As if by Magic Read Free Page B

and was wrapped in a heavy coat that had a rip along one side with yellow padding squirming out.
    ‘Nice day for it, Tony,’ Jessica said, sitting next to him on the concrete step, which felt cold through her jeans. The man didn’t respond but the elder pair started to grumble. ‘Oi, you two, go for a walk,’ she ordered, repeating herself more forcefully when they didn’t move quickly enough. Dave had retreated to the other side of the alley and was leaning against the wall as the men shuffled away, leaving them alone.
    ‘Tony, long time no see,’ Jessica tried again.
    The man rocked from side to side before finally acknowledging her. ‘What do you want?’ he mumbled.
    ‘I’ve just come to check in with my favourite anarchist.’
    Tony said something Jessica couldn’t understand under his breath.
    ‘Oh come on,’ Jessica said. ‘You’re not going to change the world by sitting in an alley muttering to yourself.’
    “Toxic” Tony was well-known in the area as a homeless alcoholic. Most people living on the streets had some sort of tragic tale but Tony’s was stranger than most. The way Jessica had heard it, his parents owned a string of properties around the country and their wealth would one day, in theory, be passed down to their only son. Tony had come to Manchester to go to university but dropped out during his first year. Jessica’s first contact with him had been when his parents had registered him missing. It didn’t take long for him to show up; arrested for stealing a bottle of brandy from an off-licence. Instead of returning home, he spent the next decade living on the streets of Manchester, or – more recently – the flat they had first visited. He had a long list of similar low-level theft convictions, almost entirely for taking alcohol, while he was banned from every on or off-licensed premise in the city. Despite short stints in prison, he would pop back up on the police’s radar every few months for breaking the terms of his exclusion or simply for another theft. He also seemed to turn up on every and any cause which protested in the city centre, be it anti-capitalism – for which he had also been arrested for smashing a shop window the previous year – the march against increased council tax – even though he didn’t pay any, and, most bizarrely, breast cancer awareness, where he had been photographed wearing a bright pink T-shirt.
    His parents had long-since disowned him and the frequency of his arrests meant he was on first-name terms with large numbers of Greater Manchester police. He looked at Jessica, his eyes widening ever so slightly in recognition, even though she hadn’t seen him in years. ‘You’re all in it together, man,’ he said flapping an arm in the vague direction of the building in front of him.
    ‘Who’s in what together?’
    ‘You’re all part of the same corporate machine,’ he said, his voice suddenly clear, although his words slurred into each other.
    Jessica thought they should try to fix Tony up with Dave’s pink-haired schoolmate. ‘What were you up to an hour ago?’ Jessica asked. The man didn’t reply. ‘Come on, Tony, I know you were at the train station. I’ve seen the CCTV. You were wearing the same coat you’ve got on now, although the hat is new, I’ll give you that.’
    ‘I weren’t nowhere, man.’
    ‘Well you’ve got a pretty convincing twin then. Come on, just tell me what you were doing and I’ll leave you alone.’
    ‘You got any fags?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘You wanna go get me some?’
    ‘No, and I’m not giving you money for booze, fags or anything else.’
    Tony sighed in annoyance then dug around in his jacket pocket before taking his balled fist out and grinning manically, his crooked yellow teeth clear for her to see. ‘Never mind, I’ve got this.’
    Jessica resisted the urge to roll her eyes. ‘What’s in your hand?’
    Tony started laughing and then reached into his other pocket and took out a small bottle of