Read Online Perry Scrimshaw's Rite of Passage by Chris Hannon - Free Book Online Page A

smell of stale beer on his breath. ‘You want me to
throw you out on your face boy?’
    Perry thought about the knife.
Should he make a grab for it? Something told him it would only get
him in more trouble. He held up his palms, ‘I’ll leave you to it,
sorry to bother you fellers.’
    Shaken, he retreated outside,
hoping Joel had better luck. He would get there eventually, surely
it was just like selling wood or agreeing a good price for your
catch - he just wasn’t used to hawking women, or more accurately,
hawking Ma.
    Joel turned up ten minutes
later and to Perry’s relief had a scrawny wretch of a man in tow, a
sheepish grin on his face.
    Joel cocked an
eyebrow, any luck?
    Perry shook his
head no.
    Joel clapped his hands
together, ‘Right then, looks like you’re our best price Pietersen,
you deckhands are a clever lot, always getting bargains.’
    Pietersen smiled, revealing
long crooked teeth.
    Perry followed, listening to
Joel’s patter. He was a good talker and when he thought about what
Joel must have done to set up his note delivery racket in the
prison, it was pretty impressive. They could make a good team, two
freebooters scratching together a crust.
    They stopped outside St.
Michael’s, the windows orange with candlelight. A nun walked out of
the church and lit a candle either side of the entrance. Angelic
singing soared from inside.
    ‘ See that,’ he
heard Joel say to the deckhand, ‘them nuns are holding a vigil
every night until The Sick disappears.’
    ‘ What’s The
Sick?’ asked Pietersen.
    ‘ You ain’t
heard?’ Joel continued on, but Perry stood transfixed. The nun who,
only a moment earlier had been lighting the candles, was shooing a
beggar down the path away from the church.
    ‘ Away with
you!’
    The beggar scuttled over the
road towards him. He couldn’t believe it.
    ‘ Aren’t you
people of God supposed to help the poor and needy?’ he
yelled.
    ‘ Pah!’ the nun
turned on her heel and headed back inside.
    The beggar approached, face
shadowed by a tightly wrapped shawl over head and shoulders.
    ‘ Nice to know
someone still understands charity in this filthy place. I only
wanted some food, or money for food.’
    There was
something odd about this beggar, the high voice perhaps, but no
matter how a beggar conversation starts there is always the
inevitable question of what you are willing to give. His fishing spoils were a
long way short of replenishing his lost tin money- he’d be damned
if he was giving away the little he had. He started to walk away,
to catch up with Joel and the deckhand.
    ‘ Wait,’ the
beggar approached.
    Here we
go. He prepared the excuse on his
lips.
    The beggar unwrapped the shawl,
revealing a stream of long gold-yellow hair that curled at the
bottom. Perry stood transfixed, it was a girl, and beautiful at
that, with perfect almond-shaped eyes and skin that looked so soft
he wanted to reach out and touch it.
    ‘ I doubt you
do, but…’ she looked down at her feet.
    And he remembered the mutton
pie he had been saving in his pocket, ‘Actually yes, I bought this
earlier, swapped it for some fish I caught,’ he unfolded the
napkin, ‘go on, take it. I ate earlier.’
    The yellow haired girl took the
pie from his hand and sunk her teeth in, smiling with bliss as she
chewed, eyes glancing up to the heavens.
    ‘ Is it
good?’
    ‘ Amazing,’ she
muffled, ‘I’m Eva, by the way,’ she offered him a hand.
    He took it, ‘Perry.’
    ‘ Pleased to
meet you,’ she lifted up the remainder of the pie, ‘very pleased
indeed. You know what? You should try a bit.’
    Eva broke off a bit and posted
it straight into his mouth. The pastry was soft and buttery, the
mutton chewy and heavily salted.
    ‘ Perry! Hurry
up will you?’ Joel had come back, an irritated look on his
face.
    ‘ Sorry,’ he
said to Eva, ‘I best go, but here take this,’ he took a few coins
from his fishing spoils, ‘don’t know if you have somewhere to stay
but that should