Thursday, 11 December 2008

Mocking The Mentally Incapable

They sat by me on the sofa, him on her knee. Talking baby talk to one another - acting the eejits. Had this sort of behavior occurred in any other context other than love they would have been accused of mocking the mentally incapable.
Friday nights are busy. Trip over to Holywood on a late afternoon train, zipping along in one of the increasingly stained 'new' NI Rail carriages. When I've got the gear back to Belfast via Sydenham, where one of the creatures will usually offer a lift back, I divide my money up into what I owe and what I've got left over. Then I divvy up the block into half O's and quarters. When all my work is done I sit down and take a hog on a nice big bong.
I mostly make some coin when I'm up for collecting a big consignment that week. It used to be you put it in the microwave and it would expand, some say by 10%, thus increasing your profit margin. Other people said the found bits of bin liner right in the middle of their deal like a h'penny in the Christmas cake. They'd ask me what my game was and I'd tell 'em it was the same as their's: You're glad you got something when all and everyone else looked like they were going to bail, and current manufacturing techniques should be viewed with the utmost faithfulness - they put emulsifier in your biscuits don't they? --- Well you pays your money you take the ride.......
But there they where. Talking at each other in some ghastly slobberful take on infant speak and I was getting ready to boke. When I'm dealing people mostly come to me. The exceptions are Peg-Leg, who's only got one leg from stepping on a landmine in the war, and sometimes my sister if her wombat of a boyfriend isn't there. It is not easy making me feel uncomfortable. A thick skin, resilient as alligator hide, protects me from the clawing vagaries of the world. Sometimes the setbacks in this game come at the end of a claw hammer, sometimes they begin with a knock at your door. Other times they take on a slow boil and chip away at the edges - like an overdone marble statue.

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