Read Online Educating Peter by Tom Cox - Free Book Online Page B

phases. I liked to think he was chewing the morning’s experience over, adding it to his psychological armour. On the other hand, I worried that I’d done the wrong thing, let him see too much too early in his apprenticeship. During the journey down to Hastings, I’d felt we’d been finally getting to know each other, talking almost constantly – about his karate classes, about rock stars, about soft drinks, about Goat Punishment – but now we were silent. Earlier, we’d alternated between the boxless tapes that resided permanently in my car (Styx, Aerosmith, The Pretty Things, Sly And The Family Stone) and the ones Peter had brought in his rucksack (Puddle Of Mudd, AC/DC, Slipknot), but now the radio seemed to have somehow tuned itself to Classic FM without either of us noticing. The silence, punctured only by Peter crunching his fourth bag of McCoys in as many hours, was something cinematic and profound – pregnant with the understanding that when something was finally said, it would have to sum things up in the deepest manner imaginable. Normally, I would have broken it, but my pedagogical instinct told me it would have to be Peter’s job this time. So I waited patiently until, just as we approached Lewes, he finally turned around to speak, his face bustling with double-decker revelation.
    â€˜I’ve been thinking,’ he said, ‘about buying a new jacket.’

THE JACKET
    â€˜ WHAT’S WRONG WITH the one you’re wearing?’
    â€˜It’s not long enough.’
    â€˜Looks pretty long to me.’
    â€˜No. It’s got to be longer. It’s more goth for it to be longer. You should see Raf’s – it’s really long, like, soooo goth. A bit like the one Brandon Lee wears in
The Crow
.’
    â€˜Oh.
The Crow
. I remember that. Bit rubbish – all that brooding and silliness.’
    â€˜I love it.’
    â€˜It’s a long time since I saw it.’
    â€˜He’s just so awesome. And it’s just so weird that he got killed while they were filming it.’
    â€˜Yeah – you wonder why on earth there would be real bullets in the gun, if it was just a movie set. Do you think that makes you like it more?’
    â€˜Mmmm. Dunno. Haven’t really thought about it. Maybe.’
    â€˜I like Angel from
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
– he’sgot a big billowy dark coat. I’m onto series five of that now, where Spike decides he loves Buffy. Dead good.’
    â€˜Uh.’
    â€˜So what else makes up the goth look, apart from the coat?’
    â€˜Well, big boots. And straight hair.’
    â€˜Yours is a bit curly, isn’t it?’
    â€˜Yeah. It’s really irritating. I try brushing it, but it just gets a sort of straw mushroom effect. It kind of looks better when it’s wet.’
    â€˜I know what you mean. I had straight hair until I was fourteen, then I woke up one morning and it was like wire wool. Nothing I could do with it, and when I tried to grow it, it just went out, not down. It’s kind of okay and straightish again now, but it only seemed to get okay when I stopped thinking about it.’
    â€˜I’m seriously thinking about getting mine straightened.’
    â€˜I’m not sure if I’d advise it. My cousin tried that and it started falling out, and the effect lasted virtually no time at all. She was well pissed off.’
    â€˜Really?’
    â€˜We sound a bit like girls, don’t we?’
    â€˜A little bit.’
    â€˜I’m glad nobody can hear this conversation.’
    â€˜At least we don’t run like girls.’
    â€˜Good point. Do you want to put some music on? This classical shit’s alright in traffic jams but it’s bugging the crap out of me now.’
    â€˜Okay. What?’
    â€˜What about that – the one on the floor, by your leftfoot. Yeah, there, just under that Frazzles packet . . . No, those are