"Geoff Ryman - Everywhere" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ryman Geoff)

the truth. But Granddad loved seeing us all in one place.

He was going a bit soft by then. He couldn’t tell what the time was
anymore and his words came out wrong. The Mums made us sit on his lap.
He kept calling me by my dad’s name. His breath smelt funny but I didn’t
mind, not too much. He told me about how things used to be in Blaydon.

They used to have a gang in the Dene called Pedro’s Gang. They
drank some-thing called Woodpecker and broke people’s windows and
they left empty tins of pop in the woods. If you were little you weren’t
allowed out cos everyone’s Mum was so fearful and all. Granddad once
saw twelve young lads go over and hit an old woman and take her things.
One night his brother got drunk and put his fist through a window, and he
went to the hospital, and he had to wait hours before they saw him and that
was terrible.

I thought it sounded exciting meself. But I didn’t say so because
Granddad wanted me to know how much better things are now.

He says to me, like: the trouble was, Landlubber, we were just kids,
but we all thought the future would be terrible. We all thought the world was
going to burn up, and that everyone would get poorer and poorer, and the
crime worse.

He told me that lots of people had no work. I don’t really understand
how anyone could have nothing to do. But then I’ve never got me head
around what money used to be either.
 Or why they built that Angel. It’s not even that big, and it was old and
covered in rust. It didn’t look like an Angel to me at all, the wings were so
big and square. Granddad said, no, it looks like an airplane, that’s what
airplanes looked like back then. It’s meant to go rusty, it’s the Industrial
Spirit of the North.

I didn’t know what he was on about. I asked Dad why the Angel was
so im-portant and he kept explaining it had a soul, but couldn’t say how. The
church choir showed up and started singing hymns. Then it started to rain. It
was a wonderful day out.

I went back into the tram and asked me watch about the Angel.

This is my watch, here, see? It’s dead good isn’t it, it’s got all sorts on
it. It takes photographs and all. Here, look, this is the picture it took of
Granddad by the Angel. It’s the last picture I got of him. You can talk to
people on it. And it keeps thinking of fun things for you to do.

Why not explain to the interviewer why the Angel of the North is
important?

Duh. Usually they’re fun.