Poppy Shakespeare by Clare Allan Read Free Book Online

the estate like a giant 'No Entry' sign.
    But that weekend before Poppy arrived, it felt like the longest ever. I even thought of going up the tower, score some Minozine
     off of Banker Bill to knock me out for a bit, but in the end I couldn't be arsed. I couldn't be arsed with doing nothing at
     all, 'cept for sit on the sofa and wait for Monday morning.
    By the time Monday morning finally come I felt so fucking shattered, was all I could do to light up a fag and drag myself
     through to the bathroom. And what I seen in the mirror when I did, it didn't look much like a guide at all, not even a mentally
     ill one, but I give my face a bit of a splash and checked again and splashed some more and the thing in the mirror, it grown
     a nose and a couple of ears and a pair of eyes blinked roughly in time with my own.
    I gone through, put the telly on and made a cup of tea. The only thing was now I'd woke myself up, I'd woke up my nerves as
     well. I sat there watching the GMTV, staring at the numbers in the corner of the screen as they marched through the minutes
     to the time when I'd have to go out. If you've ever watched GMTV, you'll know how it keeps going round. And they give you
     the news every fifteen minutes and it's always the same unless something's happened like exactly the same I mean, word for word — so even if you ain't really watching, you start to know it by heart. Well I'm sure they had
     something on that morning about that Mad Tsar woman, Veronica Salmon. She was stood outside of this hospital and all these
     reporters asking her stuff, and as soon as they said like 'Veronica Salmon' I remembered what Middle-Class Michael said. I'm
     like, 'know her! Ain't she Minister for Madness!' And two seconds later they said it theirselves, and when they did, I felt
     pretty smart, I can tell you.

    I got to the Abaddon ten past nine. Sharon was sat at his desk by the entrance. 'You're early,' he said, and he give me my
     pass. He never looked up on account of he didn't, just carried on reading his fitness mag, turning the pages with his huge
     right hand while his left one pumped a dumb-bell up and down above his glistening black head.
    The lobby weren't big, maybe twenty foot long with double sliding doors either end. The only place to sit was this black leather
     sofa with a trailing plant beside it on a stand. It weren't the sort of sofa you sat on easy. With its smooth leather cushions
     and its soft leather arms, there was dribblers I could think of I'd of sat on more easy, but there weren't nowhere else so
     in the end I just gone ahead and done it. Well as I sat down it done this fart, ain't no nicer way I can say it. And I swear
     I seen Sharon smirk to hisself, but he never looked up and he never said nothing, just tossed the dumbbell over his head,
     caught it like a rattle in his huge right hand and carried on reading his mag. And it didn't stop there, do you know what
     I'm saying, 'cause every time I moved it done another. And I sat so still I weren't even breathing, but each time the sliding doors slid open, I just couldn't help it, it give me a jump, and each time I jumped, it let off
     a thumping stunker. So then all I could do was like look at the floor and sit and hope and pray it wouldn't be Poppy.
    I don't know how long I stayed sat in that lobby, but I seen Sharon's hair grow from bald to a number four. I tried counting
     nurses to pass the time, but with so many of them, they all seemed to merge, till I couldn't no more count them than counting
     the drops in the Thames. Dr Clootie gone past and Dr Azazel, and Dr Neutral, wheeling his bike, with the veins in his legs
     stood out like thin blue worms. I even thought, being sat there so long, I might get to see Dr Diabolus, 'cause I only ever
     seen him twice and that was from a distance. Some dribblers never seen him at all, reckoned he must have a separate entrance,
     either that or he never gone home at night but covered hisself in MAD money forms