I wasnt even fucking in Simpson’s last night!
Aye you were!
Was I fuck!
Well it must’ve been this morning then.
Ach. . John had opened the Adviser and was reading the tipster’s comments on the race. This guy fancies Real Smooth, he said to Tammas, what’d’you think man?
It’s got a chance.
Tch, according to you everything’s got a fucking chance!
John! that’s the whole fucking point!
Billy laughed.
Down in the betting enclosure Tammas made his bet quickly and was walking up the steps of the Stand when the other two came out from the bar. They arrived next to him just as the lights dimmed; then the hooter was sounding and the dummy hare railing towards the boxes. As the traps crashed open Tammas had his hands cupped to his mouth and he was roaring: On the Mona’s! On the Mona’s! Easy the Mona’s! Then he muttered, Bastard. . Mona’s is beat. Dog 3’s a stonewall.
What? cried John. On 3! On 3!
And Billy was yelling Go on the 3 dog! On the 3 dog! How far the Smooth! Go on the Smooth!
After the race Billy and John were pumping each other’s hands. John shouted: I put my money on at 5 to 2! 5 to 2!
Same with me. Ya fucking beauty! Billy began jumping on the spot: Ya fucking beauty! A fiver I had on it Tammas!
Tammas nodded. Mind you man you were a bit lucky. If the limit hadnt come off the rails then Mona’s would’ve came inside and end of story. He was fighting for it too — brave wee dog. Tammas shrugged: Then yours’s got a clear run right up the centre of the track. Still — a good winner.
He went to the bar immediately, leaving the others to collect their money. He was sipping at his beer when they entered. John was laughing and he said, It was a fucking great race but!
Aye, said Tammas, I just dropped a fifty right enough.
What?
After a moment John glanced at Billy who peered along the bar, then waved at a barmaid. John frowned at Tammas: Fifty quid man?
Tammas offered them from his cigarette packet without replying.
Christ Tammas you bet too much for me. The same when we won at the chemmy — mind? you turned round and stuck eighty pound on a horse?
Did I?
John looked at him.
Tammas smiled. Only kidding. . He stepped from the bar saying, See yous in a minute; I’m going for a slash.
He made his way through the crowded room in the direction of the lavatory but bypassed it and went outside.
It was far too early yet for betting on the next race. Punters were standing about chatting and reading raceforms; some wee boys dodged about playing games; two men leaned over the wall separating the enclosure from the racetrack, in conversation with a man in a white coat, a dog trainer.
Tammas had lighed a cigarette and he strolled along to the fenced off section, where the ordinary terracing started. He stood there for a time, until the cries of the bookies yelling odds had been happening for several minutes. He walked quickly to the betting enclosure. It was crowded. He moved in at once to lay his bet and was up in his position before the vet checked the greyhounds.
John was first to arrive. What happened to you? he asked. Billy bought you a drink. Still lying there on the bar.
Good. Nobody’ll touch it.
I wasnt fucking meaning that.
John, I wish you’d give us peace a minute. . Tammas turned away from him and he stared in the direction of the totalisator board. He sniffed and took out his cigarettes, gave one to John without speaking.
Are you losing a lot?
Naw am I fuck. Tammas shook his head; he sniffed again and glanced at him. Naw. . he shrugged.
John had his cigarette-lighter out and he flicked it and Tammas bent to take a light. John said, I dont know if Billy mentioned anything to you man but I was going to say if yous eh, the two of yous and that, if yous wanted to, it’d be good if the two of yous came down to England and that as well — cause I’m definitely going. Maybe next week.
To England you mean?
Aye. Manchester. There’s bags of work. And the night-life, it’s supposed to be really fucking brilliant man. I really fancy it. I think it’d be great. I mean this place is dead Tammas you’ve got to admit it.
Tammas shrugged. He glanced down the steps, seeing Billy appear, making his way in a hurry towards them.
John was saying: Even things like buying drinks I mean a guy in the work was telling us that the women down there, if you’re in a boozer with them they’re happy with a half pint of lager or a bottle of mild beer — no like here man, fucking bacardis and coke and all that! And with the three of us into it we’d get a decent flat.
Sounds interesting, said Billy.
The lights in the Stadium dimmed and the crowd hushed as the hooter sounded. From the traps the dogs could be heard scrabbling against the metal gates and then the hare was whirring past and the crowd roaring. Tammas stared at the dogs breaking and racing to the 1st bend. He was nodding, and he continued nodding as they rounded it and headed up the back straight. He dropped his programme to the ground; he turned and muttered, See yous in the bar.
•••
He wakened early on Christmas morning; ben the front room he switched on the electric fire and the television. There was a packet of cigars lying on the mantelpiece, a present from Robert and Margaret. He unwrapped the outer covering and extracted one, smelled it quite closely from end to end before inserting it in the corner of his mouth. And he gazed at himself in the mirror. When he struck the match for it he inhaled and coughed on it, and began to sneeze. In the kitchen he blew his nose, made a cup of instant coffee. He doused the cigar in the water gathered at the drain in the sink.
A film for children was beginning on television and he settled to watch it, sitting in Robert’s armchair, stretching out, his stocking soles to within a foot of the fire.
Eventually he dozed.
A lot of shouting and bawling was going on down in the street. A group of kids chasing after a girl on a bike. He watched them; one wee girl tossing what seemed like half a brick at the other girl’s back and it glanced off her and the handlebars could be seen jerking sideways but the girl managing to correct it and she cycled on, putting a good distance between herself and the rest of them. And the rest of them yelling after her. He drew the curtains and collected the partly smoked cigar from the kitchen but he left it on the mantelpiece, and walked to the front door and opened it, and he put the latch on and went upstairs quickly and chapped Mrs Brady’s door. He chapped it again. He folded his arms, shivering. He began moving from one foot to the other. Then he bent to lift the flap of the letterbox and peered inside. There were no lights on at all and the doors off the lobby were all shut.
He flapped the letterbox quite loudly, before returning downstairs. In the kitchen he filled a kettle to make a pot of tea. When the kettle boiled he switched on the grill and he toasted two slices of bread and cheddar cheese. And afterwards, sitting on the carpet in front of the fire, he relighted the cigar and watched television, eating some of the chocolates Robert and Margaret had given him.
•••
The elderly attendant pushed open the door for the pair to leave and as they walked up the stairs Billy began whistling. Tammas paused on the first landing and he shook his head, cleared his throat and spat to the ground. And he muttered, Fucking beats me how you can whistle man it really does.
Ah! Billy smiled: Got to be an optimist in this life. Anyhow Tammas dont worry about it, it was my three quid.
Tammas stopped walking. They were approaching the exit out to the pavement. He said: That’s a fucking good yin right enough — your three quid! Well well well.