Too Much Trouble (11 page)

Jamal was the first to reply. He said, ‘What the hell does it have to do with you?'

‘Pardon me, young man, but is that any way to talk to your elder?' the old man replied, and I couldn't help but agree.

‘My what? Someone do something about this guy,' Jamal said.

Just then Prince stood up. His face was a mask of anger and I was taken back to that day when we had left my uncle.

‘Get out of here!' Prince shouted, kicking out at the old man's cane.

I leapt out of my seat and grabbed both my brother's arms. ‘Prince!' I said.

He rounded on me, shaking his arms free. ‘Get the hell off me!' he shouted. For a moment I thought he was going to hit me. I continued to stare at my brother, but he didn't look like him. Then Jamal laughed, Ibby laughed, Kieran laughed and eventually Prince laughed.

I didn't. I finished that lunch in silence.

It was not the same with Terri. We only did a bit of pick-pocketing because we had to. Mostly we just sat or walked or found a library or bookshop. We talked a lot. Terri loved reading and talking. She hated stealing. But like all of us, she needed safety and Mr Green kept us safe.

The one time she did talk about her home it didn't sound safe.

I had asked her what her mum and dad were like.

She didn't say anything for a long time and I thought she must be really upset. Then she said quietly, ‘Mum wasn't around.'

I didn't know what to say to that, so I didn't say anything.

‘I tried to stay away from my dad as much as possible,' she said. ‘If I did go near him I had to do
exactly as he said. Exactly as he said, Emmanuel.'

I think I knew what she meant. Like I said, it didn't sound safe.

If I had given titles to my chapters, the title to this one would be
The Return of the Wallet Man
. Or it could be
How Stupid does Emmanuel Get?
Or maybe
Forgiveness
.

I only worked with Jamal once. He told me that he wanted to see how I was getting on, so he was gonna work with me the next day. I was pretty nervous. I knew I really wasn't very good at stealing stuff, but I didn't want Mr Green to know. I didn't know what would happen if Mr Green decided that he wanted ‘to talk to me'.

I hadn't asked Freddie and Sastre what had happened to them when Mr Green had ‘talked' to
them. But they had seemed different the next day, quieter, and Freddie had a cut over his right eye.

I woke up nervous. The sun was peeking in between the curtains. Me and Prince were sharing a room, and he woke up as I stirred.

‘I'm working with Jamal today,' I told him.

‘Cool,' Prince said, yawning.

‘Do you think he likes me?'

‘What? I don't know.' He stifled another yawn and stretched, the duvet cover dropping down his t-shirt as he sat up. ‘Jamal's cool, you don't need to worry,' he said.

I was still worried, but I wasn't sure why.

Mr Green took us to work in all sorts of places, high streets, big train stations, shopping centres. But that day we were at an airport. Just like a train station, but bigger and busier - and a lot more stuff to steal.

When we arrived and Mr Green had talked to us all, Jamal put his arm round me and said, ‘Come on then, Emmy, let's see what you've got!'

That didn't help my nerves.

We started out small. We took a few purses that people had left by the sides of chairs as they waited. Jamal lifted a phone from someone's pocket. I got
close to taking a wallet out of a man's open bag. But I wasn't fast enough though.

I edged towards him slowly, through the crowd. I could see the leather just peeking out of an open pocket. The man with the bag was standing still, looking up at a screen that showed when planes were leaving.

I took my time because I was still a bit nervous and shaky. Jamal was watching me carefully. I didn't know what he was looking for, but I thought maybe he was looking to see me make a mistake. So, slowly, slowly I went.

Just as I was about to dip my hand in and make the final move, the man swore and then set off running. Maybe he was missing his plane.

‘What the hell was that?' Jamal asked when I returned to where he was watching.

‘What?'

‘What were you doing?'

‘I was just a bit slow,' I replied.

I could tell he was not impressed. ‘A bit slow?' he said. ‘That was more than ‘a bit slow', that was rubbish. I thought you might be good at this, I can't believe Flash is your brother. Come on.'

Jamal turned and walked away.

I felt sick. I was angry with Jamal. I didn't want him to tell Mr Green or Prince about what had just happened but I felt he would be telling everyone.

I was right. Over lunch he replayed the whole incident to Ibby, Kieran, Dwayne, Michael and Prince.

They all laughed at me. Kieran said, ‘You're almost as spazzy as Ibby.' Ibby punched him on the arm.

That made me feel a bit better. They did laugh at each other as well as me. But Jamal's looks of disdain were only for me. I was determined that I was going to prove him wrong in the afternoon.

Again, we started out slow. Just a few easy steals. But all the time I was looking out for something good. A steal that would impress Jamal.

About an hour after lunch I saw it. A man in a smart suit carrying a briefcase and a laptop bag. That was bound to be worth a lot of credit. I pointed him out to Jamal and we followed the man for a while, looking for an opportunity.

It came when he bent down to tie his shoe-lace. He put both his bags down beside him. I was going to take both of them. There was probably good stuff in the briefcase, I thought.

He was about twenty metres away from us and I
knew I needed to be quick. I set off at a sprint, dodging past a family. They were pulling large suitcases and I nearly tripped over one.

Seconds later I was slowing down and crouching, ready to snatch the bags. I was a metre away when the man started to straighten up. Our hands reached the handles of the bags at the same time. I gripped on tightly and so did he. We both went tumbling to the ground.

I was on my feet straight away, still clinging to the bag. He was not as quick getting up, but he was much stronger. I was going nowhere.

I took my eyes off the bags and looked at the man just as he looked at me. I knew that face. Then I remembered.

‘SD,' I said before I could stop myself.

‘What? It's you!' the man said. ‘So I didn't just lose my wallet!'

I didn't know what to say or do. I just stood there.

He had stood up by now, but we both still clung to the bags.

‘Do you do this for a living?' he said. ‘Do you?'

I didn't reply.

‘Do you need help?'

I carried on staring at him. Maybe I nodded.

‘I'm not bothered about the wallet, I'm not going to call the police. Don't worry.'

I still just stood there, staring, so he carried on speaking.

‘Maybe I can help you. Take this,' he said. He let go of his briefcase slowly, and with his free hand he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a leaflet. He held it out to me. I had both my hands on the handles of his bags, but I was curious. How did he think this piece of paper could help me?

I let go of the briefcase and it dropped to the floor. I reached out towards the leaflet. As my hand closed around it, the man collapsed to the floor. Jamal was standing behind him and he shouted, ‘Run!'

Jamal must have kicked the back of his legs, but I didn't wait around to find out. I ran and Jamal followed. The man had held on to his laptop, but I had the leaflet screwed up in my fist. I shoved the piece of paper into my pocket as I ran.

We ran hard, in and out of the crowd. No one tried to get in our way. We stopped behind a kiosk selling scarves and ties. Jamal looked back. No one was following.

Before I got my breath back, Jamal slapped me across the face.

‘You fool!' He said. ‘Why the hell didn't you run? Did you think you were going to pull the bag out of his hand?'

I thought about hitting Jamal back. I thought about answering him. I even thought about running away from him. But I knew that there was nothing I could do or say. Jamal was right. Why didn't I run?

I stuck to simple steals for the rest of the day. Jamal barely spoke to me, but once we met up with the others, he wouldn't stop talking. He told everyone about my mistakes. ‘What a fool!' he said.

Prince laughed as hard as everyone else, and clung to Jamal and his friends.

***

That evening, back at the house we were staying in, Terri tried to talk to me.

‘Don't worry,' she said. ‘Jamal's an idiot.'

‘I'm not worried,' I replied, not looking at her, and staring at a book that I wasn't reading.

‘Just don't let him get to you, Em.' She put her nose back in her book and we continued in silence.

A while later, maybe ten minutes, maybe half an hour, I was still not reading.

Terri looked up again. ‘What is it, Em? What's the matter?'

I looked at her then. ‘I don't want to do this,' I replied. ‘I don't want to stay with Mr Green and Jamal. I don't want to steal things.'

‘Me neither.' She said this really quietly, as if she didn't want anyone to hear.

‘OK, we won't. We'll find somewhere else to go.' I knew that it was not so simple, but in that moment I wished that it could be.

‘OK,' she said again quietly, and this time sadly. She knew as well as I did that we could wish all we liked, but we had nowhere else to go and no one else to help us.

From that day I was determined. We weren't staying with Mr Green. Me and Terri and, I hoped, Prince. ‘There must be someone who will help us, someone better.'

I just didn't know who.

I was desperate to get away from Mr Green for many reasons, but one day all these reasons got overtaken by another. On that day Mr Green was no longer the magic thief who could make wallets disappear and reappear. That day I knew, as I hadn't known before, that Mr Green was a real, bad guy.

We were working on a busy high street. The one where I'd spent that first working day with Kieran. Mr Green said it was the best ‘money spot'. Lots of tourists. Tourists didn't really watch their bags that carefully.

Me and Terri were looking out for the easiest
steals. Open bags, phones left on tables, loose jackets with big pockets.

I had already taken enough that day and Terri needed to catch up. We were looking for likely targets.

‘What about that guy?' Terri said. She pointed to a man with a green backpack. He was passing us on the other side of the road. As Terri pointed, he looked straight at us, and his eyes narrowed. ‘Maybe not,' Terri whispered as we disappeared into the crowd.

‘What about them?' she said, pointing at a couple of teenage boys who were walking away from us. They both wore caps and I could see why Terri had picked them. One of them had a wallet poking out of the back pocket of his jeans.

‘OK,' I replied, ‘let's do it.' We strolled through the crowds, slowly catching up with the pair. We could hear them chatting. They had Asian accents and spoke quickly to each other.

When we were a few metres away from them, something happened that made me stop. One of their phones started ringing. It played a tune that I hadn't heard in a long time. The same Lil' Legacy song that my friends, Asad and Ikram, had been singing all that time ago.

I stopped and Terri turned to me.

‘Why have you stopped?' she hissed. And then, more gently, ‘And what are you smiling for?'

I was smiling. A sad smile. A remembering smile.

***

The rest of the afternoon was much the same. Almost steals and missed steals. Terri didn't take much more and we were worried. Worried that Mr Green might be angry. But in the end Mr Green had something else to be angry about.

We arrived back at the meeting place at the same time as Prince and Kieran. Prince punched me on the arm and said, ‘All right, bro!' His mouth was smiling at me but his eyes weren't.