Trafika Europe 9/10 - UK in Europe

Not Near London

and literally crying, with tears all down his face.’ Love. Or maybe just work. Suzie drifts off because she is so indescribably tired she is almost at the end of her physical functionality with about two hours sleep inside her from last night and the train is rocking her away and then she’s dragged back after months or maybe two minutes because the voice is carrying on, needling her into consciousness. ‘She said she thought I looked like her acoustic cousin? Yeah, acoustic. Her cousin’s autistical, OK? And then I said, where do you live in London, and she said: near the Thames? Yeah, like she was so not intelligent. These trains aren’t as mental as she is, righ’? What? Nah, hun, we are so not near London it ain’t bloody true.’

Jasper can’t see her, but he is listening, like his ears are growing points. The girl sounds a proper Londoner, not a fake Cockney. Sarf Lunnen. Brixton, maybe. A husky voice, very strong, like an actress’s or an ageing soul singer’s – not the voice you’d expect. Suzie, whose own voice is thin and weedy and Linconshire-lite in her own opinion, catches Jasper’s eye. ‘Whassup?’ ‘Nothing,’ says Jasper. ‘Looking like you’re having your hair washed by She squeezes his arm, rubs her cheek against his jaw- line of soft beard that goes up in a point under his lower lip. Then she nibbles his ear, tasting its stud as a angels.’ ‘What?’

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