The Know Read Free

Once, just once, let me go to work in a bit of peace.’
     
    Jon Jon poked his sister in the chest none too gently as he growled, ‘Watch yourself, girl.’
     
    She laughed.
     
    ‘I ain’t scared of you, mate!’
     
    He stared into her eyes and Joanie watched as her daughter’s bravado turned to real fear.
     
    ‘Well, you should be, Jen. You should be very scared.’
     
    Kira was visibly upset now. It seemed as if the whole room was charged with malice and all of them were affected by it.
     
    The front door flew open then and Monika stumped in, overweight and sporting the most amazing Afro in recorded history.
     
    ‘I been bibbing away down there,’ she shouted. ‘You ready, girl, or what?’ She scratched one large boob as she adjusted the elasticated top she was wearing. ‘Bloody thing, it’s killing me.’
     
    ‘Try buying one that fits next time,’ Jeanette said sarcastically, without thinking.
     
    Before Monika could answer Kira piped up with, ‘I think it looks . . .’
     
    Everyone, including Monika, said ‘lovely’ with her and once again they were all laughing.
     
    Kissing the kids, Joanie went to work feeling more light-hearted.
     
     
Kira walked out of the flat and down the steep concrete staircase to the communal washing lines below. No one used them any more so it was a place for the kids to hang out. On the plus side you could hear the music from certain flats so at least you had a few sounds as you sat around jawing.
     
    The overflowing bins were also housed down there so the smell, especially in summer, could get overwhelming. Last winter a newborn baby had been found in one of the large bins, barely alive. The kids had heard its mewling and retrieved it from the dustbin, called the police and were heroes for a few days. The mother of the unfortunate child had left the area after a near lynching from the neighbours and the child had been fostered out. It was still a major topic of conversation for them all, months after the event, and their parents didn’t mind them hanging round here so much now.
     
    Kira loved it here, it was her favourite place. Unlike most of the other girls she didn’t live under a loose rein, was not able to sit out till all hours, so made a point of enjoying the time she did have with her mates. It was a bone of contention between her and her brother and mother that she was not allowed the same freedom as everyone else, but she was shrewd enough to know she was fighting a losing battle. Her mother had lost the war with Jeanette, she was not going to lose it with Kira. Consequently, she was watched far more closely and had come to accept and to understand why this was so. Basically she was a good kid anyway and did as she was asked. Tonight, as she settled herself on the low wall, she was happy enough.
     
     
‘Little’ Tommy Thompson watched the girls as they sat and chatted. His balcony overlooked the washing lines and he had a good view of them. He liked watching the kids, they made him laugh with their antics, especially Kira and her friends. He waved down, smiling, and the girls waved shyly back.
     
    He had moved to this area a few months previously with his father. At thirty-eight, Tommy was cripplingly obese and unable to work because of that. And, as his father had always pointed out to anyone who would listen, he wasn’t the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree either.
     
    Tommy hated his father, and every fresh nasty comment sent him running to the fridge. ‘Morbidly obese?’ his dad would say. ‘ Anyone would be morbid around him.’ Tommy kept meaning to find out what this meant but he never had; he was always forgetting things. He hadn’t liked to ask the doctor either because his dad was sitting there with him every time and Tommy had learned just to listen, to let his father talk. It was how it had always been even when his mum had been alive.
     
    He moved his huge bulk in the chair. This heat was a killer for him and he knew he