Free Today Everything Changes: Quick Read by Andy McNab Page B

football. I didn’t have any so I nicked somebody else’s. I got caught because the kid’s name was written inside them in marker pen. The Cub leader gave me a big lecture. ‘Stealing’s bad,’ he said, and told me not to come again.
    I knew that older lads got money by earning it, so I got chatting to the milkman and persuaded him to let me help with his Sunday round on the estate. He’d give me enough money to buy a copy of
Whizzer and Chips
, a bottle of Coke and a Mars bar. That left me with just sixpence, but the Coke and the Mars bar seemed like grownup stuff so it was worth it, even if it was only one day a week.
    One of the gang wore wet-look leather shoes, which were all the rage. His hair was always clean and shiny too, and he had a hot bath every night. I was very impressed. At our house, we had no bath. In fact, we had no hot water.
    One day I noticed that this lad had some cash in his money-box. As far as I was concerned hewas loaded, and wouldn’t miss it. I nicked it, and nothing was ever said.
    I started nicking more and more. It was easy. My mum used to have a lot of stuff on the slate in the Co-op. When she sent me for cigarettes or milk and other bits and pieces, I’d take some extras and put them on tick. I knew she wouldn’t check the bill, she’d just pay up when she had some money.
    Television adverts really got to me. A Johnny 7 toy machine-gun threw a grenade, made a noise and did all sorts of things. When you fired it, you pushed a clip and a pistol came out. I nicked the pistol off a boy on another estate, and told my mates I kept the rest of my Johnny 7 at home.
    By the time I was ten years old the stealing had got out of hand. My gang and I were taking stuff not just for our own use but also for selling. We once walked past a second-hand furniture shop with a few new things on display on the pavement. A small, round table caught my eye. We ran past and picked it up, then went to another second-hand shop and sold it. We spent the money in a café on cheese rolls and frothy coffee.
    At the grand old age of twelve I had finally got myself a pair of plimsolls but now they were allI had to wear on my feet. I came into school late one day and was walking down the corridor. A teacher grabbed me and said, ‘Where are you going?’
    ‘To my classroom.’
    ‘Where are your shoes?’
    I looked down at my plimsolls. I didn’t understand what he meant. Then it dawned on me. ‘I haven’t got any.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘I’ve never had any shoes.’
    I had to get a form for my parents to sign. After that, I got a free bus pass and free school dinners. I had to stand in a special free-dinners queue in the school canteen. It wasn’t just me. A lot of kids were in the same boat, but it was one particular gang I wanted to be out of.

Chapter Four
    I started to get angry. I hated everyone and everything, mostly because I didn’t have what they had. The TV show
Only Fools and Horses
made you think that Peckham, where I lived in London, was full of Del Boys, having a laugh on the market and drinking cocktails in the pub. In fact, it was full of unemployment, drugs, guns and mindless vandalism.
    I felt angry with people who had shiny new cars or motorbikes and used to kick dents in them – just because I could. I damaged people’s shops, and messed up their goods, simply because they had stuff and I didn’t.
    I remember being very angry with my teachers. By now I had gone to seven different schools, so I had a lot of teachers to be angry with. I was angry that they put me in remedial classes to help me catch up, but I didn’t exactly do anything to get out of them. In fact, I liked being at the bottom of the class. It gave me yet another reason to be angry. I liked the feeling of being a minority and that everyone was againstme. I was part of a select club. It justified my anger, so I was entitled to do things that others couldn’t or shouldn’t do.
    As soon as I started at the local