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There was an explosion of bedclothes as Jerry sprang up with a loud ‘FUCK!’ that drowned her own er topped them both with a shriek like an air-raid siren Like clockwork, old Mrs Munns in the next flat thunantly on the thin wall

Jerry’s naked shape crossed the room in a bound He pounded furiously on the partition with his fist,the wallboard quiver and booer had stopped screeching, impressed by the racket

Dead silence from the other side of the wall, and Marjorie pressed herHe smelled of baby scent and fresh pee, and she cuddled hie hot-water bottle, his i over her runt and came across to her

‘Ha,’ he said, and kissed her

‘What d’ye think you are?’ she whispered, leaning into hi her hand and pressing it against him ‘Want to see my banana?’

‘Dzie dobry’

Jerry halted in the act of lowering hi Frank Randall

‘Oh, aye,’ he said ‘Like that, is it? Niech sie pan odpierdoli’ It meant, ‘Fuck off, sir,’ in for

‘Like that,’ he agreed He had a wodge of papers with him, official fornised the one you signed that named who your pension went to, and the one about what to do with your body if there was one and anyone had tined up, but they nored the forht

‘And here’s me thinkin’ you and Malan pickedhis accent He sat and leaned back, affecting casualness ‘It is Poland, then?’ So it hadn’t been coincidence, after all--or only the coincidence of Dolly’searly In a way, that was co hi the fuel line The Hand of Fate had been in it a good bit earlier, putting hiht with Andrej Kolodziewicz

Andrej was a real guid yin, a good friend He’d copped it aup away from a Messersch over the wrong shoulder Left wing shot to hell, and he’d spiralled right back down and into the ground Jerry hadn’t seen the crash, but he’d heard about it And got drunk on vodka with Andrej’s brother after

‘Poland,’ Randall agreed ‘Malan says you can carry on a conversation in Polish That true?’

‘I can order a drink, start a fight, or ask directions Any of that of use?’