49
A line of coke, a carton of cigs, a bottle of Jameson, nineteen pints of Guinness, all preened, shimmered before my eyes. I got out of the room and asked Mrs Bailey if she’d noticed anything, anyone odd passing through the lobby. She looked at me in disbelief.
“Odd? Are you codding me? The whole country’s odd. A young lad was in this morning, looking for work, and he had pins in his eyebrows, his tongue and the Lord only knows where else.”
I wanted escape, to shut off my mind. Went to the video store and rented a whole set of stuff. The guy said, “Catching up?”
“As if I could.”
Over the next few days, I saw Insomnia, The Devils Backbone, Lantana, Donnie Darko, Three Colours Blue, Apocalypse Redux and the whole of the first series of CSI.
Maybe I’d watched The Simpsons too often, b
