Run Johnboy Run: The Glasgow Chronicles 2 Read Free Page A

nightmares…that and aw the sleep-walking he wis prone tae daeing.   He looked at the ghost, or whitever the fuck it wis staunin in front ae him.  He felt his heart gaun like the clappers. It must’ve been at least three years since he’d last been in Skull Kelly’s company, when they wur baith ten years auld and in the same class at school.
      “Skull, is it really you?” he asked.  “Be honest noo.”
      “Noo ye’re freaking me oot, fur Christ’s sake.  Who else could it be?”
      “Ah…Ah don’t know.”
      “Look…it’s me,” he said, jumping up, grabbing the sock-baw and beating Johnboy’s score by two, before making an arse ae it and letting it land in the toilet bowl.
      “Aw, fur fuck’s sake, Skull, ya eejit, ye.  Noo, look whit ye’ve gone and done.  Ah’ll hiv tae bloody wear these wet noo,” Johnboy whined, picking the sock-baw oot ae the water and unrolling the socks, before laying them flat, side by side, at the bottom ae the concrete bed.
      “So, where the hell hiv youse been then?”
      “Whit dae ye mean, where the hell hiv we been?  Where the fuck hiv you been, ye mean?”
      Silence.
      “Johnboy, why did youse leave me?” Skull asked, his voice barely a whisper, turning his face away.
      “Skull, whit ur ye oan aboot?  The last time Ah saw ye wis the night before we wur due tae go back tae school…remember?  Ye wur supposed tae be bringing me in a good doo book.”
      Silence.
      “It wis the day efter we tanned the Murphys’ loft dookit and me and you hid been doon tae Paddy’s in the Saltmarket tae check oot the doos.  Ye walked up the road wae me and then ye heided hame.  Remember?”
      “Oh, aye, noo that ye’ve mentioned it, Ah kin remember that,” Skull replied, brightening up, a big grin appearing oan that ugly wee coupon ae his.
      “So, whit the hell happened efter that then?  Where did ye go efter ye left me?”
      “Ah remember bumping intae Flypast roond in Grafton Street oan ma way up the road and then gaun back roond tae his dookit tae check oot his new doos that he goat fur trading in the wans that he goat aff ae Crisscross and that big sergeant wan.”
      “Doos?  Flypast? Whit doos?”
      Skull went oan tae tell Johnboy whit Flypast, wan ae Johnboy’s neighbours, who hid a dookit in the next back court tae him, hid telt Skull.  Flypast hid goat four quality doos aff ae two ae the local bizzies.  Wan ae them, a cross-eyed shitehoose called Crisscross, hid accidently wrecked Flypast’s dookit earlier that summer, while him and his sergeant pal wur trying tae kidnap Johnboy and Tony Gucci, fur something they hidnae done.  Normally, a wee present ae four cracking pigeons like that wid’ve been welcomed as being heaven-sent, bit no oan this occasion.  Johnboy, Tony, Joe and Skull, hid jist tanned the loft where the local Big Man, Pat Molloy, kept three big pure bred Horsemen Thief Pouter doos, whose bloodlines could be traced back tae the original batch that hid come o’er fae Spain in the sixteenth or seventeenth century, as a present fur Mary Queen ae Scots.  The loft that they’d broken intae wis operated by the ugliest and nastiest trio ae basturts anywan could ever hiv the misfortune tae come across.  Flypast wid’ve been right tae be worried aboot accepting freebie doos aff ae anywan, including the polis, the day efter the raid up oan Ronald Street.  As soon as the Murphy brothers…Shaun, the auldest, and the blonde twins, Mick and Danny…hid discovered that o’er fifty ae their good doos and hens hid been blagged, alang wae the three prized Horsemen, they’d charged roond tae The Mankys’ cabin and then tae Flypast’s, in the hope ae catching them red-haunded wae their birds.  Johnboy aboot pished himsel laughing when Skull telt him that Flypast hid telt the Murphys that he’d goat the four doos oot ae a big batch that the bizzies claimed tae hiv stashed away.  This wis a stroke ae genius, as it