Fools Gold

Kings Cross Station.....11am

A man gets aboard an empty tube carriage, carrying a brief case and a
newspaper, he sits down and begins to read the paper, the train moves
off. At Mornington Crescent, he hears people getting on, and, out of
the corner of his eye he sees someone approach and sit down right next
to him, he tenses, wandering why someone would want to sit down next to
him in an empty train. From the window opposite he sees the reflection
of a young boy, 13 or 14 years old.

The boy speaks but the man does not hear him at first, the man turns
and speaks to the boy

"I'm sorry, what did you say ? "

The boy spoke again,

" could you do me a favour mate ?"

The man shifts uncomfortably in his seat, but answers

"What's that then ? "

The boy nods in the direction of a couple of older teenagers, a short
stocky boy, with dark lank hair stands in one of the entrances to the
carriage, with him is a taller boy, skin head cut, both are wearing
expensive looking track suits and trainers.

"You see those two by the door ? they're after my gold rings, could you
just hang out with me as far as Kentish Town, they won't attack me as
long as I'm with someone. I'll be alright after that cos my brother
runs a green grocer stand outside the station "

The man smells a scam, but at the same time is excited by it, he is in
a boring job, and this is a little adventure to talk about in the pub
later. He decides to go along with the boy"

"OK, I'm getting off at Kentish Town anyway, so I suppose I can do
that"...

The tube continues until Camden where they have to change tubes. By
this time the man is a lot more nervous, he doesn't know if the two
boys are armed, doesn't know if they are acting in league with the boy,
they could be planning to mug him, he thinks he should just ditch the
boy as there was no point taking the risk....but again the possibility
of potential violence and the intrigue of it all, excites him. He finds
he can't help himself, whatever happens he wants to see it through to
the end, whatever that may be.

They get off the tube, the two boys follow them at a distance, The boy
keeps looking back, he doesn't appear to be nervous, twice he taunts
the following boys, waving the rings at them, daring them to come for
him. The man doesn't like the taunting, but won't tell the boy to stop
it, all this is exciting him way too much and he doesn't want it to
end.

They reach the platform, and lean against an advertising hoarding , the
2 boys saunter around 20 yards away. The man looks at one of the boys,
and the boy draws his fingers across his throat points at him, and
smiles. The man is definitely regretting helping this boy, he thinks
it's definitely a scam, but perversely now feels protected by his
proximity to the boy, as long as he stays with him, he will be safe,
the protector becomes the protected.

Another tube comes in, more crowded than the first one, the man and the
boy find adjacent seats and sit down. The two pursuers once again, hang
by the door, looking at the man, seemingly not interested in the boy or
his sovereign rings any more.

To take his mind on the potential dangers that confront him, the man
decides to find out more about the boy.

"Why do they want your gold rings ? "

The boy smiles, a fans his hand in front of his face, there were two
gold sovereign rings on the middle fingers of his right hand.

" these two babies are worth 250.00 quid, that' s why they want
them"

The man is shocked that a boy of 14 can afford 250 quid for rings, when
he could only just afford his rent, travel, and beer money. he also
cannot understand why someone that small would risk a kicking just to
waer some ugly jewelry.

"Why do you wear them if someone is going to try and rob them off
you"

The boy smiled, a more confident smile than the man could ever
muster..

"It for the gels innit , they fucking luv'em, I gotta fight them off
!!! "

The man, who's sex life has been supremely barren for months, is amazed
that the two ugly rings could gain as much shagging as they appeared to
do.. maybe the boy was just lying, but briefly he considers stealing
them himself, after all, he needed a shag, and if a couple of ugly
sovereign rings got him one....well it would be worth it...but he's
nearly 30, it would be teenagers, no, he would look like a complete
dick, his brief flirtation with felony stopped.

The train then pulled into Kentish Town, the man and the boy get off
the train, now closely followed by the two boys, as they get on the
escalator, the two boys are only 3 or 4 steps behind them. The boy and
the man climb the escalator quickly...the boys start to gain on them,
the man is still convinced that once outside, the boy will join up with
the others and he will get a good kicking, it's too late now, he
doesn't know which way to turn, so lets the situation unfold.

So he still dumbly follows the boy, out of the station and into the
sunlight. The two boys edge ever closer, the man and the boy turn a
corner and they see the green grocer's stand, the boy was rigfht after
all, in a way the man is disappointed, he almost wanted a fight to a
start, he feels cheated, thinks he could have fought well, and taken
all of them.... he watches as the boy goes up to the owner..

"whaddya doing here, 'sposed to be at school in't ya"

the boy and his brother indulge in some mock fighting and the man
carries on walking, the boy doesn't thank him. A couple of times, the
man looks around for the two others, but they too have
disappeared..........