The Melting Man

The room was stone built with one window about six inches square high up at one end. There was a broken-down wheelbarrow in it, a pile of old straw in a corner, an iron bed without a mattress against the wall, and a row of cobweb-draped rabbit hutches along the other wall. He shut me in, but was back again after a few minutes carrying my clothes and a bottle. Behind him Mimi came to the door, baby crooked in her arm, its wet mouth searching for her nipple, Tony's gun in her hand to cover me.

Tony said, 'Make yourself comfortable. Ring if you want anything.' He laughed, dropped my clothes on the floor and put the bottle in the wheelbarrow.

I said, 'Is it a boy or a girl?'

'Boy,' said Tony proudly. 'Two months. Fair-sized little pecker on him already, Gabriel we're calling him. Like it?'

'Heavenly,' I said and reached with one hand for my trousers and with the other for the bottle.

They left me alone and I dressed and drank. Then I pulled some of the straw out of the corner and spread it across the wire-spring frame of the bed and flopped down on it. A cloud of dust, smelling of cowdung, rose around me, but I didn't care much.

I just lay there, bottle handy at the side of the bed and stared at the ceiling. I've stared at a great many ceilings in my time, and mostly in the same kind of mood, feeling debilitated and incapable of sustained thought. I knew enough about the mood to realize that there was nothing to be done but to wait for it to pass.

From the other room I heard the sounds of Mimi and Tony and the baby… the clanking of pans, the wail of the child, and Tony's big laugh and Mimi's occasional chuckle. After a time the baby stopped crying, and there was only the low murmur of their voices and then, suddenly, I heard Mimi give a loud exclamation and Tony began to roar with laughter.

I took another drink and went to sleep, but just before I went off I thought I heard the sound of a car starting up.

* * *

I woke late in the afternoon to find Tony in the room and with him a good smell of coffee and fried bacon. He'd put a plank across the wheelbarrow and there was a tray on it. He kicked an old box towards the barrow for me to sit on and then went and stood by the door, one hand inside his Windbreaker. I didn't have to be told what he was holding. He was friendly, but he wasn't going to take any chances with me.

He said, 'Keep your voice down. Don't want to wake the baby.'

I said, 'I'm not doing any speaking. That's up to you.'

I began to attack the coffee and fried bacon.

He gave it to me then, in his own laughter-punctuated, highly involuted way.

When he had come to visit me at the chalet, he had brought Mimi and the baby with him, leaving them parked in his car well down the road. He had brought Mimi, he explained, largely because they were inseparable and also because if there had been trouble it was easier to pass the frontier with a woman and a child in the car. Anyway, Panda and Najib had jumped him as he came back to the car. Najib had got into Tony's car, and Tony had to drive off with Panda bringing Mimi and the baby along in their car. Somewhere the other side of St Bonnet they had pulled up and the conference had begun. Najib had wanted to know what he had been doing at the chalet and who had been there.

'Honest, I tried to stall. Like I said, I got respect for you. He wanted to know everything — and he seemed already to know a lot — and then there was the baby. Mimi nearly went out of her head. Fact, I'm surprised she's got any milk left at all. That black tart was the worst, telling us what would happen. You can see, I didn't have any choice, and then on top of that he said he'd make it worth my while. Not that that by itself—'

'So in the end you told them about the Mercedes being in the lake?'

'Had to — and we had to take them there. Me with him, and Mimi coming behind with her. But I was thinking of you all the time. I wanted to give you a chance like, give you time to get there ahead. So I led him a dance, took the wrong roads and the long way round. You know once,' he chuckled, 'I took him round in a big circle and he never noticed it. You can see I tried to protect you, can't you?'

'I'm touched, Tony.'

'Well, I like you. You got a nice way. Still, I couldn't stall for ever, 'cause I knew Mimi would be fussing about the kid's feed, so I finally took him to the bottom of the lake road, and then he pays me off and tells me to get the hell out of it.' He chuckled. 'Which I pretended to do of course, but I didn't, and let me tell you if I could have got my hands on the gun Mimi had in the kid's carry-cot I would have blown their black heads off. Coloureds I always thought were crazy about kids. Anyway, I'd been doing a lot of thinking. Mimi and me wanted all the money we could for emigrating. Nice touch we had from that bank, and a bit more from the sale of the garage, but why not more? So I thought, what's in that car they're all crazy about? Not just the car — so I decided to hang around. First lot down the road will have it, whatever it is, and whatever it is it's worth money and I'm going to have it.

So there it is. It was you — and I was real happy it was you. With them I'd have had to be real rough in order to please Mimi.'

I finished the coffee and said, 'Don't go on, you're breaking my heart. Just tell me what cock-eyed plan you've got now.'

'Nothing that will hurt you. Your boss will see that you tried and you failed — on his behalf. He can't grumble.' He pulled the gun from his Windbreaker. 'After all, what could you do? I'll explain it to him when he comes.'

'When he comes?'

'To collect the parcel. Mimi's gone off for him now. Be back tomorrow. Why you looking surprised?'

'Wouldn't you — if you saw a man jump into a bear-pit for a friendly game of tag? My boss will tear you apart. Tony, my friend, he's not the kind of man you can shake down. As your dear old father would have said, you're good but you're not in his class.'

Tony grinned. 'You're trying to frighten me. I can handle him. He's got to come alone. Mimi knows the terms.'

'Listen,' I said. 'He's eight feet tall, four feet wide, and he's got a fat touch of the Irish. He'll eat you.'

'Will he? Then he'll have to polish this off as a starter first.' He joggled the gun. Then he gave me a kindly shake of his head. 'Don't you worry. You did your best. More can't be asked of any man. You'll get your pay from him. You could sue him if not. And Mimi and I will get our price for the parcel. You know what's in it?'

'No.'

'And a good thing for you, too.' He started to laugh. 'You ain't old enough yet. You should have seen Mimi's face. She's a first-class mother and wife, but that's not to say she hasn't been around — but she was shocked. She didn't even want to take the little bit of film I clipped off to show him, but I said she must. He's got to know we're genuine sellers. Anyway, it's all wrapped up again out there, just as it was, and you don't have to bother your head about it. And he's getting it cheap, five thousand dollars, used notes, and no fear of the police about it or he wouldn't have hired you.'

I gave him a look and went back to the bed. I picked up the bottle and took a deep pull, swallowed, breathed hard and said, 'Wake me when he comes. I wouldn't miss the show for anything.'

'I will. You'll be right out there so he can see it weren't any of your fault. As my old man used to say, you take advantage of someone, particularly someone you like, then the least you can do is make sure they don't get more than their proper share of the blame. You just got outsmarted. I want him to know that. Then he can't hold anything against you.'

I didn't tell him that I was deeply moved — not for me, but for him. He and Mimi were a couple of Babes in the Wood, and O'Dowda would enjoy every minute he spent in this house.

I said, 'Did Otto ever tell you why he quit working for O'Dowda?'

'Sure. He'd accumulated some capital and wanted to get back to his own line of business.'