BooksBarbecue
Back Different Class Save as PDF
Chapters (93)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Prologue
  4. Chapter 1
  5. Part One
  6. Chapter 1
  7. Chapter 2
  8. Chapter 3
  9. Chapter 4
  10. Chapter 5
  11. Chapter 6
  12. Chapter 7
  13. Chapter 8
  14. Chapter 9
  15. Chapter 10
  16. Part Two
  17. Chapter 1
  18. Chapter 2
  19. Chapter 3
  20. Chapter 4
  21. Chapter 5
  22. Chapter 6
  23. Chapter 7
  24. Chapter 8
  25. Chapter 9
  26. Chapter 10
  27. Chapter 11
  28. Chapter 12
  29. Part Three
  30. Chapter 1
  31. Chapter 2
  32. Chapter 3
  33. Chapter 4
  34. Chapter 5
  35. Chapter 6
  36. Chapter 7
  37. Part Four
  38. Chapter 1
  39. Chapter 2
  40. Chapter 3
  41. Chapter 4
  42. Chapter 5
  43. Chapter 6
  44. Chapter 7
  45. Chapter 8
  46. Chapter 9
  47. Part Five
  48. Chapter 1
  49. Chapter 2
  50. Chapter 3
  51. Chapter 4
  52. Chapter 5
  53. Chapter 6
  54. Chapter 7
  55. Chapter 8
  56. Chapter 9
  57. Chapter 10
  58. Chapter 11
  59. Part Six
  60. Chapter 1
  61. Chapter 2
  62. Chapter 3
  63. Chapter 4
  64. Chapter 5
  65. Chapter 6
  66. Chapter 7
  67. Part Seven
  68. Chapter 1
  69. Chapter 2
  70. Chapter 3
  71. Chapter 4
  72. Chapter 5
  73. Chapter 6
  74. Chapter 7
  75. Chapter 8
  76. Chapter 9
  77. Chapter 10
  78. Chapter 11
  79. Part Eight
  80. Chapter 1
  81. Chapter 2
  82. Chapter 3
  83. Chapter 4
  84. Chapter 5
  85. Chapter 6
  86. Chapter 7
  87. Chapter 8
  88. Chapter 9
  89. Epilogue
  90. Acknowledgments
  91. Reading Group Guide
  92. About the Author
  93. Copyright

I’ll really miss seeing Harry, though. But I can come to his house, he says. He’s got a lot of stuff at home. Rare discs, concert programmes. Books. Lyric sheets and posters. He says I can pop round anytime. I can borrow whatever I like. I can always tell my folks I’m going for extra English tutoring. They’d believe that. I know they would. And I already know where he lives. It’s a terraced house in White City, not too far from the clay pits. He has a whole room full of records and books; red curtains and a red rug. From the street his house looks like a Chinese lantern, all lit up. I can’t stop thinking about it. And him. We’re so alike, Harry and me. I know he’s older and everything. But he’s not like the rest of them. We talk to each other like equals. Even when we don’t talk, we communicate without words. Sometimes, I think that when I escape I could get a house in White City. Somewhere close to Harry’s house. I could see him every day. Maybe then we could be more than just Master and pupil.

Don’t be disgusting, Mousey. Of course there’s nothing like that going on. There’s more to life than sex, you know—although you wouldn’t believe it here. Goldie’s obsessed with it, in spite of his holy attitudes. He’s always thinking about Mulberry girls, or trying to see up their skirts on the bus. But sex is just a distraction. Harry’s above that kind of thing. Harry’s an intellectual. Harry values the spiritual over the mere physical. That’s why, when I go to see him, I won’t tell Goldie or Poodle. I’ll go alone, and we’ll talk about music, and writing, and art, and death, and drink tea in the living room; and maybe, if I’m feeling brave, I’ll tell him about Bunny, and you, and even about My Condition.

All you need is courage, he said.

Yes, I’m sure he’ll understand.

Chapter 6

6

Michaelmas Term, 1981

Nutter’s parents didn’t keep their Parents’ Evening appointment. Instead, there came a note the next day, saying that Charlie was ill with the flu and asking his teachers to send work, to be completed during the Christmas break. I sent a number of Latin past papers and some Vergil, plus some Ted Hughes from Mr. Fabricant and some German prose from Dr. Devine. There was also a large amount of reading from the Satanic Mr. Speight. It looked as if Nutter’s Christmas was going to be a busy one.