be wrong. You cruel little man.’

      I walk away in disgust, children looking at me, shielding themselves behind their mothers’ legs.

      ‘DO-GOODER!’

      I turn to look at the woman who shouts this at me. Her sour face is contorted in a tight fist of hate, her fingers pointing at me. I smile after a moment or two when I realise that her face is stuck like that and is not a result of my actions. She moves forward from her pram to give me the Vs. I smile again, knowing this will aggravate her more than her own tired old gesture aggravates me. I turn and carry on walking down the High Street towards the seafront. At Royal Terrace I find a bench to sit on, overlooking the pier and the estuary. Uncle Rey loved Southend Pier. He loved its history. He used to bring me here to see it when I was young, I don’t remember when, or how many times to be exact, maybe only the once, I don’t know. We’d walk all the way together to the very end – the longest pleasure pier in the world – to see the bell. We’d never get the train to the end, we’d always walk there and back. I loved it out there on the pier, above the sea and the mud. I decide that after I’ve been to the safety deposit box I’ll walk along the pier to see the bell, in memory of Uncle Rey if nothing else.

       box 27

      Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

      Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

      Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

      Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAxgAAASwCAIAAAD393s+AAAAAXNSR0IArs4c6QAAAAlwSFlzAAAu IwAALiMBeKU/dgAAAAd0SU1FB98FFgMgOsPgwCAAACAASURBVHjaLLvLzu1JkuW1lpm7/y97f5cT ERlZmZUl1DTqMUx5AWZIvAQMkKAlBog34Z0QD4CaRnR1dVVkRMY532Xv/b+4my0GhxfwibstN1u/ Zfwf/vf/LG79LHUkq6lWu+/oxnXCUvIc/P1mdeZ1ZYQeBzIwLVgma5CELbGf4lArmGZ22bebrhi1 2VRZiiryEDtNsEwh1Qpr0Xno/QYllhUCEbkwG4Kzs1ge6iNpMLMQnHKkAYd4O/yLp0Gfwfvpt7e8 XtFeqKU24GnKJxvqeZx2hmZX77pvOk545dOcZtzT3FldgMzZCgEl6YVV0WWPk8dJGFpDMTEZoHuI pCgxgcXzHhxpFEfo/bSSMVOtoLr6CaWaZ4hBBqzLkmAlUjzTHc9zzBVd1uXF7P0zTrC4HLp3W4xl EgyH2AzuXh1PZUweZGRaNRrwcdi90y0zdDtMyaVladzDGbnv+XazY+Dv/4AB68GqeHyGk0+rppoD RGgP2weRKCYvZs1eWiwYjx338LZwnpih3oWRpJLlOOWVdbZOW+uowoB1GaD7xiOsuq41z0CLSEkh plDLUtIKopjEfecx4K4BfuzWT/00jUvV7w8v1V+uPPsYIqRCUHkc7HSvpCGgq+fHHavj0oCKNLDT TEfm28NLxVozkwlWl2VaKkMfD5I05yNYKgEhVIjrM63YceI+bBhfZtXI9x19YGHMjjLZ7UQkr6uF 0ENDkqiwPTB5vtSkyZ0G3TfswdfJA3zfg109MbfMU4+b1pWXFz/P3NN289u77idW18ukaVaCH3dc ql5XiP7bQ9Okn69w6t756DZXfVnCxzjO8nnU24ky6+/mMdWxpX8cPhfcOyNYTe+j/LT0yeNx+Odm jjSqNbZJkI3g54ZW8w8vmj3fPtGHvSyyip68b3Ye8omPsKc5/+ElTLydOgOELNWH/RZlMWbktweS 9vamx8A080+vmiuaMgWAxSThSEaAklWYkwm6rxbFcoeP5IWjeZYqiu+jHpt9BpNakF8WHHIZBqXg U62fPR5HX9x+WGst+H2LY8RaszoMXiIy+jAzWARum72dvCx4nnMM3Q7+cMkuG4lKWTXltNaYvB+R Cd4Pbp2T82WxjyNvJxYXpV/u5o5JeQ6ui3nF2GPsCnEbcufzjMsUaPVjw+PEXPTny7k2xWDQakMO 7A815NSSzedJ97Nsw0kZU1IORgCEF4CKwZR60kA3ITTI22YhzLMV8qcneYkzYiQTtoW5UKiR9MIC nYGemJGt8VR5bBh9rFO6ITouJS9TbiyP7kuGEF1WnKVgO4AzSmPz5r0ctn07fKn6aclS9K370uK+ 8f1hNDZXBJKEcyR0pEOReHSm82JZpb0VgQUoJjcF7H6wk2tRHf11jlLsTPt48LZlnZ1CNS1TBuw4 efFYq07wCLpEYAgiDSqVXogeTvlkTkC6b7x1C7Ioa2ExZfIQzViJqelSY/I4O257CXJ0fXwqzVvR GTzBdcLkqiYjHie3XUUqDe64TuqD95twxLfDn5+JZp8H/tL6L3fTUBh79X/9JSScLK3iyc/tsK+f lDQ1DndSrnSiFVVXD36ePmRL00tLjHHbmcV//fD9ns9z+Op94GmCiu0n/nTpA1TPWWkTT1kOHENn Go0kxpAZrNijsw80Q3O1IhpHYAyIfG5DxvdRnjGmqkfnOdgK3PkxOBINqswTJlozzRwujVomCwCR tJSEbVgkqmUZuQV3lso0YnVV5LfddnpPjC4TriXeNh9mr4t+WAXPt6NcSq42+i53zkUw3If/9nAo DRTRCmphB/dDeURpVhoJedcI/fLGHvj7L3q6AFDQZUZqUjwGE2xGAH0LFRupJr2uOgJBghiiAV55 bETgx1d/WrCd+tjFYIfoOZnY4xEucqS68PMz/vpw/6/+2y8R1Jmn2WilFCw5Pu8GYpoBIgMkloa5 IAcQeG0xWdwOptElHnn13DoOONxcOQ4dex6nelcvtkyYa8q4Dd9Oyu26ZHGMZJmMhQxhqNNs9TZz DGyHlLRqkTwOyG3v3Dr9UueV5nLmtebzIjS2inmy1yv+sJwkqnBpukygQ8laUWcbXswUu+IQgSNN 4GVGaziCR5gZi/MgW7WFueCorrrg7HZ0DPLWS5fdd+tdk8dU0iMfJz+Gn2GPO/r7eT5iiKWhVMCY 4Nb5ftiQNdfnTW9H2bIkLZJTkTtmE0K/vusff8HXB08YS50X6ugNWZg5WApXs/PAtweOjggUmcG2 Q9s9zsF7t8dGg1mljJG2D+wnzOzlyX/4gW3Cs0ch7p0647IqZaOrUjbZH16xVAkcaZBmS0OOpDVr k9VK86RQoEwcpw03a/Z80fMcNsQ0b6CbDGvN68V/umhxjJ7XNeYVHuERy4QvKy4Lu3A7+HaWr3dq 5MUzz/z6tzjvOZk+bvj1HWfSKhzZKs1QTItFa/zHb7Ylpxkvkyjud0RganpdoFJYapedyTRaqneK Nhe4Y6p4ngKJ+2E5lGfedzTCQ9uG204r9sOaBn2e/H0rTn6ZR4CPzj7MFjPjVPWy+FrbccTnR/x6 s7/e7P2R+y4MNctr0+sca40k3ey6lKQdQx5jG/YvN3s7rVSuE8bBM2HGCP67D96tYI91P59KWPPb abOyKd9O1oVzMUs9T/1lCTMaeJ1Qqo8xnZ+lnFlaHB1BzitpNljOE04tC5Tw2RwA4K7nehZgck2V XnGd9GUa66Rw21HmhtcWjsxEDNNACrv5SHhkDm2wPDJGnmFH2im7o1ws3j7wf/zi14qUfljxly96 WTFgTzNnRD80RKtQzzzSjGFeDJQ+OktVipH66ZLFM8k

Скачать книгу