Last Orders by Graham Swift Read Free Book Online

jeep. Lad might even have had his arse shot off. I wouldn’t have minded if he had.
    And don’t give me that tosh, my girl, about how he’d come back and see you right. About how he’d run off to join the Foreign Legion to make a better man of himself.
    I said, ‘Well, Jack, you can’t say he aint following in your footsteps. You were a soldier once, as well as a butcher.’
    He looks at me like he’s saying, I aint in no mood for jokes.
    He says, ‘I was a butcher by choice.’
    But I knew a bit of conscripting had gone on there too. Like I’d been having a few private chats with Raysy.
    He says, ‘Soldier – bleeding defaulter I’d call him. Bleeding deserter. That’s what I’d call him.’
    I think, And you’d be right.
    I say, ‘It wasn’t the only reason. What you think was his reason – it wasn’t his only reason.’
    But he doesn’t listen. Hears me but he doesn’t listen. Like there’s only one reason in the world and that’s Jack Dodds, family butcher.
    I say, ‘You don’t own him, Jack. We don’t own ’em, do we?’
    He says, ‘Talk sense.’
    He looks at me and I think, You ought to be glad you don’t own him, when you finally listen to what I’m saying, because you may be a big feller and it may be fifteen years since I stepped into a ring, but.
    I say, ‘We don’t own ’em, do we? Even when we own ’em, we don’t own ’em.’
    He says, ‘You’re talking bollocks.’
    So I say, ‘The other reason was Sally. He left her a little leaving present. I’d say she’s going to have to get rid of it.’

DARTFORD
    Lenny says, ‘So how’s your Kath?’
    Vince don’t answer for a long time. It’s as though he hasn’t heard or he’s concentrating on the road. I see him looking in the mirror.
    ‘Still working for you at the garage?’ Lenny says.
    Lenny knows she isn’t, and Lenny knows Vince doesn’t like ‘garage’. It’s ‘showroom’ these days. It was Lenny who said one night in the Coach, ‘Showroom, he calls it, well we all know what’s on show.’
    ‘No,’ Vince says. ‘Packed it in, didn’t she?’
    Lenny says, ‘Aint out of a job, I hope.’
    Vince don’t answer.
    Lenny says, answering for him, ‘No, I heard she aint out of a job.’
    Vince says, ‘So why you asking then?’
    Vince puts his foot down just a bit. We all hear the extra revs.
    Vic says, ‘What d’you say we all stop somewhere for lunch, take a break?’
    Lenny says, ‘Curious, that’s all. Can’t always trust what you hear.’
    I say, ‘Good idea, Vic.’
    Vic’s still holding the box. He shouldn’t keep hogging it.
    Lenny says, ‘Only it’s a shame she never went to see Jack, in the hospital. When he was— Jack would’ve appreciated that. Time was she used to call him Grandad.’
    Vince says, ‘But he wasn’t.’
    Vic says, ‘I’d say somewhere around Rochester way.’
    Lenny says, ‘Daughters. Who’d have ’em?’
    We’re coming up to the M25 junction. The traffic’s busy.
    Lenny looks at me. He says, ‘You hear much from your Susie these days?’
    I say, ‘Odd letter.’
    He says, ‘You reckon she’d come, if you was— I mean, d’you think she’d show up?’
    Vic says, ‘What a question.’
    Lenny says, ‘It’s a fair one.’
    I say, ‘I aint thought about it.’ But I have.
    Lenny says, ‘It’s a fair question.’
    Vic says, ‘Jack would’ve reckoned on us taking a break for lunch.’ Vince looks at him.
    Lenny says, ‘And how’s your brood, Vic? I reckon you did the right thing – get yourself a couple of sons, set ’em up in the firm, so you can bow out easy. Passing on the torch. All that.’
    Vic says, ‘Can’t complain.’
    Lenny says, ‘ “Tucker and Sons” – sounds all right, don’t it, Vince?’
    Vince doesn’t answer.
    ‘Don’t it, Vince?’
    Vince says, all fierce and hissy, ‘I’m here. I came.’
    He moves out to overtake a truck.
    Lenny says, ‘Daughters.’
    The sky’s clear and blue and clean with just a few wisps of