Angel 81 (finding friends)

Angel straightened her skirt and wiped away her tears. Her hand drifted across and she tried the door, it was locked.

The driver looked in the mirror. ‘Don’t be so fucking stupid.’

Angel took a deep breath. ‘I’m no’ having sex wae yeh.’

‘How no’?’ he asked. A note of bravado in his voice. ‘Am I no’ good enough for the likes of you?’  

‘I’ve got Adam to think about.’

‘You should have thought of that before.’

He turned his head, even though he was driving and the cab drifted. A white minibus sounded its horn.

‘Fuck off,’ he screamed, whether at the minibus driver of her Angel wasn’t sure. ‘Open your legs a bit so I can see yeh’.

‘No,’ she shook her head and pushed her knees together.

The cab slowed and he pulled into the side of the road. Adam’s nappy was stinking. She pulled the holdall closer to her seat and unzipped it. She propped him up and with practiced ease pulled off his canvas shoes and trousers. The stink was putrid.

‘Watch it,’ he said, ‘you’ll get shite on the seats’.

His nappy was heavy in her hand, she wiped its shit-stained contents on the window behind the passenger seat and trailed it in an arc around the screen separating them and window nearest the pavement.

He roared, ‘Yah, fucking cow.’

The cab shook as he jumped out of the driver’s seat and pulled open the door. His hand reached in to grab her wrist, but she covered him in shit from elbow to hand and he quickly pulled it away.  

‘I’ll fucking kill yeh,’ he hollered.  

Adam started screaming and he took a step backwards and looked about. The two teenage boys with carry-out bags and baseball caps they’d seen earlier were eyeing him. The sashayed across in tandem. The taller of the two had a pink complexion and he angled his head to look inside the cab. He didn’t say anything merely nodded and pulled a bottle of Buckfast tonic out and held it by the neck as a weapon.

The smaller boy had buck teeth and looked the more vicious of the two spoke for both of them, ‘Whit you daeing to that woman, yah prick?’

The cab driver turned to face them. ‘I’ll rip your arms and legs aff you and feed them back to yeh, one at a time.’

Angel pulled Adam up around the waist and lifted the bag.

‘You might think yer a ticket,’ said the fresh-faced boy. ‘But no’ before I’ve lobbed this bottle through yer front window. And you’ll no’ get away fae here without your cab going alight and you in it.

Angel sprung out of the cab door, clutching Adam and the holdall. The cab driver turned towards her and she rubbed the dirty nappy in his face. She scrambled towards where the two boys were standing braying with laughter, scared the cab driver would make a grab for her, but when she heard the door clunking shut and the engine starting she knew her and Adam were safe.

‘That was funny,’ said the bucktoothed boy in a high-pitched voice as they watched the cab accelerate towards Paisley . ‘Covered in shite.’

‘Talking shite,’ his pal elbowed him and gloried in their victory.

When they sobered up a little, the taller boy asked, ‘Whit was he trying to dae to you, anyway, hen?’

‘He was a pervert.’ She made a coracle of the holdall on the pavement and they watched her as she finished changing Adam and putting a clean nappy on him.

‘Thought so,’ piped up the bucktoothed boy. ‘All taxi drivers are snakes or perverts…and I should know, my da was a taxi driver before he fucked aff and left us.’

A smile flickered across his plukey face and on another day, Angel thought, he might even have been handsome. She smiled at him, ‘Thanks anyway, you saved me.’

‘Och, it was nothing,’ his mate shrugged, ‘We werenae daeing anything anyway’. He seemed to remember he still had the Buckfast bottle in his hand and held it up to the light. ‘You want a drink?’ he held it out gallantly.

‘No,’ Angel laughed. ‘I need to keep my heid.’

The fresh faced boy broke the seal and took a swig of the bottle. Made a face that showed he didn’t particularly like the taste. ‘That’s just whit we don’t want to dae, because there’s nothing to dae, anyway’.

‘Where were you goin’ anyway?’ The bucktoothed boy crouched down and tickled Adam’s stomach and made chirruping sounds that delighted her son.

‘I was looking for pals of mine,’ Angel shook her head. ‘But I couldn’t remember the proper address. I wisnae even sure it was Paisley Road.’

‘That was smart,’ the bucktoothed boy replied, squinting up at her. ‘I sometimes dae that go into the cupboard for socks and come out with a cup of tea.’  

‘Well, I thought it was 966 Paisley Road, West, but it might have been 967,’ she sighed tired even thinking about it.

‘Mere like 666,’ the taller boy giggled

‘Anyway,’ Angel lifted Adam up into her arms. ‘I don’t know if you’ll know them? My pals Tony and he’s got blonde hair.’ She looked at the taller boy, much finer and longer than yours, but he’s just as thin as you.’

‘He’s an ugly cunt, then?’ the bucktoothed boy cut-in, sniggering.

‘Well, I don’t think so, but my other pal Bruno—’

‘Oh, he’s the ugly cunt—’     

‘Em, he’s kinda fat and kinda gay…well a lot kinda gay.’

‘Och, my mum knows him,’ the tall boy hollered in recognition. ‘She said he’s a big poof, but he’s funny.’

Angel could have kissed him and his plukey pal. ‘You know where he lives?’

‘Aye,’ the tall boy spat out in exasperation. ‘He stays beside us.’

‘We’ll show you were it is,’ the buckteethed boy’s eyes flickered away from her towards Adam. ‘You think it would be alright, if I could carry him?’

‘I’m no’ sure,’ Angel dipped her shoulder to test if her son would cling to her neck, but he seemed quite happy to be carried by the smiling boy that got younger with every step as he led the way.