Free Green Grass by Raffaella Barker Page B

that Hedley would introduce her, but at the same time thinking it silly to need introductions on a ferret hunt, Laura moves closer. The taller woman, Jen, is with the oldest man in the group. She has big fat curls of dark hair, and the red cheeks of a pantomine dame, and is wearing a large squashy coat like a duvet. She is paying scant attention to the ferrets, but with a lot of bobbing back and forth and winking, is making lewd jokes at her husband’s expense as he pulls his ferrets. The jokes are much enjoyed by the trio of slightly aimless men standing about doing nothing because they don’t have ferrets.
    The younger woman, Marion, has pale pink lipstick, and a helmet of white-blonde hair which is in dazzling contrast with the flash of electric blue on her eyelids. She is quiet and pretty, her skin as soft and perfect as her pale sheepskin coat. Her boyfriend Jeffhas two ferrets as well as Precious, and Marion stands attentively holding them like a pair of poodles on a short red leash.
    Inigo moves closer, catching a little of the action on his camera. His somewhat sinister outfit gives the rustic scene an air of brutal depravity. Marion holds Precious up; her pudgy fingers with their blood-red painted nails sweep down the ferret’s coat. Much to Laura’s surprise, Inigo takes the ferret from her, holding it on his chest, stroking it for a moment. Inigo has always claimed to be useless with animals. Perhaps he needed to fondle a ferret to find his lurking animal instinct. Laura turns to Hedley to make sure he has noticed Inigo’s heroic effort. As she moves, Inigo yells and starts backwards, his arms flailing. Astonishingly, Precious is clinging by her teeth to his chin, extended and dangling like a nicotine-stained Father Christmas beard.
    â€˜Bloody bastard rat. Get this hell fiend off me,’ Inigo roars, staggering about with the ferret swaying, her jaw locked onto his chin. No one moves for several long seconds, then Hedley, as if suddenly defrosted, shakes himself and runs towards Inigo, shouting, ‘Don’t pull! Whatever you do, don’t pull!’
    It is too late. Inigo has recovered his balance, and with both hands clamped around Precious’s plump waist he is trying to yank her away. ‘My God, it’s afucking praying mantis,’ he hisses, between clenched teeth. ‘I’ll have to go to hospital.’
    The ferret fanciers huddle together, not liking this disaster in their midst, unconsciously forming a human shield around Marion in case anyone thinks it’s her fault. Jen and her husband shake their heads and mutter to one another in disbelief, but no one steps forward to help Inigo.
    â€˜We’d better get on,’ says Jeff. ‘We won’t catch these rabbits standing about all day.’ He and his sidekicks move back into the wood with the other ferrets and become deliberately busy with beeping devices, terriers and nets.
    Fred frowns after them. ‘They should help Dad,’ he says. ‘They must know what to do.’
    â€˜They don’t want to be responsible for it.’ Hedley puts an arm around Fred, a rare gesture for him. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll manage.’
    â€˜For Christ’s sake get this thing off me!’ Inigo yells. Laura rushes over, and not knowing what else to do, holds Inigo’s hand, patting it absently. She is suspended between hysterical laughter and tears, and is fighting an almost overpowering urge to pass out. Inigo’s chin with Precious dangling is a demonic sight. Blood begins to soak through and out of the ferret’s mouth, seeping onto her nose, staining her head dark red. Behind Inigo, the hunched figuresof Jeff and his friends burying things and crouching over holes in the ground, and the closing in of dank creeping fog, increases Laura’s sense of nightmare. She clings tighter to Inigo’s hand, suddenly letting go as she realises she isn’t being helpful and her