October 30th 2016 (Mill Dam)
Nick B & I are in The Swan & Sugarloaf, south Croydon, one afternoon, when a terror attack starts to unfold right outside on the Brighton Road. A woman passing by the window pulls a bazooka from beneath her coat. She shoulders the weapon & kneels. A helicoptor appears from behind the shops on the other side of the road & she immediately fires & destroys it. People begin either to flee in panic, or else reveal themselves also to be armed. The terrorists are all white women.
We escape the pub & run down one of the side streets. A small group of people are sitting on the pavement outside The Sportsman. We sit down with them, our backs to the wall, catching our breath. Suddenly there is a gunshot & a bullet smashes into the wall missing Nick’s face by some inches. The brickwork powders. “Move!” I shout. He is in shock. “Move!” He scrambles on all fours toward me. We all cower beneath a table on the pavement. “The sniper is hidden in the school,” someone says.
October 31st 2016
A group of us are sat around a pub table. Nick O is telling everyone that he only gives Christmas cards to his very favourite people. “It has to stop somewhere,” he says. “Or, else it would become silly!” He pulls a collection of greetings cards from his coat pocket &, glancing at the names written on the envelopes, begins to give them out. I pat my pocket to make sure that I have a card for him. “A bug bear of mine is when people forget my wife’s name,” Nick O says as he passes around the cards. I immediately realise that I have neglected to write Hilary’s name in the card, so I carefully re open it beneath the table & write her name in it. Oh, shit! Now I see that I have his son’s name wrong! I have written ‘Atom’ instead of ‘Boz.’ As I’m wondering how on earth I can correct this without making a big mess, Nick O appears at my shoulder. “Don’t worry,” he says into my ear. “I can never remember his name either!” With this, we exchange cards.
November 2nd 2016
If Green Day were only 1″ bigger in every respect they would be a great band. Or vice versa.
nickreeves 