Fast Fiction: Bully Colne
Bully Colne runs around with a bad lot - and it seems as though his luck has run out, as Richard Mallinson reveals.
Rip Tapley and the rest of us were surprised that Bully Colne was late but when he arrived we accepted his excuses and began to discuss the job ahead.
Each of us had to know by heart our moves from A to Z and back again as shown in the diagram Freya had acquired one night.
We discussed timings, lookouts, getaways and suchlike.
Then Rip asked if anybody had any questions. Silence.
‘Okay,’ he said, ‘that’s fine, we’ll meet at Andy’s afterwards - good luck.’
‘And good luck to you, too, Rip,’ said Bully in a silly voice.
Well, we did it - but no thanks to Bully. He’d lost his nerve and Freya had gone back and somehow (details not available) got him moving again.
As we sat drinking at Andy’s we didn’t disparage Bully. Instead we made a fuss of Freya, who responded with a fabulous strip-tease.
‘He’s had a lot of luck tonight,’ Freya said, glancing at Bully.
*
The next thing Bully did was to buy a little caff. Nothing wrong with that. But then the stupid prat refused to pay a percentage to Rip.
He must have known he’d get his legs broken, at least.
Rip summoned him to Andy’s, where we were drinking, as usual.
‘Now,’ said Rip, ‘sit down, Bully, and ave a drink on me.’
Somebody poured a large whisky. Bully drank most of it at one go.
‘Look, Rip,’ he said, ‘let’s do a deal.’
‘Do a deal? You must be ravin mad,’ Rav screamed. ‘Why should I do a fackin deal with scum like you, you fackin scum?’
Bully sagged. ‘I find it aint possible to talk wiv you,’ he said - and stood up, turned round and left.
There were gasps, followed by a long silence. Then Rip said, ‘I don’t fink e’s going to have any more luck, do you, Freya?’
‘I must admit, it does seem doubtful,’ said Freya, who had two A-levels.
