The Book of Dave (55 page)

'I suppose you associate it with the loss – as you see it – of Carl?'

'That's about the size of it, mate. The Knowledge was what I had to pass on. I believed that even before I wrote that mad
rant and buried it in their garden – now it seems like a load of bollocks, a load of fucking bollocks.'

As he grew agitated the consonants flaked away from the scalp of his diction: 'Ant, I gotta – I haffta, I gotta go back there.
I gotta dig it up. S'pose 'e found it? It'd fuck wiv 'is 'ed. I mean – I know it ain't likely – but what if 'e did?' Bohm
refused to be drawn. If Rudman was seeking permission for this peculiar escapade, he was not in the business of granting it.
He took a different tack: 'You know one of them, don't you, the Fighting Fathers?'

'Yeah, Fucker – Gary Finch. Daft tosser – he's like a, a tool for them. 'E don't really get it – ' e does what they tell 'im
to do. 'E's always the one up on the plinth, or the column or the building, with the old Bill trying to talk him down.'

Bohm contemplated this – along with his shoe – for quite a while. Dave looked at the gilt-framed portraits on the wall; celebrated
and self-important sawbones stared back at him. 'Am I right in thinking,' Bohm said eventually, 'that you see in Gary Finch's
fate what might've happened – had things turned out differently – to you?'

It took him over an hour. Every time a cat sneezed or a fox yelped he froze for whole minutes. He was in full possession of
his faculties while creeping like a madman through exotic plantations of gunnera and black bamboo, and imported bark chips
that shifted under his rubber soles. A green nylon rucksack was slung over his shoulder, in it a mattock he'd bought the day
before from an army-surplus shop on the Euston Road. He was going equipped – yet not sufficiently, and he realized what he
would find before he hauled over the last wall. And there it was: the York paving, glinting in the diffused light, the non-renewable
hardwood decking, solid enough for a man-o'-war. Under it – deep under it – was the Book.
How the fuck,
Dave thought.
How the fuck am I going
to get it up?

Cal Devenish stood at the French windows in the drawing room examining his own jet reflection for signs of guilt.
Not long now …
Papers all signed
–
deal all done … Share price inflated – the bunce
creamed off. Business flogged – the bunce skimmed off again . .
. yet he saw neither satisfaction nor shame in his face – only an intractable weariness, along with other things: a settle
big enough for a cardinal to prop his fat behind on; a dormant log-effect gas fire; investment art on the silky wallpaper;
and shoved up in the corners of the room the little beige boxes of the alarm system installed to protect it. Cal wondered
where his son was; it made a change – he wryly conceded – to wondering where his daughter was.

Now that the truth was free to range the burgundy carpets of Beech House, its elegant chambers resounded with the cackling
of a freak who's been told a sick joke. The sympathetic hatch opened between Cal and Carl on the night they sprang Daisy from
the nick had been slammed resolutely shut. Carl took to wearing River Island jackets and Burberry baseball caps as nurture
wiped the floor with nature. Cal even thought the lad physically resembled the dad who'd changed his nappies and blown his
nose. A long streak of fifteen-year-old, his ears stuck out like Rudman's, and like Dave he took the high dive off Hampstead
and into the London lagoon. Carl stayed away from Beech House and hung out on the estate down in Gospel Oak – for this Cal
was guiltily grateful, because when his new son was in residence, Carl passed on those sly digs and underhand blows he himself
had received, years before, from Dave.

Dave Rudman and Cal Devenish – two men sharing the same cab. Cal sat on one of the tip-down seats, and they caromed along
the road of life separated by only a few centimetres of foam rubber, vinyl and steel. They were idiotic twins, conjoined in
ignorance of each other. 'Snip-snip'. Cal had cut out his conscience as the surgeon snipped his vas deferens – while Dave
Rudman forgot his dates. Yet their denials were but tributaries of a far mightier river of masculine unknowing.

Where was Carl? He was upstairs in his hated, modular study-bedroom. He knew his parents thought he was out – and he delighted
in allowing their ignorance to shade into anxiety. Except he didn't think of Michelle and Cal as his parents – only 'that
fucker' and 'that cunt', the words lubricated by hatred. Carl was upstairs with a Benson & Hedges stuck under his downy top
lip and a rolled gold Dunhill lighter – purloined from Cal's desk – in his downy hand. He lit up while striking a defiant
pose in front of the mirror, then swished back the curtains and eased up the sash window.

Caught in the searchlight, caught as if he were an escapee
from
the nick,
one arm thrown across his eyes, the other brandishing an entrenching tool. Caught
bang to rights.
Dave looked up and saw a neotenous head and a cigarette falling towards him end over end. While Carl saw some
chav or fucking pikey
… a shambolic, middle-aged fatso …
trying to nick the fucking patio! A
pathetic thief who had his mouth wide open yet couldn't scream. In the red cave Carl saw the wet root of his tongue uselessly
gargling. He didn't recognize the man – but he knew who he was. Carl cried out, 'Dad! Dad! There's a beastly man in the back
garden!' Even as he taunted one man and conferred a title on the other, he thought,
Beastly
beastly? Where the fuck does that come from?

When Dave was eventually bailed, there was someone on hand with the same intent. 'What the fuck was that for?!' he exclaimed,
rubbing his smarting cheek.

'What was it for?!' Phyllis screeched. 'What was it for? It was for being an irresponsible fucking wanker!' Her wiry curls
sparked with anger as she prodded Dave down the wheelchair access ramp for the Highgate Magistrates Court.
What must we look like?
he thought.
Fat old boiler duffing up a bald old git of a drunk
… She confronted him on the pavement, her accent flattening into Essex as it did battle with the artics booming past within
inches of them. 'Djew fink you ain't got no responsibilities any more – issatit? Izzit?' He shook his head. ' 'Cause if that's
the way you feel you can piss off – and I mean it. There's Carl, there's Steve and there's … well,' she hesitated, 'well
… there's me.'

'Carl?' He didn't mean to provoke her – he was genuinely incredulous. 'Carl? He doesn't even know who I am – I haven't seen
him properly in years.'

Phyllis sighed, her exasperation was so profound – it was heavier than the hill they stood upon. Then she was calm again.
She took a ball of tissues from the pocket of her denim skirt and screwed it into her eyes, one after the other. 'Let's go
and get a cuppa,' she said, taking his arm, 'then you can tell me what the hell you thought you were up to. Somebody needs
to do something about this whole balls-up, David, and that somebody isn't you.'

'What's all this about?' Dave asked without any preamble.

'This?' Fucker held up the pill phone. 'Iss fer Nuro-whatsit, Nurofen.'

'No, not that, the cloakything.' He took a fold of Fucker's shift between his thumb and forefinger. 'Lovely bit of shmatte
by the way.'

Fucker gave a mordant shrug. 'Iss burghers, today, we're mennabee burghers today.'

'Burgers? Whaddya mean?'

'Burghers, Tufty, the Burghers of Calais, there's a statchew of 'em in that park by Parliament. Plan was fer us to dress up
like 'em and chain ourselves to it.'

'Isn't that a bit low level for your mob? I mean, the old Bill'll cut you off that in seconds.'

'Yeah, I know what you mean, mate' – Fucker necked a couple of Nurofen with a swallow of lager – 'but we gotta take whatever
opportunities present themselves – thass what Barry says. There's a debate in the Commons today what affects all us single
dads, an' they'll 'ave every 'igh fing fer miles under surveillance. Me, I get a buzz ahtuv the 'igh ups. Far as I'm concerned
– the 'igher the better. When I'm up there it's a big fucking buzz – better than sex, better than charley. I feel, y'know,
alive.'

Dave consulted his watch. 'So when you heading over, then? It's gone eleven thirty.'

'Nah, y'don't geddit.' Fucker shook his rubber face. 'I'm surplus to requirements, I am. I pitches up wiv me robe an' manacles
an' it only turns out they've got six other fucking burghers in hand already. So 'e mugs me off, don't he.'

'Y'know Fucker – Gary,' Dave spoke as softly and reasonably as he could, 'you want to be careful with that lot, Higginbottom
in particular. It could all come on top – you know what he's like.'