Gash - Blood Dancing

rumming to hunt in garbage for food or saleable detritus

Unbelievable that foxes roamed the inner city. Tennock hated foxes, thieving bastards filching garbage that was rightly his. The slinky swine got to rubbish quicker than any mumper could, faster even than rats.

Tennock stuck to his plan. Vagrancy had served him well for seven years, since hed been evicted and found himself a lurk among the street sleepers round St Jamess. Not that he had religion. Churches gave him one square a day, so he stayed fit enough to scavenge. Bin divers were ten a penny in the black-and-neon two-tone world of the city at night. He had an idea that cars and the girl street walkers kept foxes down. Chinese nosh places and Thai caffs, now mixed with Balkan skimmers skim off anything, more guns even than Yardies provided the best garbage, as long as you sorted through rotting offal to get it.

Survival was an art for a mumper. Forget the kerbside bins and small white bags from hairdressing salons. Even the fucking foxes left those untouched. Trendy sandwich bars gave little because the Italians were fading fast, losing in the citys mad daylight careering and clever night nudging. Tennock snickered. They couldnt hack it, these Italians who copied some film prat in the wrong trilbies. Good, sure, back when they were the only people who had guns. They lost the plot when everybody else thought, Hey, guns is good, lets go down Wardle Street and get a couple for two hundred and sixty-three zlotniks, another twenty-five for bullets that actually fitted. Faced wit opposition shooters, the Ities started legit fitness-and -health gyms where they went home clean, the idle fuckers. Leaving mumpers like Tennock to go hungry.

He stood at the corner of Arkwright Street two Malay caffs, one posh Goojer spot, four various and a caff for lorry long-haulers off the motorway because the city centre was cheaper than paying for a banger and beans in pricey super-service stations among coaches full of football rioters. Darkness never let him down. Starving, he would get some decent nosh by reaching in over the rim of the dumper and grabbing whatever lay on top.

Tennock heard a nearby girl giving her dickster a performance against a wall. Couldnt see them in the dark. She was going, Ooh, oooh, yes, yes! like her feet werent crippling her and her arse wasnt freezing. She was worn out, still needed to pull three more johns to make up her strides so other girls on the Green string wouldnt blame her for not pulling her weight. Nobody could grumble like street tarts. They all said the same thing: they alone slogged under whichever bloke had enough gelt while other bitches smoked in the Central Gardens pretending they were trolling hard at it and doing sod all.

Another couple of minutes should see her finish the punter. They were in shadow twenty steps off. From habit, he stooped to see the distant lamps feeble reflection off the damp pavement, the mumpers night trick to sort out people from buildings. Another black bin was within reach.

The lid came off easy peasy. Tennock reached in, felt a promising squelchy knob, ripped the black plastic with a quiet pull, and thrust in his hand. Another hand seemed to take his. For a second he stood wondering what the fuck, actually felt it fingers, fingernails, palm, wrist, then nothing except frayed flesh and skin torn into flaps. He thought, hey, this cant be athen his hand came up tacky like that glue you could never get rid of.

He actually sniffed his fingers, thought a moment about reaching back in and pulling that thing that felt like a hand, a fucking hand, out to see if it really was wrong. Then he screeched and yelled and ran wailing down the street, blundering into things and falling but keeping going, wailing and shouting meaningless sounds. His gammy leg didnt hurt one bit as he ran, knocking over two rubbish bins from the hairdressing emporium.

He heard the john exclaim, What the? and the girl call something but Tennock wasnt going to stop, not with things like that reaching out of tonights garbage.