Human Conditioning (14 page)

Duggie switched on the
television and collapsed into his armchair. “You still moaning, woman?” he
slurred, “Forever fucking moaning, you are!”

“You’re an embarrassment, Duggie,
a bloody embarrassment!”

Aiden had heard the commotion
from the shower and when he arrived downstairs ten minutes later he found his
father in the armchair snoring like a fog-horn, and his mother sitting at the
kitchen table, tears dripping down her cheeks, cigarette in hand and a cup of
tea on the table. 

“What happened?” he asked, out
of duty and because he had nothing else to say. He didn’t really care what had
occurred, but he knew his mother would expect him to show a modicum of concern.
He’d rather she keep her anger directed at his father than him.

“He ruins everything,” she
snivelled. Aiden made some tea and toast whilst she ranted. In his opinion, she
chose to be with the twat, so why should
he
care what he’d done this
time to make her unhappy? His mother continued, more indignant now, “We go out
with Benn and Ange and he’s hammered by six o’clock. He starts chatting up all
the women at the bar, right in front of me! Ange is sitting there watching him,
and oh, how embarrassing that was... then he gets himself into a fight...”

Aiden had called Reggie earlier
and said he’d be late, but he was pushing his luck now. Reggie said he had
something to talk to him about, and now, as his mother’s words drifted into the
background of his consciousness, he wracked his brain to think whether he’d
done something wrong. “I’ve gotta go,” were his last words to Vivien before he
sauntered out of the flat and headed to the ground floor. 

When he arrived at Reggie’s
flat, he took a deep breath and knocked on the door. He was nervous, convinced
that he must have done something wrong. It came from a guilty conscience. There
had been a couple of Reggie’s customers who Aiden had let off a couple of quid
now and then. It was important to Aiden to stay on the right side of people. A
couple of quid here and there was a small price to pay for loyalty, and that
was what Aiden was buying: loyalty and trust. It would set him up nicely in the
future if he had people on his side – people willing to lie for him, people
willing to do him favours.

But he bought such things as
trust and loyalty with someone else’s money, and now he wondered whether Reggie
had begun to notice the small dip in his profits. However, when Reggie opened
the door and beamed a megawatt smile, Aiden sighed quietly with relief. He
hadn’t yet been on the wrong side of Reggie Driscoll’s temper, but he’d seen
people who had, and it wasn’t something he’d like to experience himself. He
knew he was taking the piss just a little, but in the grand scheme of things,
it was
just a little,
and in the long run it could benefit Reggie as
well as himself.

“Alright, son?” Reggie swung a
muscular arm around Aiden’s large shoulders and pulled him into the flat. When
they entered the living room, he announced, “Aiden, I want you to do a little
sniffing about for me.”

“Alright,” Aiden replied,
intrigued, and took a seat on the couch. As he did so, Reggie pulled out a block
of hash from his pocket and threw it in Aiden’s direction. He caught it with
ease and automatically began skinning up with his own Rizla and cigarettes as
he waited for Reggie to explain his mission.

“There’s a crew who have set
themselves up in Bermondsey called the KKKs...”

Aiden looked up at him with
confusion. “Ain’t that like the Ku Klux, whatever?”

“Nah, I’m guessing it’s a play
on that, but it’s actually their names: Kamal, Kyle and Kris with a K. Kyle and
Kris are brothers, but Kamal Kakar is the ringleader...”

“So, what’s their deal?”

“Nothing much yet, not around
here anyway, but apparently they’ve already made their mark around London
Bridge. Now, at the moment they’re staying south of the river. They know who I
am and they know their place, but they’re causing a buzz and I just need to
stay on top of their movements.”

Aiden nodded with
understanding. “I’ve not heard of them. When did they establish themselves?”

“Well, this is it. They seem
to have just arrived out of nowhere and started calling the shots. I even hear
that old Davey Stokes has stepped down...”

“Davey Stokes, the dealer in New
Cross?”

“Yeah...”

Reggie was clearly perplexed.
He fell into thought whilst Aiden lit his joint. Aiden took a long drag then
passed it to Reggie. He took it gratefully, also inhaling a long drag and
holding it in his lungs for a short while before exhaling loudly. He forced
himself to smile. “Nothing to worry about, son, not yet. Just keep your eyes
and ears open, yeah? Keep in mind who you’re delivering to, see if you can
spark up a conversation without it looking like you’re prying and, more
importantly, don’t come across as if you’re worried. Worry spreads worry, son,
and we don’t need people thinking we can’t handle ourselves.”

“I gotcha,” Aiden replied simply,
then he showed Reggie his famously exquisite smile. “So, you seeing Hailey
tonight? It’s Saturday. You taking her anywhere special?” he teased.

Reggie smiled at the only
person other than his mother and his closest cousin who could get away with talking
to him on such a personal level. “I am, as it goes...” He smirked and shook his
head. “She fucking loves you! Said if she was younger... you good-looking
bastard!”

Aiden laughed. “Younger? She
can’t be far off my age already! How old is she?” Reggie grinned and winked at
him. “Come on, how old?” Aiden pressed jovially.

Reggie let out a roar of
laughter. Reggie’s laugh was like a lion’s roar. When he
really
laughed,
his whole body shook, and it always made Aiden feel good inside. “She’s twenty-one,”
Reggie finally admitted, and Aiden being Aiden, he congratulated the man with a
lascivious smile and a handshake.

When Aiden pulled up outside Carlton House tower block in
a shiny red Vauxhall Corsa, the first thing he saw as he jumped out onto the
pavement was Gina hanging over the balustrade on the fourth floor. He couldn’t
see her expression, but he knew she would be pissed off.

Meeting him at the top of the
stairs, she nudged him forcefully in the arm. “I told you not to get him that
car! Do you know how much shit he’s gonna give me now?”

Aiden swaggered up to Gina’s
flat, throwing the car keys up into the air and catching them as he went. Gina
stormed past him and into the open front door, calling out to her father
irately as she charged into the kitchen. “Well, you’ve done it now, Dad. Really
put us in the shit!”

“What you on about?” Roy asked
disinterestedly from the kitchen table as he sipped on his morning tea. He was
dressed, or rather undressed, in an off-white vest and striped pyjama bottoms. When
Roy saw Aiden step into his kitchen, his eyes narrowed. “What the fuck do you
want?”

Aiden threw the car keys at
him and he caught them clumsily. Staring down at the keys in his hands, his eyes
widened slightly then narrowed again as he glared back up at Aiden. “What are
these for?” he growled.

“You know full well what
they’re for!” Gina snapped, her arms crossed tight across her chest.

“Shut your trap!” Roy spat.
Aiden’s deep blue eyes conveyed amusement and went from father to daughter, then
back to father, but he didn’t attempt to intervene. Roy could feel the
acceleration of his heart and the clamminess of nerves as he thought back to
the conversation with Aiden a few weeks before and he continued irately,
“You’re having me on...” He was angry. That he might be proven wrong by this
kid would be more humiliating than the time he’d been found passed out in an
alleyway around the corner of the pub with his trousers around his ankles. He’d
never remembered what had happened that night, but this he’d remember for the
rest of his life.

“Go take a look downstairs if
you don’t believe me,” Aiden replied, casually stepping back and gesturing
towards the front door.

Roy got to his bare feet and
stormed outside. Peering over the balustrade, he took in the red Corsa
sparkling in the sunlight. Against the bleakness of the grey estate, it was a
treat to the eye. It was one nice motor, but there was no way he
could
afford it.

Aiden stepped outside after
him, his dry smile remaining on his handsome face. “Nice, ain’t it?”

Roy spun around. “What d’you
go and get that for?”

“You asked me to...” Aiden
laughed.

Roy’s anger was rising by the
second. To see that smirk on the kid’s face was more than he could bear. “You
little cunt!” Suddenly Roy charged at Aiden, his fists flying. 

Gina ran out of the flat to
see her father land a hard blow to the side of Aiden’s head. “For fuck’s sake,
Dad!” she yelled, jumping between the two large figures. But she was
immediately forced to one side by her father, her distraction allowing Aiden to
land a punch to his nose. Roy stumbled backwards, cupping his nose in his hands
as it bled out. 

Gina stared wide-eyed at her
father, waiting for him to lose all control of his renowned temper. That Aiden
had today undermined him on two counts – the car and the punch – would mean her
life would be unbearable until he calmed down again. He would not forgive Aiden
for this.

She put her face in her hands.
She would get it from both sides now. Both her father and Aiden would have
something to say to her. Aiden would let her know just what a useless ponce her
father really was – something she didn’t need telling more than once – and her
father would enjoy rubbing it in her face about how he was going to teach Aiden
a lesson, and that she should have never got involved with him in the first
place. She would be told that it was
her
fault that this had happened
today because she had
insisted
on being his girl.

The fight was not over. Wiping
the blood onto his vest, Roy charged at Aiden once more, forcing him against
the wall of the flat. But Aiden was a very well-built, very strong young man,
with an even shorter temper than Roy, and it didn’t take much for him to
restrain him. With one knee to the groin and another blow to the face, Roy was
on the cold stone floor, nursing his injuries once more.

Aiden loomed over him, panting
like a wild animal, ignoring the witnesses who had appeared on their doorsteps
to watch the commotion. He glared down at the man over twice his age with a
burning desire to finish him off.

“Enough!” Gina yelled, pushing
Aiden in the chest with as much force as she could muster.

Roy groaned, cupping his hands
over his privates. Gina knelt down behind her father and, inserting her arms
under his armpits, began to pull him up. Roy cursed at her and dropping his
head back against her chest, he spat blood up into her face.

Gina fell backwards as Aiden retaliated,
swinging his foot and pelting Roy directly in the stomach. “Discussion over!”
he panted, glancing at her. He had always known that Roy didn’t really have the
money. Without saying another word, he turned and left.

************

The front door to the Watsons’ flat was open when Aiden
turned up the next day. So what if Roy had something to say about it? He would
just give him another kicking. He stepped inside without knocking. He could
hear the buzzing sound of a hoover, and as he stepped into the small living
room, he was met with the sight of Gina in a very short, tight-fitting dress,
pushing a budget hoover around with determination. 

With her back to the door, she
hadn’t noticed his arrival, so he watched her for a long moment, taking in the
hem of her skirt, which sat just below her buttocks and showed a little of her
knickers. Moving in, he slowly stepped up behind her and slid a hand between
her legs.

“Da...!” Gina spun around,
shutting off the hoover simultaneously. “Oh, it’s you...”

Aiden pursed his lips and
pulled her into him. “Who else would it be?”

“No one...”

“Where’s Roy?”

Gina rolled her eyes. “Pub,”
she confirmed.

Aiden’s lips found hers and
for once Gina pulled away first. “Thanks for sticking up for me yesterday...”

Aiden frowned as if he didn’t understand, but he did
really. When Roy had spat in her face, it had disgusted him. He’d reacted the
only way he knew how, but he would never understand what his reaction had meant
to Gina: his natural instinct to protect her had meant the world to her.

Gina felt Aiden’s hands move
over her buttocks, and the stirring need for him came to the fore as it always
did. Nevertheless, her desire was interrupted when Roy walked into the room
with a sour look on his face. Gina stepped out of Aiden’s embrace, pulling the
hem of her dress down over her thighs. Aiden nonchalantly turned to the door. A
quiver of smile crept onto his full lips at the sight of Roy’s bruised nose.

“Caught red-handed...” Roy
growled.

“Leave it out, Dad,” Gina
murmured anxiously. She peered up at Aiden. “You’d best go,” she whispered, her
eyes beseeching him not to make a scene. She could tell he wanted to.
“Please...” she pleaded.

He left without a word, but he
wasn’t happy.

Aiden’s foul mood had thickened the atmosphere at home
the moment he had stormed into the flat. Kate stood leaning against the fridge
in the kitchen, sipping on a glass of lemonade and glancing up at her brother
every few seconds with a quizzical expression, yet afraid to ask what was wrong
with him in case she got an earful. Vivien was washing up, something she
frequently complained that she spent her whole life doing, and Duggie was
watching the races on the television in the living room. 

They could all hear Duggie’s
protests at the television set as, once again, his horse came in outside of
first, second or third place. Aiden sat at the kitchen table puffing on a
cigarette and each time Duggie yelled, he shifted, as if he was on the verge of
storming into the next room and wringing his father’s neck. All three of them
in the kitchen were silent for a while, until Kate finally plucked up the
courage to question her brother.