Skunk
(throwing his hat and gloves onto the bed): Hi Jesus. Oh Lord, another day,
another... dollar. More time... About the only good thing that happened today
was eh, at lunchtime when the delivery guy came with all the books, and I was
in the back of the van helping him unload eh,
coughs
Skunk:
the stock, the boxes and... He was at the end, he was at the, you know, just at
the back of the van, and we were loading up the trolleys, and this guy eh, he
turned around, Tony turned around and he saw this guy standing there obviously boiled
out of his skull on something and eh, he, maybe maybe it was drugs I don’t
know, you know that thing about... people that are drunk, they seem to be
making an effort to... to act normal, people that are stoned just don’t seem to
have a clue. But this guy, he was looking at the boxes of books and he said
something about oh “Have you got any bargains here?” or “What can I get?” or
something like that. Anyway, next thing we knew, you know, Tony said, you know,
I think we just looked at him, and then he said ehm “Do you want to buy
a television?” I think it was, was it a television, the first one? And then it
was, did we want to buy a video or a hi-fi, I wouldn’t mind having a
hi-fi, I would, you know... ehm, and then he asked if we wanted to buy some
drugs and, oh cigarettes was the other one. He’d had, he had several thousand
cigarettes I think he wanted to sell and he worked it out, he gave us a price
and told us what that would work out at per cigarette, but ehm, that was no use
to us. Anyway so he walked off, he actually walked into the shop and I thought
“Oh Jesus, this is not, this is not good” and, because somebody who has
all these rather illegal, illegally attained things to sell is not going to be
interested in buying any books. Anyway, we took the boxes in, and then
the boss came up to Tony and said, she asked if he could get this guy out of
the shop, and she said later it was because, not not because of the shoplifting
thing he I think I think she thought he was too far gone to bother even
shoplifting but, it was to do with in case he he was sick on the ehm, in the
shop, you know, somebody would obviously have to, one of us would
obviously have to clean that up, and she didn’t ask me because, you know, ehm,
I’m not really... an expert on confrontation.
Laughing.
Skunk:
So Tony, I was I was ehm... I can’t remember, was I just walking up the shop,
or, but I heard Tony speak to him. This guy was standing just inside the door
at the card rack. He’d wandered round the shop and he was standing at the card
rack, the spinner, and he was looking at the cards and Tony went up to him and
sort of tapped him on the shoulder and said, he didn’t say ehm, “Look, I think
you should leave” or ehm “The manageress is keeping an eye on you” or anything
like that. He just said eh “Get the fuck out of the shop pal” like that, which
I thought was really
laughing
Skunk:
“Get the fuck out of the shop” and, the guy looked at him, I think he
said something about he wasn’t doing anything, he wasn’t causing any trouble
or, and Tony just said “Look get the fuck out of the shop”. So the guy made to
leave but he’d, he took, he had a handful of cards and ehm, and Tony said “You
better put those back as well” and the guy said something about he thought they
were free, and it was at this point I noticed he had a little cuddly, ehm, a
yel- it’s a yellow teddy bear in the crook of his arm, like he was cuddling it
to himself. I knew the teddy bear was the boss’s, she’d brought them in, I
can’t remember why, I think it was because somebody, someone else had brought
in a little plush dog, and she brought in a couple of things as well, and
they’d all been sitting at the information desk, and this guy had it cuddled,
he was almost protective of it, he had it cuddled into the crook of his
arm, and he was saying “Okay okay, I’m leaving I’m leaving” you know, very much
with this put-upon countenance, and ehm, he walked out of the shop, staggered
out and he still had this little toy, and ehm, I didn’t say to him, I didn’t,
you know I knew it was, it was the boss’s toy, that it was, that he’d taken it,
but ehm, I thought it was too poignant, and I thought it would be, it would
destroy that for me to say to him, you know, “I have to have, you must give
that back. You must surrender up that...” I mean, even if he was completely
stewed, at least... Oh I don’t know, that’s silly
still
laughing as he hung his coat inside the wardrobe.
