Free The Wild Heart by David Menon Page B

aerospace factory at Woodford. So where they live is handy for both of them’.
         ‘ Anne’s a bonny girl’ said Ian.
         ‘ She is and she’s a great person, you know. She’s often tried to fix me up with guys’.
         ‘ Well she can cut that out right now’. 
         Ian got stuck behind some idiot driver who clearly didn’t know where he was going but who almost forced him into the lane that would’ve taken them into the grey monolith that is the Salford Precinct shopping centre. He managed to correct himself just in time.
         ‘ Ian, did you have any Catholic friends when you were growing up?’
         Ian shifted uncomfortably in his seat. ‘ Where did that come from?’
         ‘ I was just thinking about it the other day’ said Mark. ‘ There was something on the telly about reconciliation. It just made me wonder what it was like for you’.
         ‘ We lived in separate areas, went to separate schools, when we were older we went to separate pubs, clubs, so on’.
         ‘ Would it bother you if there was a United Ireland?’
         ‘ You don’t ask easy questions’ said Ian, who wasn’t at all comfortable talking about all this. He used to think of a united Ireland as the work of the devil but he didn’t know if he really cared less anymore.
         ‘ I went to school with Christians, Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus, Jews’ said Mark. ‘ I loved that side of it. The culture of different people is so interesting. People waste too much time playing up their differences instead of concentrating on what unites them. You know, when my parents were killed it was our Pakistani Muslim neighbours two doors down who showed me and Simon the greatest kindness and support. They invited us into their home and cooked us meals and I totally reject all this Islamophobia bullshit that’s going around. I’m not going to fall in with the stupid idea that every Muslim is a potential terrorist just like I never believed that every Irish person was a potential bomber and IRA supporter. That kind of thinking is so unintelligent, so fucking lazy in the head’.
         ‘ I agree’ said Ian who really didn’t want to talk about all this stuff anymore. It was all getting way too close to home. ‘ But it’s hard to go against what you feel in your heart’.
         ‘ That was very profound, Mr. Taylor’.
         ‘ Yeah, well, make the most of it. I don’t come out with that kind of shit very often’.
         They were just coming up to the Crescent with Salford University on the left. The centre of Manchester with its tall buildings was straight down the road in front of them and it filled Mark with enormous pride to know that this was his city. A city that was growing into something massive, something the rest of the world was sitting up and taking notice of.
         ‘ Have you ever had any relationships with any other rugby players?’ Mark asked.
         ‘ No’ said Ian. ‘ That’s not what I’m there for. It’s all about the rugby, the beautiful game of rugby and my passion for it. I can honestly tell you that other kinds of feelings just never cross my mind’.
         ‘ Never?’ Mark questioned sceptically.
         ‘ No’.
         ‘ All that testosterone and you’ve never been tempted?’
         ‘ Not in the least’.
         ‘ Not even in the showers?’
         ‘ No! I’m very good at separating the different parts of my life, Mark’.
         ‘ What about women?’ Mark probed. ‘ Have you ever been with one?’
         ‘ What’s this? Sex talk with Dr. Earnshaw?’
         ‘ I’m just interested to know that’s all’.
         ‘ Just one girl years ago back home. You could say that it didn’t work out’.
     
    CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    ‘ You’re really not making this very easy, Ian’ said Alice.
         ‘ Oh aren’t I? Well let me put it in two words that anyone will be able to