YOU GET THE COCK YOU WANTED?

‘Didn’t you hear what I said?’ he said as the lift started down. ‘I said, “Did you hear what I said?”’ he said when after the first time he spoke I looked at him, blankly.
Then the second time and I said, ‘You talking to me?’
‘I said, “Hold the lift,”’ he said.
‘You made it, didn't you?' I said.
‘I had to put my leg in,’ she said, her back to me, ‘in the gap, stop the door.’
The other man had a joint, drew on it, blew it out. My heart beat faster than usual, took a breath, looked down at the floor, top of my boots...
...wanted to stamp on the little guy’s head...
...they didn’t hold either of the doors for me on the way out, so more of the same.
Kuvuka, violence in my head, coffee, waiting for her I said, ‘Anyone down there?’ thinking, ‘Surely not after last time.’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘There’s a woman.’
He was counting money, she was sat on the comfy sofa facing the other way.
‘You get the cock you wanted?’ I said to her.

I’M HIS DAD

‘He’s flirting already. Giving them scraps,’ she said.
‘All of them?’
She said they all left coop leaving him, there on his own. Crowed four times the first morning. ‘Not too early,’ she said.
We compared angers, headed in different directions.
Cex has moved but the queues are as long.
‘You buying?’
‘Exchanging,’ I said.
I’m watching the DVD I got - Homicide:Life On The Streets.
‘You got some ID?’ said the Cexman. ‘You got to be eighteen to buy that,’ to a young man, red top dyed black hair fringe showing beneath a black hat. ‘Or get someone to buy it for you.’
‘I’ll buy it for you,’ I said.
‘It’s got to be a parent or guardian,’ said Cexman.
‘I’m his dad,’ I said.