CHAPTER FIVE
Again on Friday evening I went down to the Slaw pub and exchanged bug-eyed looks with Soupy across the room.
On the Sunday half the lads had the afternoon off to go to Burndale for the football and darts matches, and we won both, which made for a certain amount of back slapping and beer drinking. But beyond remarking that I was new, and a blight on their chances in the darts league, the Burndale lads paid me little attention. There was no one like Soupy among them in spite of what October had said about the cases of doping in the village, and no one, as far as I could see, who cared if I were as crooked as a cork-screw.
During the next week I did my three horses, and read the form books, and thought: and got nowhere. Paddy remained cool and so did Wally, to whom Paddy had obviously reported my affinity with Soupy. Wally showed his disapproval by giving me more than my share of the afternoon jobs, so that every day, instead of relaxing in the usual free time between lunch and evening stables at four o'clock, I found myself bidden to sweep the yard, clean the tack, crush the oats, cut the chaff, wash Inskip's car or clean the windows of the loose boxes. I did it all without comment, reflecting that if I needed an excuse for a quick row and walked out later on I could reasonably, at eleven hours a day, complain of overwork.
However, at Friday midday I set off again with Sparking Plug, this time to Cheltenham, and this time accompanied not only by the box driver but by Grits and his horse, and the head travelling-lad as well.
Once in the racecourse stables I learned that this was the night of the dinner given to the previous season's champion jockey, and all the lads who were staying there overnight proposed to celebrate by attending a dance in the town. Grits and I, therefore, having bedded down our horses, eaten our meal, and smartened ourselves up, caught a bus down the hill and paid our entrance money to the hop. It was a big hall and the band was loud and hot, but not many people were yet dancing. The girls were standing about in little groups eyeing larger groups of young men, and I bit back just in time a remark on how odd I found it; Grits would expect me to think it normal. I took him off into the bar where there were already groups of lads from the racecourse mingled with the local inhabitants, and bought him a beer, regretting that he was with me to see what use I intended to make of the evening. Poor Grits, he was torn between loyalty to Paddy and an apparent liking for me, and I was about to disillusion him thoroughly.
I wished I could explain. I was tempted to spend the evening harmlessly. But how could I justify passing over an unrepeatable opportunity just to keep temporarily the regard of one slow-witted stable lad, however much I might like him? I was committed to earning ten thousand pounds.
"Grits, go and find a girl to dance with."
He gave me a slow grin.
"I don't know any."
"It doesn't matter. Any of them would be glad to dance with a nice chap like you. Go and ask one."
"No. I'd rather stay with you."
"All right, then. Have another drink."
"I haven't finished this."
I turned round to the bar, which we had been leaning against, and banged my barely touched half pint down on the counter.
"I'm fed up with this pap," I said violently.
"Hey, you, barman, give me a double whisky."
"ClanI' Grits was upset at my tone, which was a measure of its success. The barman poured the whisky and took my money.
"Don't go away," I said to him in a loud voice.
"Give me another while you're at it."
I felt rather than saw the group of lads farther up the bar turn round and take a look, so I picked up the glass and swallowed all the whisky in two gulps and wiped my mouth on the back of my hand. I pushed the empty glass across to the barman and paid for the second drink.
"Clan," Grits tugged my sleeve, 'do you think you should? "
"Yes," I said, scowling.
"Go and find a girl to dance with."
But he didn't go. He watched me drink the second whisky and order a third. His eyes were troubled.
The bunch of lads edged towards us along the bar.
"Hey, fella, you're knocking it back a bit," observed one, a tallish man of my own age in a flashy bright blue suit.
"Mind your own ruddy business," I said rudely.
"Aren't you from Inskip's?" he asked.
"Yea… Inskip's… bloody Inskip's…" I picked up the third glass. I had a hard head for whisky, which was going down on top of a deliberately heavy meal. I reckoned I could stay sober a long time after I would be expected to be drunk; but the act had to be put on early, while the audience were still sober enough themselves to remember it clearly afterwards.
"Eleven sodding quid," I told them savagely, 'that's all you get for sweating your guts out seven days a week. "
It struck a note with some of them, but Blue-suit said, "Then why spend it on whisky?"
"Why bloody not? It's great stuff gives you a kick. And, by God, you need something in this job."
Blue-suit said to Grits, "Your mate's got an outsized gripe."
"Well…" said Grits, his face anxious, "I suppose he has had a lot of extra jobs this week, come to think…"
"You're looking after horses they pay thousands for and you know damn well that the way you ride and groom them and look after them makes a hell of a lot of difference to whether they win or not, and they grudge you a decent wage…" I finished the third whisky, hiccupped and said, "It's bloody unfair."
The bar was filling up, and from the sight of them and from what I could catch of their greetings to each other, at least half the customers were in some way connected with racing. Bookmakers' clerks and touts as well as stable lads the town was stuffed with them, and the dance had been put on to attract them. A large amount of liquor began disappearing down their collective throats, and I had to catch the barman on the wing to serve my fourth double whisky in fifteen minutes.
I stood facing a widening circle with the glass in my hand, and rocked slightly on my feet.
"I want," I began. What on earth did I want? I searched for the right phrases.
"I want… a motor-bike. I want to show a bird a good time.
And go abroad for a holiday. and stay in a swank hotel and have them running about at my beck and call. and drink what I like. and maybe one day put a deposit on a house. and what chance do I have of any of these? I'll tell you. Not a snowball's hope in hell. You know what I got in my pay packet this morning. Seven pounds and fourpence. "
I went on and on grousing and complaining, and the evening wore slowly away. The audience drifted and changed, and I kept it up until I was fairly sure that all the racing people there knew there was a lad of Inskip's who yearned for more money, preferably in large amounts. But even Grits, who hovered about with an unhappy air throughout it all and remained cold sober himself, didn't seem to notice that I got progressively drunker in my actions while making each drink last longer than the one before.
Eventually, after I had achieved an artistic lurch and clutch at one of the pillars. Grits said loudly in my ear, "Clan, I'm going now and you'd better go too, or you'll miss the last bus, and I shouldn't think you could walk back, like you are."
"Huh?" I squinted at him. Blue-suit had come back and was standing just behind him.
"Want any help getting him out?" he asked Grits. Grits looked at me disgustedly, and I fell against him, putting my arm round his shoulders: I definitely did not want the sort of help Blue-suit looked as though he might give.
"Grits, me old pal, if you say go, we go." We set off for the door, followed by Blue-suit, me staggering so heavily that I pushed Grits sideways. There were by this time a lot of others having difficulty in walking a straight line, and the queue of lads which waited at the bus stop undulated slightly like an ocean swell on a calm day. I grinned in the safe darkness and looked up at the sky, and thought that if the seeds I had sown in all directions bore no fruit there was little doping going on in British racing.