The Sting

by Kimberley Chambers

  Unlike himself, who’d had no option but to toughen up, Linda was young and fragile, therefore Tommy wasn’t about to admit his findings. ‘Take no notice of idle gossip. Your dad was always paranoid, accusing our mum of all sorts. If you weren’t his daughter, you wouldn’t be living with Nanny Noreen.’

  Linda burst into tears. ‘I wish I wasn’t his daughter, Tommy. I hate him.’

  ‘Yeah, man. I is well stoned,’ Benny grinned, flopping flat on his back and staring at the clear blue sky.

  ‘Why wouldn’t Scratch come out with us? I still fancy her, even though Tommy says I mustn’t,’ Dumbo admitted, snatching the joint out of Benny’s hand.

  ‘You got no chance with her, Dumbo. She fancies Tommy. I’ve seen the way she looks at him. Anyway, good job she ain’t here. She’d only grass us up to Tommy for getting stoned, then going to the fair,’ Smiffy said.

  ‘True. Tommy acts like our dad at times,’ Benny chuckled.

  Smiffy took a big lug on the joint. As much as he idolized Tommy, his pal could be a bit of a killjoy at times. Tommy wasn’t a fan of marijuana and was forever telling them off if they got too stoned or sloshed.

  ‘You sure Wayne won’t go to the fair?’ Dumbo asked.

  ‘Positive,’ Smiffy laughed. ‘The ugly bastard ain’t got no teeth. Would you go to the fair looking like that? He ain’t been out all week.’

  ‘How much in the kitty?’ Benny asked. They still had money in the kitty from last weekend, but Tommy was looking after that. They’d had a good little earner with their thieving this week though, always did when it was the school holidays.

  ‘Eighteen-pound-odd. What I suggest is we get something from the chippy, rather than eat at the fair. They stripe you up for grub over there. I would rather spend our dosh on cider and the rides,’ Smiffy said. When Tommy wasn’t around, he tended to take charge.

  Benny stood up. ‘I’m gasping and ravenous. Let’s make a move, shall we?’

  As the lads jovially made their way out of Ponfield Park, they had no idea of what lay ahead. If they had, they’d have run a mile.

  As they approached the fairground, Tony Carrington was having serious doubts. ‘You sure we’ll get away with this, lads? I mean, how we gonna capture one of ’em?’

  ‘Easy. We chase the others off. We’ll follow ’em around, wait until it’s getting dark, then pounce. I dunno if the bird’ll be with ’em, but if she is, we’ll have to chase her too,’ Wayne replied.

  Tony looked alarmed. ‘What bird?’

  ‘Oh, just some skinhead tart they knock about with now. Don’t worry about her; she’s like a geezer anyway. Trappy little bitch, she is.’

  ‘Any preference to which one we grab?’ Philip asked Wayne.

  ‘Erm, not really. They’re all cunts.’

  *

  ‘Drop us at this shop on the left, please. I need to get some cigarettes,’ Tommy said. ‘And thank you so much for looking after Linda, bringing her to see me and taking us both out. It’s been a lovely day,’ Tommy added.

  Turning around in the passenger seat, Catherine Piper smiled. Considering he lived in a children’s home and had lost his mother, Tommy was a lovely lad with impeccable manners. ‘You’re very welcome. We’ll try to bring Linda to see you again before Christmas.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Tommy said.

  ‘Linda, why don’t you get out of the car and say a proper goodbye to your brother? Take your time. We’re in no rush,’ Catherine smiled.

  Linda leapt out, threw her arms around Tommy’s waist, and clung to him like a leech. ‘Do you mean what you said earlier? Can I really come and live with you when I turn sixteen?’

  ‘Of course. I’d never let you down. I promise.’

  Linda smiled. ‘Write to me soon at Alice’s, won’t you?’

  ‘You try stopping me. And don’t forget to have a snoop, see if you can find out an address for Hazel.’

  ‘I will. But as I already told you, no letters come to ours any more. I reckon Hazel stopped writing to Dad, or he has them sent to his girlfriend’s house.’

  ‘Just keep your eyes peeled and your ear to the ground.’

  ‘OK. I love you, Tommy.’

  ‘Love you more, Sis.’

  ‘I reckon the Octopus is our best bet. Bound to land on the ride itself rather than any innocent bystander if he freaks out and leaps off,’ Wayne mused.

  ‘The big wheel is a definite no-go. Too many people underneath. What about the Dive Bomber?’ Mark suggested.

  Philip chuckled. ‘Whoever falls out the Dive Bomber will get splattered all over the place.’

  ‘Including me, probably. Not the Dive Bomber. Fuck that,’ Wayne laughed.

  Tony was worried. ‘What you gonna say to people afterwards? That he just jumped?’

  ‘Yeah. Let’s get on there, do a trial run. I need to make sure I can stand up on the thing. I’ve gotta pretend I tried to save him,’ Wayne grinned. ‘You’ll be on the ride behind me, so all you got to do is back the story up. Even if I do end up giving him a gentle push.’

  Philip and Mark smirked at each other. ‘Come on then. What we waiting for?’ Mark chuckled.

  ‘All right. What records you bought?’ Tommy asked Scratch. It was dinner time at Maylands and the dining room was half empty. Even some of the younger kids were absent.

  ‘Linda Lewis’ “It’s In His Kiss”. Oh, and I treated you to “The Hustle”.’

  ‘Really! Ah, cheers. That’s nice of ya,’ Tommy grinned. ‘So where are the others?’ he asked.

  Scratch shrugged and sat next to Tommy. ‘They were acting odd earlier, a bit shifty. I heard Dumbo say something about getting the drugs first, so I decided to do my own thing. I got the impression Smiffy didn’t want me hanging around today anyway.’

  ‘Stay there. I’ll be back in a tick.’ Tommy found Ray tidying up some rubbish in the garden.

  ‘Hello, Tommy. Did you have a nice day with your sister? Dinner won’t be long. Corned beef, chips and beans.’

  ‘I had a great day, thanks. Where is everybody, Ray? The dining room’s empty.’

  ‘A couple of the younger lads have spent the day with family members. They’ll be back by seven, and young Ricky Dawson is spending the weekend with a lovely foster couple who are interested in offering him a permanent home.’

  ‘Where’s Smiffy and the lads?’

  ‘Gone to the pictures. They asked if it was OK to skip tea and eat out, so I gave them permission. Didn’t they tell you?’

  ‘No. Where’s Wayne and Brian?’

  ‘Brian’s in bed. He had an unfortunate accident. He fell down the stairs earlier, poor lad. Wayne’s gone out with his friends. The ones that have been on holiday.’

  ‘Shit,’ Tommy mumbled as he darted back to the dining room.

  ‘What’s up?’ Scratch asked. It was obvious by Tommy’s expression something was wrong.

  ‘I think the lads have gone to the fair and I think Wayne might be over there too,’ Tommy whispered.

  ‘Shit!’

  ‘Exactly! Fucking idiots.’

  ‘Pick it up. Go on, quick,’ Smiffy urged Dumbo. A woman had dropped a red purse on the grass.

  Dumbo edged closer to the purse, pretended to tie the lace on his trainer and expertly slipped the purse down the back of his trousers.

  ‘She’s looking for it. Come on, let’s go,’ Benny urged.

  The lads darted behind the coconut shy. ‘Open it then,’ Smiffy demanded.

  ‘Well?’ Benny asked.

  Dumbo’s eyes lit up. ‘There’s over twenty-five quid!’

  ‘Yeah, man,’ Benny chuckled.

  ‘Touch! Dump the purse, Dumbo,’ ordered Smiffy.

  ‘We can have loads more goes on everything and get some more munch. I’m starving,’ Dumbo replied.

  ‘How many joints we got left?’ Smiffy enquired.

  Benny looked inside the silver tin. ‘Two. Shall we have one now?’

  ‘Nah. Shooting Gallery first, then we’ll sneak of
f for a joint,’ Smiffy replied.

  ‘What about me hot dog?’ Dumbo enquired.

  ‘Have that after a joint. You’ll be even more hungry then.’

  As the lads made their way to the Shooting Gallery, they didn’t have an inkling that for the past hour, their every move had been watched.

  ‘I ain’t standing here no longer. It’ll be quicker to walk,’ Tommy said, kicking out at the bus stop in frustration. He had that horrible churning feeling in his gut, a feeling of impending doom.

  ‘I’m sure they’ll be all right, Tommy. The fairground is probably packed. There isn’t much Wayne and his mates can do in front of all those people, is there?’

  ‘Go back to Maylands, Scratch, and wait for me there. I got a bad feeling it’s gonna kick off and I don’t want you getting caught up in it.’

  ‘No. I’m coming with you,’ Scratch insisted, her face etched with determination.

  Having walked away from the fairground, Smiffy, Benny and Dumbo were sitting on the grass, stoned, backs against a caravan.

  ‘What was that?’ Dumbo leapt up. ‘I heard something.’

  ‘Sit down, you tart. It’s the gear, innit. Strong shit, this is. You were paranoid earlier, thought we were being followed by the woman whose purse you stole,’ Smiffy chuckled.

  ‘I didn’t steal it. It fell out of her bag,’ Dumbo protested.

  Benny nudged Smiffy. ‘You could’ve handed it back though, couldn’t ya? You only had to tap her on the shoulder,’ he chuckled.

  ‘Sit down, for fuck’s sake,’ Smiffy ordered Dumbo. ‘You look like Bert out of Sesame Street stood there.’

  Holding his balls, Benny rolled around on the grass. ‘He does look like Bert. It’s the ears that does it.’

  All of a sudden, Dumbo let out a deafening scream. ‘Run. Fucking run,’ he shrieked.

  Scrambling to their feet, Smiffy and Benny did as they were told. Unfortunately though, one of them glanced around, stumbled and fell.

  Having run through Central Park at a pace Roger Bannister would be proud of, an out-of-breath Dumbo leaned against the railings in Rainham Road North. He had no idea where Benny and Smiffy were, or what he should do now. He didn’t even have any money on him. Benny was holding the kitty.

  ‘If you’re ever in any kind of trouble and do not have any money on you, call Maylands and reverse the charges,’ Ray and Connie always reiterated. But how could he? They weren’t even meant to be at the fair and he’d hate to get the others into trouble. He’d seen the scary twins, that’s why he’d legged it. Perhaps Wayne wasn’t even with them and the twins had just chased them for a laugh, he hoped.

  Dumbo broke into another run. The only thing he could do was head back to Maylands and pray the others were safe and did the same.

  ‘Open your mouth again. There’s a good boy,’ Wayne Bradley chuckled, as he rammed another tab of LSD inside.

  ‘Don’t give him no more, for fuck’s sake,’ Tony warned. ‘He looks out of his trolley as it is. How many did you give him in the first place?’

  ‘Three.’

  Mark Timms grabbed Wayne’s arm. ‘Tone’s right. He looks a proper victim. You give him any more, they won’t let him on a ride.’

  Wayne stared at his prey. ‘Stand up,’ he ordered.

  As their victim unsteadily rose to his feet, Philip Timms roared with laughter. ‘State of that. We’re gonna have to pretend he’s a flid or something.’

  ‘I don’t feel well. I want to go home. Please don’t hurt me.’

  Wayne smirked. ‘We ain’t gonna hurt you. We’re just going on a little ride together. Now walk.’

  Having never been so relieved to see someone in his lifetime, Dumbo hugged Tommy like he was a long-lost relative. ‘I was so scared. I thought I was gonna die,’ he gabbled.

  Tommy shook his pal by the shoulders. ‘I can’t understand you. Calm down and speak slowly. Where are the others?’

  ‘I don’t know. We were over by that caravan where you beat Wayne up and they just appeared and started chasing us,’ Dumbo wept.

  ‘Who?’ Tommy bellowed.

  ‘Wayne’s friends. The scary twins.’

  Tommy’s heart lurched. ‘Scratch, go back to Shitlands with Dumbo. I’ll sort this.’

  As Tommy ran towards the bright lights of the fairground, Scratch grabbed Dumbo’s hand. ‘No. Wait for us. We’re not leaving you alone,’ she shouted.

  ‘I don’t feel well. I can’t breathe properly. Please, let me go home. Everyone’s staring at me.’

  ‘I will take you home. But let’s go on the Octopus first. You can sit next to me. I’ll look after ya, I promise,’ Wayne replied reassuringly.

  Smiffy’s eyes darted about like ping-pong balls. The Bee Gees’ ‘Jive Talkin’ was playing and for a second he thought he saw the Bee Gees in the crowd. Couldn’t people see he was about to be murdered? Why wasn’t anybody helping him?

  ‘Ah, missed out. Our turn next,’ Mark laughed, as the fairground worker held his arm out to suggest the ride was full.

  ‘You all right, Smiffy lad?’ Philip grinned.

  Smiffy cowered. He was sweating like a pig and the music was hurting his ears. He’d just seen a monster in the crowd too, and his head was pulsating as if his brain were about to burst. People were looking at him, laughing. Were they all in on his murder too?

  Feeling more paranoid than ever, Smiffy decided it was shit or bust. He couldn’t turn around and run as there was now a big queue behind him and he was sure he had seen Tommy standing the opposite side of the ride. The only way he could escape was to run across the actual ride, duck the spinning cars, then Tommy would save him.

  ‘Look, he’s keen,’ Wayne sniggered as Smiffy edged in front of him.

  The Octopus had eight arms attached to it. Cars at the end of each arm would spin while moving up and down. Smiffy took a deep breath, then bolted.

  ‘Oi! Stop! Come back,’ yelled the fairground worker.

  ‘Tommy,’ screamed Smiffy.

  ‘What the fuck!’ exclaimed Wayne.

  Onlookers looked on in horror as two cars narrowly missed the lad. They then screamed as a third hit him full on, sending his body flying through the air as if catapulted.

  ‘Wow!’ mumbled the twins, as Smiffy’s body landed in the queue behind them.

  ‘My baby, my baby,’ a woman shrieked. ‘Help! My baby is trapped.’

  As chaos enveloped them, a crowd gathered around the injured. Wayne and his pals barged their way to the front.

  ‘Fuck, no,’ Tony put his hand over his mouth. Smiffy was lying motionless in a skew-whiff position. The bones on his right shoulder were jutting out of his skin and his neck was at such an unusual angle, it had to be broken.

  There were a dozen or so people either lying injured or sitting on the grass in a daze. But worst of all, as some men moved Smiffy, a young girl appeared underneath him. She looked about three, had blood seeping out of her nose and her ears and didn’t seem to be breathing. Her mother was hysterical, understandably screaming blue murder.

  Tony punched Wayne in the arm. ‘I knew this was a bad idea, you dumb fucking bastard.’

  ‘Let’s go,’ said Mark Timms.

  As the twins and Tony broke into a run, Wayne was grabbed by the fairground worker. ‘Who is he?’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘The silly fucker who ran across my ride and caused this mayhem.’

  Wayne was out of his depth now. He’d wanted to terrorize Smiffy, pay him back for tormenting him all week, but he wasn’t sure he’d meant to break his neck. Neither had he expected a child to be killed. ‘I don’t know him. Honest, I don’t. He was in the queue in front of us.’

  ‘Liar,’ the man spat. ‘Paddy, Arthur, Bill, keep hold of his one until the police arrive. He was with the lad. The mates have run off.’

  There was an eerie silence at Central Park by the time Tommy arrived. People were leaving in droves, no music was playing and all the rides had stopped. ‘What’s happened?’ Tommy
asked a random lad.

  ‘There’s been an accident. Some lad flew off a ride or summink and crushed a little girl.’

  ‘Where? What ride?’ Tommy had this awful feeling in the pit of his stomach.

  ‘The Octopus. The police and ambulance men are there now. I didn’t see it meself, but they’ve shut the bloody fair because of it.’

  With Dumbo and Scratch in hot pursuit, Tommy ran towards the Octopus. Please God it wasn’t Smiffy or Benny, he silently prayed.

  ‘You can’t go any further, lad,’ a copper said, holding out his arm. The area had now been cordoned off and everyone except the witnesses had been told to go home.

  ‘What’s happened?’ Tommy asked the copper.

  ‘A lad and kid are dead. That’s all you need to know. Now scarper.’

  ‘But our mates are missing. We can’t find ’em. Who is the lad? What does he look like?’ Dumbo asked.

  ‘He looks dead. Now stop wasting my time and do one.’

  Tommy pushed the copper. ‘He ain’t lying. Our mates are missing, you arsehole.’

  ‘Leave it, Tommy,’ Scratch warned, grabbing her pal’s arm.

  Realizing the lads were serious, the copper scolded Tommy for pushing him, before asking for descriptions.

  ‘Benny’s black and has a big Afro. He’s wearing—’

  ‘Nope. Not him. This lad’s English,’ the copper interrupted.

  ‘Smiffy’s got shoulder-length wavy blond hair. He’s wearing faded jeans and a white T-shirt,’ Dumbo said.

  ‘Wait ’ere a sec,’ the policeman ordered, before walking away and bellowing ‘Guv.’

  In that precise second, Tommy knew. He ducked under the tape and ran towards the covered-up body.

  Scratch grabbed hold of Dumbo to stop him following Tommy. No way would Dumbo be able to handle seeing a dead body. It would freak him out.

  Tommy’s worst fears were confirmed when he saw the black Gola trainers poking out from beneath the sheet. Smiffy had exceptionally big feet, was forever joking to any girls he met that his cock was even bigger.