Kill For Love by RAY CONNOLLY Read Free Book Online

'Well,' said Harry,
'monkeys have very long arms and are good jump-ers. If we had one of our own we
could trai...train it to be a goal-keeper...'" He was already
giggling, although it was apparent he must have practised reading the story
several times. "'Why would we want
to do that?' asked Bill. 'Well', said Harry, 'if it was any good, we could sell
it to Man…ches...ter...'"
    "Manchester."
    "'Manchester
Un...ited...for twenty mill...million pounds', said Harry." Now Jeroboam
laughed out loud.
    Kate laughed with him.
    "'But won't they not-ice that it's a monkey?' asked Bill. 'It
won't matter,' said Harry. 'He'll fit in there. They're all monkeys at
United.'"
    "Well done," she enthused.
She meant it. Somehow Jeroboam had been left behind when learning to read, but
all he really lacked was confidence and practice.
    His face puckered in pleasure and
he took a gulp of tea. Then he continued with the story.
    It would never have occurred to
her to teach remedial reading before her breakdown. "Perhaps it would help
if you had something to take your mind off yourself," a nurse at the Princess Diana Hospital
had suggested one afternoon as Kate had stared into the abyss. She'd dismissed
the idea, as she'd dismissed everything during those weeks, but the nurse had
persisted. "Seeing as you read so much, why don't you lend a hand with people
with reading difficulties and show them what they're missing," had been
the next suggestion.
    Again Kate had brushed the
thought aside. And so it had gone on, until, if for no reason other than to
shut her up, she’d eventually promised to make enquiries when she was well
enough.
    The following day the nurse, a
New Zealander of pioneering zeal, had brought her a booklet from the education
department of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. “Volunteers are
always needed,” she'd explained.
    Jeroboam had been kicking a
football against a wall, when, discharged from hospital, Kate had gone to meet
him at the education centre. She'd assumed at first he was younger than fifteen,
and only on being introduced had she noticed the soft down of an adolescent moustache.
His mother, Maria Elena, was Filippino and his father something else, but never
a factor in the boy's life, anyway. When Maria Elena had first come to Britain she'd worked as a nanny, sending money
home to Manila.
Now she cleaned the trains overnight for London Underground, mother and son
living near the top of multi-storey block on a council estate. It wasn't the
best start in life, but a bright child might still have done well. Jeroboam was
not very bright. Too insignificant to be bullied, he was a fringe person who
watched the games of the world from the sidelines.
    They read about Bill and Harry for over an hour, and
with every chapter he improved.
    "I'm going to have to get
you another book," Kate said as he turned the final page. "You're
really doing very well now."
    He blinked with pride.
    She changed the subject.
"What about your mother? Did she give you a hard time over the CDs?"
    The smile disappeared.
    "Did she shout? As bad as I
did?"
    "Worse."
    "She loves you. She worries
about you."
    He didn't reply.
    "You never told me why you
took the CDs when you haven't got a CD player?"
    Now he was embarrassed.
    She took a guess. "Was it to
play them to me? To show me why you liked them?"
    His brown eyes misted with tears.
    She got up from the table.
"Well, I shouldn't really reward you, because it really was pretty bad,
but...well, you left me a Snickers bar, so..." Going to her shopping she
put her hand inside the HMV bag, took out a Twist-O and the Koolboys CD and
went across to the player.
    Jeroboam watched in astonishment.
    "Hey, come on, don't you
dare look so surprised. If I can teach you to read, you can teach me about hip
hop.” And sitting down next to him she waited for the music to begin.
    It did. With a vengeance. Putting
a hand to one ear, she quickly turned the volume down, then back up a little,
when she saw his