Free The Runners by Fiachra Sheridan Page A

stubbornly.
    ‘I’ll come up with a story about being robbed.
    If we both stick to it we’ll be fine.’
    Bobby lay in bed for hours worrying about everything. When he couldn’t sleep, he would say an Our Father, followed by a Hail Mary, repeatedly until he began to get tired. When he started forgetting the words of the prayers, he knew he was nearly there.
    Jay answered the door like he hadn’t a worry in the world.
    ‘Good morning, good morning.’
    ‘What has you so happy?’
    ‘I have the story.’
    ‘Go on then.’
    ‘We’ll say that when we got to the bottom of Micka’s stairwell, there were three lads standing there. All of them had hoods pulled up on their heads. Two of them grabbed us by the arms and the third one grabbed the video. Simple.’
    ‘Simple. What if we have to go to Johnny’s?’
    ‘We’ll just say Johnny’s stairwell then.’
    Anto gave them the video, unaware of what was about to happen. Jay rightly predicted it was Micka who would be receiving it. They left the video in Jay’s bedroom and jogged down to Micka’s. They took off at a slow pace, without talking. By the time they passed the Red Brick Slaughterhouse on Rutland Street, Bobby could see his chest expanding, he was breathing so heavily.He wasn’t jogging very fast, yet he was out of breath. They stopped jogging at the swimming pool and walked across the courtyard of the church. There was nobody at the bottom of the stairwell.
    ‘You stay quiet and let me do the talking.’
    Jay kicked on Micka’s door as loud as he could. Four boots, followed by five.
    ‘Your video was robbed.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Someone grabbed us and robbed your video.’
    ‘Who?’
    ‘I don’t know. Goodbye.’
    ‘Goodbye nothing. What did they look like?’
    ‘I don’t know. At the top of the stairs, three people grabbed us and ran off with the video.’
    ‘What did they look like?’ Micka growled at the lads.
    ‘They all had hoods up, we couldn’t see them,’ said Jay.
    Micka sprinted down the stairs. They could see him from the balcony running around looking for someone that didn’t exist. It was a long walk back to Anto’s. Bobby couldn’t believe what was happening, but he knew they had to stop delivering the videos.
    ‘What are we going to say to Anto?’
    ‘Exactly what we just said to Micka.’
    ‘You told him it happened at the top of the stairs.’
    ‘I said the bottom.’
    ‘You said the top, so say the same to Anto.’
    ‘Are you sure?’
    Bobby gave him the look without answering. Jay knew when Bobby was being serious.
    They walked slowly back to Ballybough. Jay was excited. He wouldn’t stop talking about the look on Micka’s face.
    ‘We need to do something else.’
    ‘Another master plan?’
    ‘No, you need to punch me on the nose. Make it bleed.’
    Jay closed his eyes.
    ‘Hit me.’
    ‘No, hit yourself.’
    Jay tried to punch himself on the nose but he was unable to do it with enough force. It was much easier to hit someone else.
    ‘I need you to do it. I’ll close my eyes and count to three.’
    Jay closed his eyes again.
    ‘One.’
    He opened them to see what Bobby was doing.
    ‘Close your eyes.’
    ‘One, two.’
    Bobby didn’t wait for three. He landed a stiff punch flush on Jay’s nose.
    ‘Aaaaargh. Jesus, that hurt.’
    ‘It was supposed to.’
    Jay put his finger up his left nostril to feel for the blood. He took the finger out and there was no sign of blood on it. A trickle began to leave his right nostril. Jay smiled as it reached his lip.
    ‘We have blood. Let’s go,’ he announced.
    ‘Are you going to do the talking?’
    ‘Leave it to me.’
    Anto answered the door with no top on. He had a six-pack stomach. Bobby had done thousands of sit-ups, like Anto had told him, and he didn’t have any muscles.
    ‘What happened?’
    He could see the blood because Jay had spread it to make it look more dramatic.
    ‘Did Micka get the video?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Three