漫漫长路 1-Track03

JESS

I shouldn't have made the noise. That was my mistake.But I yelled 'Out of the way, losers!'and made this stupid Red Indian war-whoop. and Martin rugby-tackled me before I got halfway 1.I knew what the two of them were doing up there the moment I got to the roof. So I went, how come you two are allowed to kill yourselves and I'm not?And he goes, You're too young.We've fucked our lives up. You haven't,yet. And I said, How do you know that?What if I've murdered ten people? Including my parents and,my baby twins?And he went, Well, if you're up here, you've got away with it, haven't you? Good luck to you.I'd get on a plane to Brazil if I were you.And I said,What if I want to pay for what I've done with my life? And he said, Shut up.

MARTIN

I shouted at Maureen to come and help me. She looked frightened.

What should I do?

'Sit on her.'

Maureen sat on Jess's arse, and I knelt on her arms.

let me go, you old bastard 2 pervert 3.

I thought for a moment Jess might have known who I was, but even I'm not that paranoid.If you were rugby-tackled in the middle of the night just as you were about

to hurl 4 yourself off the top of a tower-block, you probably wouldn't be thinking about breakfast television presenters 5.

are you going to behave?'

'Yes.'

So Maureen stood up, Jess scrambled 6 for the ladder, and I had to bring her crashing down again.

'Now what?' said Maureen,

'I don't bloody 7 know.'

Why it didn't occur to any of us that a well-known suicide spot would be like Piccadilly Circus on New Year's Eve.I have no idea, But at that precise moment,the three became four.There was a polite cough, and when we turned round to look, we saw a tall, goodlooking, long-haired man, maybe ten years younger than me, holding a

crash helmet under one arm and one of those big insulated bags in the

other.'Any of you guys order a pizza?'

MAUREEN

'Are you American?' Jess asked him.

'Yeah.'

'What are you guys doing sitting on her head?'

'They're sitting on my head because this isn't a free country,' Jess said.

'You can't do what you want to.'

'She was going to jump,' Martin said.

'So were you!'

'You were all gonna jump?'

'Would you watch your language, please?' I said.

He shook his head.

'I think she's OK, now, ,' Martin said, He stood up, and I stood up, and Jess stood up and brushed herself down and swore a lot. Then she stared at Martin.'You're that bloke,' she said. 'The breakfast TV bloke. The one who slept with the fifteen-year-old. Martin Sharp. Martin Sharp was sitting on my head. You pervert.'I didn't have a clue about any fifteen-year-old.I don't

look at that sort of newspaper someone's left one on the bus.

'You kidding me?' said the pizza man. 'The guy who went to prison? I read about him.'Martin made a groaning 8 noise. 'Does everyone in America know, too?'

The pizza man laughed,'Sure,' you are all over the the New York Times.'ok, sit down, all of you.he started to open his bag.'Vegetarian,' said the pizza man.

'Whatever,' said Jess. 'Who wants what?'