Black Angels???Red Blood Read Free Page A

you say goodbye before you leave,” Molly reminded him.
    â€œI will. See you later.” He walked slowly back to Alice’s place. On his way he took note of certain characters hanging around a white fella in the little park off Lawson Street. When he arrived Alice wasn’t home, so he decided to clean up and go through his dilly bag to make sure the things he needed were there. He knew it would be a long night, judging by his first meeting with Tim ten years ago.
    Alice walked in and said “hello” on her way to the kitchen. The old man responded and followed her. Alice made a cup of tea and offered to make the old man a sandwich or cook some food. He declined on the pretence of going out for dinner, though his real reason was that he knew they survived on the bare essentials and he did not want to intrude. They sat for a chat and swapped gossip on what they’d been doing since they last saw each other.
    The old man excused himself and got ready to meet Tim at the local hotel. On the way he was accosted by the local kids who asked him to sing them a song. He promised that he’d be back to sing for them later.
    Tim was already at the bar having a beer when the old man walked in. Tim asked if he wanted a beer. The old man nodded and sat down next to him.
    â€œDo you want to sit here or in the lounge?” asked Tim.
    â€œIn the lounge, it’s a bit more private,” the old man answered.
    They moved to the lounge with beers in hand and settled in the corner. There were only a few people in the lounge and it was a lot quieter than the front bar. There were acouple of young black men playing pool, but it was a predominantly white pub.
    â€œIt’s not like ten years ago when the blacks had their own pubs,” Tim remarked. “We used to be wall to wall.”
    â€œWhat happened to all of that?” the old man asked.
    â€œI think the plan was to kick the blacks out of Redfern so they could expand the central business district,” replied Tim.
    â€œWell, the blacks are still here,” The old man stated.
    â€œYea, TNT lost out badly even though they had lots of support from the police. Harassing us every day. Closing down pubs where we drank,” explained Tim.
    â€œSame story in lots of places in WA,” the old man added.
    â€œThey didn’t shift the Koories and the arse has fallen out of TNT’s shares. They’re going broke!” said Tim.
    â€œGood news for the Koories,” said the old man.
    â€œNot all good news. They’re still getting harassed by the police. They bring the young coppers into Redfern to give them hands-on riot training, using the blacks as their target. A horrific situation when you look at the real implications,” said Tim ruefully. “They done a survey and asked white people if they thought the police were racist and around 70 per cent said they weren’t. Then along came, ‘Cop it Sweet’, the TV documentary about Redfern coppers. Did you see that?”
    â€œYeah, I saw that.”
    â€œIt was fantastic. It showed just how racist the bastards are, and then the top brass in the police said that it was a reflection on community attitudes as the recruits were from the community,” Tim said sarcastically.
    They finished their beers and Tim stood up to get another round. The old man stopped him and told him that they should go somewhere else to talk. Tim agreed and theyheaded back toward the block. The block, as Koories called it, was the heart of four streets—Eveleigh, Caroline, Louis and Vine Streets in Redfern. The old man started talking and Tim, noticing the tone in his voice, listened without interrupting. Tim understood most of what the old man said and believed unreservedly. The one thing that stuck in Tim’s mind was the part about changes being made in today’s society. The words echoed in Tim’s ears. “It’s bigger than anything we’ve seen and