51 292
Not Near London
51
to collect them?’ ‘Where’s
the
documentation?’
‘Right, I meant to but I
had a problem with my
camera?’
But she really enjoyed
painting those cartons
with poster paints – pink
and purple and yellow
and green and one black.
Windows
and
doors.
When it came to the final
assessment she kicked it
over just before the exam
so that the cartons were
strewneverywhereandshe
called it, ‘I Really Enjoyed
Painting These with Poster
Paints: Rubble 2’. The jury
loved it, mentioning some
Japanese woman she’d
never heard of. ‘Yeah, I
really like her work,’ she
said, from a part of her
she didn’t know existed.
Heglancesdownontheway
back, too. Much worse, it
is: he looks straight at the
black girl in front, gives
her one of his dazzling
toff-school Prince William
smiles that could blow the
tits off an iceberg, then
makes a remark. Talking
to her. Why is he talking?
Hey! Is there a child here
she can kill? The girl’s
taken her earphones off.
Her elbow is still jigging,
like someone emotionally
deranged. Jasper bends
slightly at the waist,
head lowered, elbow on
the seat-backs, hands
dangling at the wrists. The
train’s movement makes
his pelvis sway.
Rumba!
Hot shit. Or just: oh, shit.
Don’t we love life?
Suzie shifts across into
his seat: she prefers
being next to the window,
although there is a cold
draught blowing upwards
into her nostrils which is
never reassuring. He is