Free Call Me the Breeze by Patrick McCabe Page A

own!’
    I cast him a blissful and unworldly smile.
The Councillor
    I knew Boyle Henry had been in the back lounge that day, but hadn’t realized who’d been in there with him until I came back in from the yard with the crate of Guinness and saw him running out after her. He was stubbing his Hamlet as he pursued her, the door swinging behind him as I heard him calling: ‘
Wait! Come back here, Jacy, for Christ’s sake! I didn’t mean that
!’
    I could hear them arguing outside in the street. ‘Of course I’ll do it!’ he growled. ‘I’ll do it now — tonight! If that’s what you want me to do! Sure I’ll fucking leave her! You think I wouldn’t?’
    I know it should have been the beginning, that I should have realized then. But if you had told me I don’t think I’d have believed you — ‘
What? Jacy? With Boyle Henry
?’ I’d have said, and laughed, dismissing it casually, before going in behind the counter once more to continue with my work as if it meant nothing to me in the world.
    Except that it did, and when I looked again Boyle Henry had come back into the bar and was sitting over in the corner, colluding in whispers with the Provo who ran The Ritzy. Danny, I think, was his name. I saw him accepting money as it was passed to him under the table, a fat roll of notes bound with an elastic band. The blue-movie money, most likely. For Henry to launder through one of his many businesses.The new hotel he was involved with, maybe, or the proposed shopping centre the council’d been talking about. I didn’t know.
    Or care. Right at that moment, there was only one thing I cared about, and that was the book I had open in front of me called
The Lyrics of Joni Mitchell
, running my eyes across the words of ‘California’ with only one thing on my mind: how we were going to reach it, the Karma Cave, despite this unexpected setback.
    Arrive somehow at that precious harbour. The longed-for place you’d call … home.
Aviator Shades …
    … cheap or not, can look real good. Especially when you’re stoned out of your box. Boo Boo had given me some terrific ‘Paki black’ draw and I’d been blasting it all evening by myself. I was completely whacked as I ran though my routine in front of the mirror, folding my De Niro arms, grinning for a while just thinking about things. The black was so strong it could make you laugh at nothing. ‘
Phee-oo
!’ I wheezed (there were tears in my eyes) and cocked my revolver.
Revolver
! Revolver my bollocks! There was no fucking revolver — the papers got that whole thing arseways. We didn’t need no shit like that, me and Jacy, I grinned, and went
pow
! with my index finger.
    Then I got down to the nitty-gritty. Pasting back my hair and going: ‘So then, Jace!’
    And: ‘
So, how you been
?’ and ‘
I really like your hair, you know
?’ Although I could never seem to manage the last part all that well. Eventually I decided to stick with the original: ‘
So how you been then, Jace? You doin’ good
?’
    I smiled and tugged down my jacket.
    ‘
You lookin’ at me
?’ I said then, and continued: ‘Yeah, Jacy, I’m lookin’ at you. And you know what? I like what I see. No —
love
what I see. Because it’s a mystery.’
    I’d sit down then to contemplate. Before going through it all over again.
    ‘I really like your hair,’ I’d say. ‘Your hair — I really like it,’ as I blew a neat chain of smoke rings. Then I stubbed out the joint and said: ‘That’s the last one — this time for definite.’
    I turned and pointed the gunfinger at my reflection.
    ‘You got that?’ I said. And then said it again. ‘
I said, you got that, Joey
?’
    Laughing a little bit. But nervously. I mean, I knew what I was taking was a really big step. And that it wasn’t going to be easy. But I knew in the end it would all be worth it. More than anyone could ever believe.
    ‘Because then you’ll be mine,’ I announced impassively to my reflection. ‘You got that,