Country by Michael Hughes

Author:Michael Hughes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-07-22T16:00:00+00:00

40

Pig presented it to the men.

Dog stepped up.

‘Fuck it, I’ll go. No bother. Let me get a look at the whites of their eyes. See how he justifies shooting down unarmed men going about their business. Arrogant pricks.’

‘No,’ says Pig. ‘Not till you’re a hundred per cent. We need a volunteer.’

They all looked at their hands. Scared it was a trap, or scared of looking like they were giving ground. Scared, anyhow.

Ned shook his old head, rattled out a cough.

‘Youse should be ashamed of yourselves. Let me tell you a story here. In the Border Campaign, near forty years ago, we were asked to approach a notorious B-Special who had beat a wee woman round the head, and she was never the same after. Headaches, and then she died six months later, on a Christmas Eve. As good as murder. We all knew it was him, but the man was feared, and the peelers didn’t want to know unless there was an official complaint. Well I stepped up. Not a one of them would step up, hard men all, but I did. I sat near an hour with that man, my sworn enemy, and tried to convince him to do the right thing. Turn himself in, and then there’d be no reprisals. Well, he wouldn’t fucking listen, and he got what was coming to him soon enough. But if I was that age now, I’d be out the door ahead of any of you. And I will again, if none of youse have the guts.’

Straight off, five hands went up.

‘That’s liker it,’ says Pig. ‘Names-in-the-hat time. Any of you would be suitable.’

They all put their names on a fag paper, scrunched it up and dropped it in a bowl. Sid jiggled it about and then pulled one out.

He squinted at it.

‘I can make nothing of that. Whose is it?’

He passed it round. Every man shook his head, until he got to Budd.

‘That there’s mine, so it is.’

‘How does that say Jack?’

‘It’s a wee mark I use. My writing’s not the best.’

Pig slapped him on the back.

‘Good man yourself, Budd. You’re the best of us, there’s no doubt of that. No smart talk, no double-dealing, just head down and get on with the job, every time. You’ll show them the true republican spirit. Don’t take any shite.’

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