55 292
Not Near London
55
it,’ he says, smiling cockily.
‘Her ring. Through her
navel. Like the one that
stuck out of my sister’s
speaking doll? You lifted
up the little dress and – ’
‘Frickin heck. Try to be an
adult, Jasper. Please.’
There are limits, as her
mum would say. It’s worse
because, being next to the
aisle now and not tucked
away by the window, his
voice travels further. He
ignores her, even though
she is squeezing the life
out of his forearm.
‘You lifted her little dress
and pulled the ring and
when it went back in she
said…’ (he adopts a really
loud falsetto):
‘
I’ve wet my
knickers
. It made me very
happy. It were so-o-o sick!’
His falsettohassentaripple
through the carriage, she
can imagine the heads
turning. It breaks through
the train’s sound, which is
beyond loud. She presses
herself against him. He is
bony.
‘You know the face of the
earth, Jasper? Right now
I want you to fall the fuck
off it.’
He is rocking his knees
together, excited. ‘Or,
wait:
I’m hungry, Mummy.
’
She whispers in his ear, so
close that her lips brush
the pierced but currently
vacant lobe: ‘What would
hers say, then?
Please piss
off, annoying person?
’
‘
Hiya, handsome boy,
here’s my mobile number.
’
Knit and knit and knit her
way into Jasper’s heart,
the girl would. Suzie pulls
a face. Jasper is almost in
the orgasm zone.
‘
Screwme till it hurts, bruv.
Up my Bristol Channel to
Chipping Sodbury.
’ It is not