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edith: a love story

. this is my (clare's) story . it tells people why i'm here (as in where i am today, not in a spiritual 'why are we here' way) and what i did to get here, and who i did it with .

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Location: North East, United Kingdom

I have an insatiable curiosity for finding good food wherever I might find myself.

Friday, August 11, 1995

01 . Teenage Crimewave


My legs were making sticky wet shapes on the plastic seat and I shifted around to try to find a dry patch. We were sitting outside Sally’s Cafe with all the usual everyday smoke and kids and smells of fried chicken and chips and old ladies blocking the pavement. Em was building up on her knee under the table with Jane, hyperactive Jane, jigging about as usual going on about some new vinyl she’d got in town. My thighs were starting a damp stain so I stood up.

“Want a drink?”

Em looked up, squinting at me through her glasses.

"Can I have another brew please?”

Jane didn’t answer, carried on about how dark Omni Trio were so I went inside. Out of the mad heat and hustle I couldn’t see for a few seconds, stopped inside the doorway to get focused on the chairs and tables which moved round everyday to accommodate groups and singles and pairs of people. The only places that never changed were there as usual - one table filled with sometimes one, two, three old dears, headscarves for the old girls and beige overcoats for the fellas, and the other, at the opposite end in the darkest corner some smackheads smoking Bennies until the day’s business was done.
I shuffled over to the counter, kicking a smackhead’s chair as I passed to perk him up a bit. Little Andrew looked up from a drawing he was doing.

"Can I have a large tea please?”

"You three’ve been sitting on my chairs over the last large tea for the past two hours. When are you going to make me some money, eh?”

Andrew looked cross but he never chucked us out and as long as the cafe wasn’t full he didn’t mind. What he didn’t make off us in cups of tea he made back in draw anyway. I reminded him of this. He banged my mug on the counter;

"Don’t get cheeky, and you smoke too much anyway. I might have to put my prices up for the good of your health.”

"Then we’d have to go somewhere else” I said as I put 50p on the counter and made my retreat “You’re not the only dealer round here and your stuff’s shit anyway.”

Andrew grunted something about school holidays and went back to his masterpiece.

Outside it was hot and heavy as ever and the pool that I’d left behind on the chair had gone already. My bum was still damp so I bent over and pointed it at the sun, touching my toes. A car swerved and nearly hit another one.

"What ARE you doing?” screeched Jane

"I’ve got a wet arse!” I had to shout through my legs so she could hear me. It wasn’t working so I straightened up and pulled my Calvins out of my bum crack. I felt something stiff in my back pocket and remembered the unopened letter that I’d put there this morning when I left the house. I didn’t want to open it, didn’t even want to know it was there.

Em had got the spliff up and lit by now and as she passed it to Jane she took a drink of tea.

"Euugh!” she spat on the pavement, hitting someone’s legs passing by; they turned and gave her a look of disgust before carrying on, “It’s got no sugar in it!”

"Well” I explained, “ I want some, and I don’t take sugar. I’ve had to drink yours with sugar in before.”

"You can have it.”

She pushed the mug towards me in disgust.

"The trouble is” started Jane “we’ve got another four weeks left before college starts and there’s only a couple of free houses this summer. Why won’t you let us use your house again Jo? Last time was brilliant!”

"Yeah but she’d kill me if I had a party after last time. She’s got the nasty neighbours watching the house and if anyone so much as farts I'm for it.”

"I’m bored of sitting here everyday, it’s boring, same old people going past and meeting the same lot down the park every night...let’s do something else for once.” Jane said the same thing every day but we never changed our routine. Get up after everyone in the house had gone out, then they’d come to my house and we’d make some lunch and leave the house before Mum came home on her break. Wander round a bit, come down to Sal’s, score a weed off Andrew and spend the rest of the day smoking it. By evening we’d go get some food at whoever’s house was free of parents and then down Fletcher Moss to see who was there. Sometimes there’d be a free house and we could go stay round for a week watching the telly as the house gradually turned from a relatively tidy home into a pigsty.

"There’s nothing wrong with it.”

Em was happy as long as she had enough Rizla to last her the night, otherwise she got jumpy.

Em and Jane went to Parrs Wood while I went to Burnage High. They’d been best friends since they were five which was weird because while Jane at sixteen was already an old hand, a schoolgirl DJ who seemed to know everyone who passed us by, Em was so laid back she was practically horizontal, with just about enough ambition to get her through school without any trouble. Jane had always looked out for Em and it was her that had come up to me and started talking at some gig we’d been at round Christmas time last year. We’d seen each other around and they’d both been to my house last summer when it got trashed but you don’t meet everybody who comes to your house when your parents are away so they’d just passed me by. Em was sweet and we’d been together pretty much since we met properly, except Jane was always around and the double act was beginning to annoy me. We were all going to the same college in September.

"There’s nothing to do anyway,” I pointed out to her. “Everything takes cash and we ain’t got none darlin’.”

Jane snorted, rolled her eyes and stood up. “I’m off anyway. You two are doing my head in with your shitty routine.” She stalked off, record bag banging the back of her skinny legs. I made a face.

“What’s got into her?” I asked Em.

"Dunno, it’s just Jane innit.” She shrugged and felt in her pocket for the tobacco.

We spent the rest of the day avoiding sunburn on the dark side of the street, feet on chairs, cheeking people who wanted to sit there. When Andrew felt the evening rush come in he came out and shooed us away.

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