Brixton Rock by Alex Wheatle

Author:Alex Wheatle [Alex Wheatle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781908446008
Publisher: HopeRoad
Published: 2011-09-10T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

There She Goes

9:30 am, the following Monday morning

The postman walked past the hostel without making any delivery. Floyd impatiently prowled the hallway with a corn-hungry look misting over him. He rapped on Mr Lewis’s door, then jutted his head around it before stepping in. He found Mr Lewis’s head ostriched in paperwork, amidst a plume of cigarette smoke. “You sure my G never come in the post this morning?” he said anxiously.

Mr Lewis glanced up. “No, um, I suppose you should get down to the DHSS Office and ask them what has happened to it.”

Floyd would have gladly kicked a cat if he owned one. Mr Lewis noted his charge’s anxiety. “Floyd, it’s a long time since I’ve had a chat with you. Come inside and sit down.”

The teenager took the chair facing Mr Lewis and slouched into it. “Can I have a snout, please?”

Lewis dug into his pockets and offered him a cigarette. “Now Floyd, I can’t remember the last time you told me you had gone to the job centre. Don’t you have any ambition? Don’t you want to work? Life isn’t fair and things don’t arrive on a plate for us. Especially for lads like you.”

“You mean for blacks like you.”

“You are young now, but there will come a time when you are living away from here. Then you will have to stand on your own two feet and support yourself. You can’t go through life aimlessly – you must set yourself some goals. I mean, what do you want to do with your life?”

The social worker waited expectantly, but Floyd looked as though he wanted to step out of the room sharpish. “Is there a problem I can help you with?” Lewis persisted. “Like a family problem? You are allowed to invite your family down here – your sisters perhaps? Your mother is always ringing and asking about you.”

Floyd knew there were some truths and rights to what the social worker said, but still thought Lewis was a nosy parker. “I ain’t got no problems with my family - apart from my paps, right? And even if I did, it’s none of your business,” he said truculently. “I don’t have to tell you everyt’ing.”

Lewis drummed his fingers on his desk.

“I don’t wanna do no shit job like Brenton,” Floyd explained, “where dem boss use you like slaves. I wanna do something constructive, but when you go for the good jobs, dem white bosses don’t want to employ a black yout’. You know what I’m saying, Mr Lewis?”

“Well, er, not all bosses are like that.”

“Most of them friggin are.”

“You can’t just give up. You have to try, you know. Like I said, life isn’t fair, but you have to make the most of it. You can’t just waste yourself like this.”

“Look, I will try and get a decent job, but it ain’t easy. And I’m telling you from now, I ain’t taking no slavery job like working behind a McDonald’s counter.”

Mr Lewis nodded his head, thinking his charge never listened to his counselling; even Brenton was attentive sometimes.

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