by Rocky Carr
He made his way down the Front Line to a West Indian café where many of his friends hung out. He watched as young and old men were served with big platefuls of food, and though Tee preferred home cooking to eating out, his mouth watered at the sight and smells of all the delicious West Indian dishes. Perhaps if he had asked someone might have bought him a meal, but he was too proud. He was a robber and thief and jack of all trades. He was still a big timer in Brixton.
While he was sitting there, a man came in looking for some weed to buy. Tee saw the opportunity to take the man’s money and make a commission of five or ten pounds. Not much, but better than nothing.
‘How much weed you want, star?’ he asked.
But just at this moment someone Tee knew entered the café, a big man named Rudy.
‘Drape Up, you see Crazy Mule?’ he asked.
‘No, him no deh bout right now Rudy,’ Tee replied, turning back to continue his efforts to make a weed deal.
‘Hey, Drape, come up here,’ Rudy said.
Tee tried to ignore him, but Rudy was insistent, so he told his customer to wait.
‘Wha happen?’ Tee said coldly.
‘Look,’ Rudy replied, ‘me have ah man who have eighty weights of good wicked black ash. Come, we go take it away.’
Tee hesitated. He didn’t want to get involved in anything big. He should go back to his small deal. But then he thought of Princess and Rocky at home, of the bare cupboards. And anyway, stealing from drug dealers was hardly likely to bring the police down on him.
‘Wha,’ Tee said quickly. ‘Me ready like Uncle Freddy. Come, we ah go, man.’
He left his customer behind and followed Rudy out to a blue Jaguar XJ6. A man Tee knew as Shortie was at the wheel, and also inside was none other than the great Freeman, once the biggest weed man in the whole of Brixton.
‘Wha happen, Drape Up?’ Freeman laughed. ‘You ah de right man fe dis job, man.’
‘Yo, Drape Up,’ Rudy added, ‘ah Mule was to come on dis job but as we can’t find him we bring you. One Indian man have eighty weight ah wicked strong black ash seen at him place.’
‘What kind ah place?’ Tee asked.
‘A hotel.’
By the time they had talked over their plans, they were pulling up at the very hotel itself in the West End. It was broad daylight, and Tee only hoped there were no police staking it out for the drugs.
Rudy carried the attaché case in which the money was supposed to be. In the lobby they were met by an Indian man. He took them upstairs to his room, where they were confronted by the biggest, meanest black man Tee had ever seen. He made Tee feel like a midget. ‘Bombo claat!’ Tee thought. ‘How we going to get past dat King Kong of a man?’
The Indian turned to Rudy and said, ‘If you are ready to do business we will count up the money and take it from there.’
‘But we don’t do business like that, man,’ Rudy replied. ‘We have de money here in the case but we don’t see no ash. Get de ash, man, and we sit down and count out money and buy ash as we go along. Not de way you want to just count my money with you larger-than-life-size bodyguard.’
‘Oh no, I can’t deal with you,’ the Indian said. He whispered something to the black man, threw his hands in the air and walked out of the room. Shortie followed, then Rudy, and finally, reluctantly, Freeman, leaving Tee and the big man eyeing each other.
The big man looked pitifully at Tee and then asked, ‘You really want to buy this hash?’
Without thinking, Tee said, ‘Yeah, man. Of course man, we have de money fe buy.’
At this the bodyguard stormed out of the room, saying, ‘I’m going to get it,’ just as the others returned without the Indian, apparently having failed to persuade him.
‘Drape Up, why you tell de man to go get de ash, you no see we can’t do nothing,’ Freeman said, shaking his head.
They all pushed past Tee and headed out the door, leaving him standing there, not sure what to think. Eventually, he snapped out of it and turned to follow them. Me did try me best, he thought to himself, disappointed, because he was still utterly broke. What would he tell Princess?
He followed the others out to the street and as he walked down the steps to the pavement he saw a green van park up on the road. Driving it was the bodyguard, who climbed out struggling with a bag as big as a sack of potatoes. Tee stopped and stood there, as if the deal had been done and all he was doing was waiting to take the stuff he had paid for.
‘We gave de Indian man de money,’ he said.
The big man nodded and carefully transferred the bag to Tee’s back. Tee now walked down the steps towards the XJ6, while the three men in the car sat there goggling at him. ‘Run no, Drapes,’ Freeman mouthed at him, but Tee kept walking calmly. Shortie jumped out and opened the boot. Tee put the bag in, jumped in the car and they drove off, just as the Indian and the big black man appeared together on the step. Their faces were a picture, and there were whoops of joy and laughter inside the speeding car.
The gang drove straight to the Stockwell Park estate where they hid out in the house of Freeman’s woman, drinking a bottle of champagne to celebrate. While the hash was being shared out, Rudy took a ball of it and began making a joint. As Tee started doing the same, Rudy looked up and said, ‘Wha you ah do, Tee?’
‘Me ah mek ah spliff like you.’
‘All right, you goon man,’ Rudy said and laughed a sorrowful laugh. ‘You tink dis ash is like any ash you ever smoke, no!’
Tee carried on sipping his champagne, and eventually he had his joint rolled and lit. The first pull it was as if nothing had happened. The second he felt. The third had him wrecked out of his head in moments. Needing some fresh air, he took his share and got up. ‘Me gone,’ he announced and headed for the door.
‘But him know him way through the estate, no?’ Freeman’s lady asked.
‘You stay deh.’ Freeman laughed. ‘Drape Up know these flats and estate better than alla we in here.’
With that Tee took a big step out feeling good about Freeman’s final words of respect, and went down the stairs. He climbed over a railing and walked down to another fence telling himself he was taking a short cut, and within no time he was utterly lost. But he kept climbing fences and eventually he found himself out on the road that led up to Brixton police station. He walked fearlessly past and kept going through the market until he got to a café owned by a Greek family he knew. He took his friend Memmet into the toilet, showed him a ball of the hash and said, ‘Bargain, give me fifty quid.’ Memmet fished out the fifty and left, smiling to himself at the thought of the profit he would make on the street selling it in fiver and tenner deals.
Tee walked on along the Front Line, telling anyone who asked that the bag he was carrying was full of ‘Irish potatoes he had bought from the market for his queen Princess. At every opportunity he did another small deal and eventually he caught a taxi and went home to Princess and Rocky.
‘Happy New Year!’ he screamed when he was safely inside, taking a pile of notes and throwing it over Princess’s head, then watching as they fluttered slowly to the floor.
‘What have you been up to Tee?’ she said, laughing with a mixture of happiness and sadness.
‘No worry, babe, we safe,’ he replied. ‘So pick up dat money and go shopping. Buy down every shop you desire. But before you do anyting, cook me up dese tings me picked up in de market deh.’
By the end of the next day, Tee had well over a thousand pounds and all his friends were high and dry and bigging him up, for everyone had had a treat. They soon realised the stuff was the living murder. ‘Blood claat, it look like Drape Up come fe kill we off with dis ya black ash,’ they all said. Tee caught a taxi home, feeling happy and mellow, but when he entered the flat he found Princess laid out on the carpet fast asleep, with Rocky also sleeping by her side.
‘Princess baby, what’s up?’ he cried, in a panic. But Princess stirred and put a dazed hand to her head and said, ‘I’m glad you came, tha
t ash is half strong. I made a little spliff and I never even smoke it all. Look. See it in the ashtray. It almost took off my head.’ That gave him a good laugh.
The following day, Tee sold even more of the hash, and when his pockets were full of money, he went off to look for a little car to buy. He came across a Fiat 124 in good order, bought it on the spot and drove it home to pick up Princess and Rocky. While they were out driving, he stopped off at Karen’s house, leaving Princess sitting in the car, and gave her some money. His first son Richard was doing well, and Tee was happy he could treat them at last. Then they were off again. Life was good once more, and the bad times seemed long gone.
And so life continued for Tee from day to day – good days, bad days, growing older. Slowly the months passed and the date of the trial arrived. For several days Tee went to court and listened to the evidence against him. Eventually the lawyers had finished their cases, and the judge had summed up and it was left only for the jury to make their decision. It was the end of the day, so the judge told the court to reconvene in the morning.
That night Tee drove sorrowfully around his old haunts and then, more in hope than expectation, cruised past the old flat in Surrey Docks where he and Girlie had moved in together some four years earlier, so full of life and dreams. He had been by so many times without seeing any sign of life that when he looked up and saw the twinkle of a light in the window he could not believe his eyes. He blinked and looked again. The light was still there. He slammed his foot on the brakes, and ran up the stair. He was so excited he bent down and looked through the letter-box. There indeed were Girlie and Paulette.
‘Girlie,’ he called, for he did not have his key.
‘Mummy, it’s Daddy,’ Paulette cried.
Girlie opened the door and looked sadly out at him, though Paulette rushed to him and hugged his legs. Tee reached out and pulled Girlie towards him and held her in his arms. He wanted to tell her in a million ways how sorry he was and how much he loved her and the kid. But all he could manage was, ‘I love you, Girlie.’
‘Do you?’
‘I’m sorry I slapped you, babes, I was wrong to hit you.’
She pulled herself free and stood there looking at him, and he could sense that she was slowly coming round.
‘Oh, give me a kiss, Girlie,’ he said.
‘Do you really want me to?’
‘Of course, babes, you don’t know how I miss you and love you and need you. I’ve been worried over you. Where have you been?’
‘At my friend’s house in East London.’
And eventually she gave him his kiss.
It was now well past Paulette’s bedtime so Tee put her to bed and tucked her up. Then he returned and took Girlie to bed too, and they lay in each other’s arms, talking about the past and the future. They promised they would start again and make a go of things, though of course they both knew what the next day’s judgement might mean. Then they made love and went to sleep.
In the morning, Tee got up and dressed and kissed Girlie goodbye and drove down to the court, to face the jury’s verdict and see what life would bring.
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