He said
This will probably take some time. You can go or stay as you like.
I said I would stay if that was all right.
I followed him upstairs to his desk. He sat down and got out several sheets of paper and wrote Dear Marie.
I went to sit in a chair. I took out Thucydides and began to read the stasis at Corcyra.
A couple of hours went by. I got up and went to the desk; he was looking down at a sheet of paper on which were written the words Dear Marie.
He said
It’s just an accident it turned out this way. I was in Beirut for a long time, but a lot of people were there a long time. Sometimes you think you’ll go berserk watching the it’s frustrating but there’s a lot to do. You spend so much time trying to organise transportation to some place where you hear something’s going on, or trying to make contacts, or trying to anyway you’re always pretty busy, even so it gets to you but then you all get drunk and talk. Once I was caught there was absolutely nothing to do but think. Lie on the floor thinking will Clinton do this will the UN do that without the distraction of if I talk to this person about that jeep. It’s stupid. If I’d gone out and got drunk with some mates before I left it probably wouldn’t have or at least it would always have been but at least it wouldn’t have been anyway other people seem to adjust insofar as you can adjust and I would probably have adjusted.
He said
maladjusted by a simple twist of fate. It’s hard to know what to write.
He said
Is it patronising to say what you think someone would like you to be able to say? Or should I say
He said
You know what I’d really like?
I said
Apart from the obvious
He said
Cheeky bastard aren’t you—sorry.
I said
What?
Then I said Oh. I said It doesn’t matter. What would you really like?
He said:
I’d like some fish and chips. Would you like some fish and chips? Why don’t we go out and get some fish and chips and I’ll finish this when we get back.
I thought this might be a good sign, maybe it was an excuse to put off doing it, maybe he would realise he was making excuses and didn’t really want to do it.
We went out to the High Street. I dropped off the video and we went on to get cod and chips at a place nearby. I thought people probably thought he was my father.
The staple food at home was peanut butter and jam sandwiches. Sometimes we had peanut butter and honey for a change. I was trying to eat my fish as slowly as I could to make it last. He ate two chips and a piece of the fish and he said
This is shite. They’ve done something to it. I can’t eat this.
He was about to throw it away when I said it tasted all right to me. I said I would eat his if he didn’t want it.
He handed it over and we walked through the streets while I ate.
I tried to make it last as long as I could to put off going back. I couldn’t believe I was walking beside Red Devlin, that he had gone through all the years of saying Sure you can and Oh go on and all the years in the cell and the months trekking cross-country to be walking here with me.
Of course, one of the things people had always complained about was that Red Devlin was not at all particular about his friends.
At one time Red Devlin had a friend who belonged to a club. I don’t think it was the Portland but it was that kind of club. They used to go there and have a few drinks and one night they ran into a man who owned a chain of supermarkets. The man was angry and aggrieved because he wanted to open a supermarket in Wales, a supermarket on a scale never before seen west of the Severn, and though he had got planning permission and carried out feasibility studies local residents were making a nuisance of themselves. The supermarket was supposed to be built on a field that wasn’t being used for anything, and the local residents claimed that children played there and that their lives would be blighted if they could play there no more.
Red Devlin’s friend had heard this story or others like it too often to enjoy it and he soon excused himself. Red Devlin continued to talk to the man, who pointed out that children could play anywhere, that it was not as if he were planning to build over a park it was just a field and that he was a businessman.
Red Devlin said: Kids. The things they get up to.
The man said: I am a simple businessman.
Red Devlin said: This round is on me.
The man said: No no—
Red Devlin said: I insist
The man said: I insist
I insist
I insist
I insist
I insist
But Red Devlin insisted and the man was touched because if you are rich everybody thinks you are made of money.
This time Red Devlin didn’t even say Sure you can or Oh go on. The man said: As I was saying, I am only a simple businessman
and Red Devlin said: Your hands are tied.
The man said: Precisely. My hands are tied
and Red Devlin said: With the best will in the world
and the man said: My hands are tied.
Your hands are tied, said Red Devlin.
My hands are tied, said the man.
Your hands are tied, said Red Devlin.
My hands are tied, said the man.
Where is this field again? said Red Devlin.
Wales, said the man.
Much the best place for it, said Red Devlin.
It’s a fantastic location, said the man.
I wish I could see it, said Red Devlin. Shame it’s in Wales.
We could go in my car, said the man, but I gave my driver tomorrow off because I’m in meetings all day.
Same again? said Red Devlin.
This is mine, said the man and Red Devlin said No I insist.
They talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and the man said My hands are tied and Red Devlin said Your hands are tied and This is my round and the man said No I insist and Red Devlin said No I insist.
Then the man said: Wait a minute! We’ll take a taxi!
They took a taxi to Wales and in the taxi the man explained various aspects of the movement of capital, Say a bakery goes bust, he explained, if it goes bust it’s because it does not represent the most effective use of resources in the locality, it goes bust, the stock is sold off, of course I’m taking a very simple example, all the ovens and mixers don’t just vanish off the face of the planet they are bought and used for another business which utilises them in a cost-effective manner new jobs are created somewhere else people forget to look at the bigger picture and Red Devlin agreed that they did.
They reached the field a little before 7:00. The sun was just coming up. In the middle of the field was flattened bare dirt where people played football, and around that grass, with tall weeds and some bushes around the edges of the field and a row of willow trees where the field followed a river. The man explained the advantages of the location for a supermarket and he explained that it was too good an opportunity to pass up and that his hands were tied, and Red Devlin said Your hands are tied.
Then they went into the town to have breakfast. They talked about this and that and from time to time the man would observe that his hands were tied and Red Devlin would agree that they were. At 9:00 the man suddenly remembered why he had given his driver the day off. He began to laugh, and he said a lot of things to Red Devlin which he left to the imagination when he later told the story in ‘My Biggest Mistake’. Then he called his secretary on his mobile to tell her he had food poisoning and could not make his meetings. He hung up and (as he explained in ‘My Biggest Mistake’) said some more things to Red Devlin until the air literally turned blue. He pointed out that Red Devlin did not know the first thing about business and Red Devlin agreed that he did not. The man said My hands are tied and Red Devlin said Your hands are tied.