The Incredible Rise of a Gorbals Gangster

by Colin MacFarlane

  He arranged for Goo Goo to pick up him, Cathy and the boy and drive them to Glasgow Airport where he had booked a flight to take them to Malaga. As they waited in the airport lounge, he picked up a copy of the Daily Record. The front page headline was DRUG ACCOUNTANT FOUND BLASTED TO DEATH. The story said Percy had been “assassinated” with a shotgun as he tended his garden in Milngavie.

  The flight took a couple of hours and when they arrived in Malaga the sun was blazing. They went out of the airport and Pat was there to meet them in his Porsche. “Welcome to paradise,” Pat shouted to them, “Aye,” Cathy said, “It’s better than that shithole they call the Gorbals. Ah never want to go back there again.”

  Johnny and Patrick laughed. They thought the comments were a bit over the top as they still had a great affection for the place, even with all its drawbacks.

  The next day, Johnny lay on a sunbed beside the pool at his villa. He sipped on a glass of chilled white wine. He thought of his life and adventures in the Gorbals. It might even make a good book and a title came into his head, “The Incredible Rise of a Gorbals Gangster.”

  THE END