Say Goodbye to the Boys by Mari Stead Jones Read Free Book Online

kicking and jabbing at Mash without any effect. ‘For fuck’s sake, Mash, put him down!’
    Mash’s eyes were closed. I saw the muscle on his arm bulge as he tightened his grip. Then I had this old stick in my hands. God knows where it came from. It was there under the seaweed and I had it in my hands, and I was telling Mash I’d brain him. Emlyn’s legs went limp. I aimed for the tip of Mash’s elbow, gave it all I had and felt the sting of the blow in my hands. Mash gave a great howl and dropped Emlyn, and I stood facing him, swinging the stick, waiting.
    He had one hand clamped on his elbow. ‘Oh Jesus, oh Jesus,’ he was saying. He sank to his knees still saying it. Then in a broken voice, added, ‘Philip – what did you do that for?’
    I tossed the stick aside and knelt by Emlyn and turned him over. There was blood coming from his nose. I saw his eyelids flicker and raised him to a sitting position and held his head between his knees.
    Mash was at my side, full of concern. ‘What happened to him, Philip? What happened to Emlyn?’
    I sent Mash to the river to fetch some water. He came back with a bucketful and I set to work on Emlyn’s face. He came round quickly, retching and spluttering. ‘Jesus Christ, that’s salt water,’ I heard him say, and I felt better. I told Mash to get up to the cabin and put a kettle on the stove for some tea. ‘Yes, Philip,’ he said, like a child pleased at being sent on an errand.
    â€˜What the fuck happened?’ Emlyn had a coughing spell and did a great deal of spitting. He held both his hands around this throat. ‘Oh, shit!’ he said in a croaking voice, said it again and again.
    â€˜He nearly had you...’
    â€˜You don’t have to tell me.’
    â€˜What started it? Were you fooling about or what?’
    He drew a long, ragged breath into his lungs and slowly heaved himself to his knees. ‘We were working just there.’ He pointed to a patch at the bow of the boat. ‘We were chatting, singing a bit.’ I helped him to his feet. ‘Shit! There wasn’t an argument, even.’
    â€˜You didn’t say anything to get him mad?’
    â€˜How the hell can I remember? We were just chatting. When suddenly he goes for me. Throws a punch and catches me here.’ He touched the pulped skin above his ear. ‘I didn’t even go back at him.’
    â€˜You didn’t say anything – you’re sure?’
    He shook his head. ‘Philip?’ Again the appeal. ‘He just went for me. Did you ask him?’
    â€˜Doesn’t know what happened,’ I said. I told him about the stick. We stood there for a while just looking at each other, then I helped him up the ladder.
    In the Ariadne ’s cabin Mash was pouring boiling water into the mugs. I told him to put tea in first, and he blushed and said ‘Oh hell – I forgot.’ Then we sat, Mash and I on one side, Emlyn on the other. Mash talked, even quoted the line about “Summer’s warm face”, and I kept asking myself how he could forget so easily. Emlyn was slumped on the seat, streaks of mud, blood on his face and chest, trying to sip the tea and finding it painful to swallow. And Mash there, as if he didn’t notice, as if Emlyn always looked like that.
    â€˜When I was in the unit,’ Mash said brightly, ‘we used to say roll on demob – every day. Roll on fucking demob. Roll on fucking demob – every day.’ His round, firm jaw twitched as he searched for more words. A silence fell over the cabin. I could hear the gulls outside.
    â€˜OK, you all right now?’ I asked Emlyn.
    â€˜Except that I’ve been through the mangle,’ he croaked.
    Then Mash spoke up again. ‘We were away when it happened. There was this man who was burnt to death on the coast road there. You heard about it?’
    How had it got onto that tack, I wondered.