Infinite Sky by Cj Flood Read Free Book Online

needed something to fiddle with so I could listen properly.
    ‘Me da wasn’t bothered about me going in the first place, he wanted me to go to work with him – thinks school’s a waste of time after a bit.’
    The corn felt cool and unfamiliar as I passed it between my sticky hands. Trick seemed nervous and defensive – completely unlike he’d been before – and I couldn’t work
out if it was because of what he had to tell me or because he was lying.
    ‘It was okay for a bit,’ he said. ‘For ages, actually. Just normal. People left me alone, or were friendly; I liked it. I played footy at break, it was all right. Then this
lad, my year, got attacked by someone.
Gypsy
, he said, and the way he acted, you’d think it was me who did it. Matt
Dunbar
. A big, blond, sporty bastard. Him and his mates
started shouting at me at break, trying to get me to fight.’
    I saw Year Tens doing this kind of thing to younger boys all the time, but it was hard to imagine Trick as the victim.
    ‘In the end, I got angry because he kept saying it was . . .’ He stopped talking, but his feet kept tapping, left then right, and I wanted to put my hands on them, to make them stop
because they were distracting me.
    ‘Go on,’ I said.
    I dismantled the corn on the cob, making a food pile for the pheasants.
    ‘Well, Matt Dunbar’s giving it
backwards pikey scumbag
and all that, and none of the teachers notice, or give a toss, and I’m not too bothered neither, till he starts
calling me a pussy. Says
pikeys
only fight when they know they can win, as if I wouldn’t dare fight him! And every time I refuse, it gets worse. So one day I just have enough, and when
he asks me for a fight, I punch him straight in the eyes.’
    ‘Well, yeah,’ I said. ‘So what?’ I knew people like Matt Dunbar, and the only thing that made them stop was a smack in the eyes.
    ‘But I shouldn’t have, Iris, that’s the thing, because I
know
how to fight. I’m not being big-headed or nothing, but I was bred for it. Me da taught me, and I kind
of hate it but . . .’
    ‘
Bred
for it?’
    I felt as though a curtain had been pulled back to reveal a whole world I didn’t know about, right here in England, in this little town. In my back garden.
    ‘He used to be a bare-knuckle fighter, for years – you should see his hands, they’re a holy mess, fat bendy sausage fingers . . .’ He pulled a face, as if the sausages
were coming for him. ‘Hates them now he’s stopped, they won’t do what he wants, but he used to be over the moon. They were his pride and joy when I was growing up.’
    ‘Is it legal?’
    ‘Nah, but no one cares. Rozzers leave us to it. Me da was one of the big boys, no one beat Paddy Delaney. I wanted to be just like him. I started to have my own reputation at the old camp.
But I got fed up of it too. It never ends! I don’t see the point. I don’t want to fight any more, but it’s like I don’t have a choice. I tell my ma, it comes for me, I
swear! But I should never have fought a
gorgia
. Not the way I did. No offence.’
    ‘So what happened?’
    He looked at me, pulling at his top lip. ‘He was a big lad, you know, Iris, hardest in Year Ten . . .’
    ‘
Trick
.’
    ‘I punched him and he went down, and his face smacked on the tarmac – school tarmac, no less – and knocked his front teeth out. I gave him a bit of a kicking, you know, then I
ran off.’
    He didn’t sound proud or sorry as he spoke, just matter of fact. I wondered how I would do in a fight.
    ‘I hear later he had to stay overnight in the hospital. Concussion and all that. He’s all right now, though,’ he added quickly.
    ‘So how d’you know you’re expelled?’
    He looked puzzled.
    ‘They can’t expel you without asking for your side.
At least
. Kids at my school stay on for worse than that.’
    ‘Trust me, Iris. I wrecked it. And now me da says it’s work with him. Don’t come crying to me, he said . . .’
    ‘And you