Manchester Vice

Chapter 9

9

If I am to be honest about things (and circumstances demand that I must be) the problems in my relationship with Sandra were my fault as much as hers, probably more so.

There was, for instance, an incident when we were on a night out together, just the two of us. Something about Sandra’s manner had been annoying me all day long. What it was escapes me now, but it must have been important to me at the time.

Anyway, we’d eaten in the Tapas place at the end of Deansgate, and I’d had numerous bottles of premium lager and three quarters of a carafe of wine, and gotten myself into a foul mood. As our night out ended and we made our way to the taxi rank, I began berating her in public. This does not nearly convey the severity of what I did.

I shouted and swore at Sandra to such a degree that two young men came over and enquired as to what was going on and whether she needed their help. They were wily-nily drawn into our conflict. (When I say ‘conflict’, that is inaccurate, as you need two to have a conflict, but Sandra wasn’t responding to my verbal attack on her. She was doing her best to walk away, with me in hot pursuit).

When I noticed the young men intervening, I shouted at them:

“YOU TWO CAN f**k RIGHT OFF BEFORE I LEVEL THE f*****g PAIR OF YER. IT’S NONE OF YOUR f*****g BUSINESS!”

In retrospect, I can see they were two sterling individuals who only wanted to protect Sandra and to prevent something bad from happening.

A couple of policemen patrolling nearby heard my threats (was there anyone within a quarter mile radius of me who did not hear them?). They took me to one side and explained I would be arrested if I didn’t calm down. Sandra got a taxi home, while I remonstrated with the police.

Somehow I avoided arrest and made my own way home in a separate taxi.

The point is that I was older than Sandra, and somewhat irascible. This character defect of mine had not improved with age. On the contrary, it had gotten worse. When I wasn’t being impatient with Sandra, I was losing my temper with her. I can see why, over the years, she’d gradually withdrawn from our relationship.

But what I still fail to see is why Brian should have taken it on himself to occupy the void created by my absence from certain areas of Sandra’s life.

Is it any wonder that I wanted to bring him to book for his treachery?