Hater

MONDAY

v

Ten times the trouble wouldn't have kept some drinkers away. The club was emptier than usual but these were the hardened few - the regular drinkers and clubbers who wouldn't miss a night out no matter what they'd seen on the news or read in the papers. For these people the rest of the week revolved around nights like this. Getting pissed, getting stoned and getting laid was all that mattered.

'She's fucking gorgeous, mate,' Shane White yelled into Newbury's ear. 'She keeps looking at you. Get in there, son!'

Newbury turned to White and grinned.

'Reckon I'm in with a chance then?'

'No fucking problem. She's yours mate, no question.'

'Serious?'

'Serious.'

'Right then. Watch this.'

Newbury pushed himself away from the bar, knocked back the last of his drink and stood and watched her. He didn't even know her name. He'd seen her here a few times before but she'd always been surrounded by blokes and her friends and he'd never had the nerve to try anything with her. It felt different tonight. He felt confident and alive. Maybe he felt less intimidated because there were fewer people around? Maybe it was just because he was already half-drunk. Whatever the reason it didn't matter. Fucking hell, he thought as he watched her dance, Shane's right, she's fucking gorgeous. He slowly walked towards her and she began to dance towards him.

'You all right?' he shouted, fighting to make himself heard over the thumping music which filled the half-empty club. It seemed louder than ever in here tonight with fewer people around. She didn't answer. Instead she just beckoned him closer, wrapped her arms around him and shoved her tongue down his throat.

'You're bloody beautiful, you are,' Newbury babbled breathlessly as they left the club and walked together towards an alley opposite the town hall. 'Absolutely bloody beautiful.'

'Are you going to spend all night talking or what?' she asked as she led him into the shadows. He couldn't answer. 'I could have stayed at home if I wanted to talk. All I need from you is a good, hard fuck.'

Newbury struggled to believe what he was hearing. He'd never had this happen before. He'd fantasised about it enough times and he'd heard about it happening to other people, but it had never actually happened to him. And he'd never dreamt it might happen with a girl like this…

She stopped walking and turned towards him, pushing her body against his. She ripped open his shirt.

'Here?' he asked. 'You dirty bitch…!'

'This is how I like it,' she hissed in his ear. He could smell the booze on her breath. Somehow that made it more sordid and more exciting.

Newbury was in danger of becoming too fired-up and turned on to perform. Staying in control was getting more difficult every time she touched him or kissed him or… she pushed him back hard against the wall and kissed him again, chewing on his lips and forcing her tongue deep into his mouth. He shoved his hand down the back of her skirt and pulled her even closer. In response she undid his trouser zip, slid her hand inside and slipped her fingers around his drunken erection. She held it firmly but gently and teased it out of his trousers and towards her.

'Get your knickers off,' he gasped in a momentary pause between frantic bites and kisses.

'What knickers?' she whispered in his ear as she hitched her tight skirt up around her waist. Still locked together they rolled to the side until she was the one with her back to the wall. 'Come on,' she moaned, desperate for him, 'give it to me.'

Newbury shuffled into position and tried to slide into her. It was awkward and rough. The booze had affected both of their coordination. She gasped with sudden pleasure as his full length finally disappeared inside her.

'I'll give it to you, you dirty slut,' he promised as he forced himself deeper still. She looked up to the sky and bit her lip, trying not to make any noise but at the same time desperate to scream out loud.

'Harder,' she hissed.

He began to thrust his body against hers, forcing her back against the wall again and again.

'Hard enough for you?' he asked, staring deep into her wide grey eyes.

'Just fuck me,' she gasped between thrusts.

'Hard enough?' he hissed again through clenched teeth.

Then she stopped.

She let go of him.

'What's the matter?' he asked, concerned. 'Did I hurt you? What did I do?'

The expression on her face changed from pleasure to fear in an instant. She pushed him off and backed away from him, pulling her skirt down and tripping back across the alley.

'What's going on?' he asked again. 'What's the matter with you?'

She didn't answer. She kept moving away, shuffling deeper into the shadows. He continued to move towards her. She tried to speak but she couldn't. 'Don't…' was all she could mumble.

'What the fucking hell's going on?' he demanded. 'You're mental, you are. One minute you're all over me, now you're pushing me away. Is this how you get your kicks? You're a fucking prick-teaser. You're a dirty fucking bitch.'

Still staggering backwards her foot kicked against the edge of a plastic crate filled with empty glass bottles. She instinctively leant down, picked up one of the bottles by its neck and smashed it against the brick wall behind her.

His reactions dulled by drink, Newbury stood and watched her.

'Now what are you doing? You're fucking crazy, you are. What the fucking hell do you think you're doing? I'm not…'

He didn't finish his sentence. She ran at him and shoved the broken bottle deep into his stomach. It sliced through his cotton shirt and plunged into his flesh. She pulled the bottle out and then shoved it into him again, this time lower, the jagged edge almost severing the bottom third of his still exposed but now completely flaccid penis. Then a third strike as she sunk the razor-sharp glass into his neck.

She turned and ran and was out of the alley before he'd hit the ground.

There were more of them out there, thousands more.

She had to keep running.

10

Sometimes the thought of work is worse than the reality. All things considered, today at the office was just about bearable. After everything I'd seen and heard over the weekend I'd expected to have to fight my way into work through crowds of people battling with each other on the streets. Apart from a few broken windows and some other slight damage everything looked and felt disappointingly normal. The city centre was quiet for a Monday and the office was too.

I'm glad to be home. I can see the apartment block at the end of the road now. As usual there are lights on in the diagonally opposite corners of the building - our flat and the other occupied flat upstairs. As I get closer I can see shadows moving around behind our curtains. The kids are running around in the living room. No doubt they'll have been playing up all evening and I'll get it in the neck from Liz again.

We shouldn't be living in a place like this I think as I walk up the overgrown pathway to the door. I know I'm a lazy sod and I should work harder but it's not easy. I do my best, it's just that it doesn't seem to be enough. I need a kick up the backside from time to time. But if every day could be like today, I decide as I pull open the creaking front door, then maybe things might work out. Today it actually felt like the effort I'd put in had been worthwhile. I didn't have any screaming members of the public to deal with and I even managed to have a laugh with Tina Murray. Today, for once, I didn't feel as if I was pulling in the opposite direction to everyone else. The plans that Lizzie and I have been making for years to move to a bigger house, change the car and generally improve our standard of living seem a little more realistic and possible than they did when I left the flat this morning. Still a long way off, mind, but possible.

I shuffle though the gloom of the lobby and open the door to the flat. I step inside and the warmth of our home makes me realise just how cold it is outside tonight.

'I'm back,' I shout as I take off my coat and shoes. It's unusually quiet in here. I can hear the TV and the children but I can't hear Liz. She's usually yelling at one of them. I can't remember the last time I came home and it was this quiet.

Edward appears in the hallway in front of me. He's grinning from ear to ear.

'Okay, Ed?'

He nods his head.

'Had half a day off today,' he beams, looking pleased with himself.

'Why, what's the matter with you?'

'Nothing. School was shut.'

'Why?' I ask again as I walk further into the flat, looking for Liz. I can't see her in any of the bedrooms.

'Because of Jack Foster,' Ed explains. I'm confused.

'Who's Jack Foster?'

'He's in Year Six. You should have seen him, Dad, it was brilliant!'

I've reached the kitchen door. I can see Lizzie in there sitting at the table, drinking a cup of coffee and staring into space.

'You okay?' I ask. She looks up, surprised.

'Didn't know you were back,' she says quietly, shaking herself out of her trance. She gets up, walks over to me and hugs me. This sudden display of affection is out of character.

'What's that for?' I whisper, my mouth pressed close to her ear. 'You all right?'

She nods then pushes herself away and goes to fetch my dinner from the oven.

'I'm fine,' she sighs. 'Had a bad day, that's all.'

'Ed was telling me that the school was closed. Something to do with Jack Foster?'

She puts my food down on the table and sits in a chair opposite to the place she's laid for me. I start to eat and watch as she massages her temples. She looks tired and upset. I'm assuming that whatever happened at school today is what's bothering her.

'So what happened?' I ask. She doesn't want to answer. 'Talk to me, Liz…'

She clears her throat and finishes her coffee. When she finally starts to speak her voice is quiet and full of emotion.

'Do you know Jack Foster?'

I shake my head. I've heard the name before but I can't place the face.

'You know Ben Paris? Short lad with black hair?'

I'm sure I know who Ben is.

'His dad's the hairdresser?'

'That's the one. Jack Foster is his best friend. They're always hanging around together. We sat next to Jack's mum Sally at parents evening last term. He's got a sister in Ed's class. He's tall and…'

'…and he wears glasses?'

'That's him.'

I'm pretty sure I know who she's talking about. I say that I do just to keep the conversation moving.

'So what did he do?'

Lizzie clears her throat again and composes herself.

'First thing this morning,' she begins, 'the whole school was in the hall for assembly. The kids were crammed into the middle of the hall and Mrs Shields was parading up and down doing her usual routine at the front.'

'I can't stand that woman,' I interrupt. Mrs Shields is the headteacher. By all accounts she's strict and old-fashioned and she speaks to the parents in exactly the same way as she speaks to the kids.

'I know you don't like her,' Liz sighs, 'you tell me every time I mention her name. Anyway, she was just finishing off one of her bloody awful bible stories. I was sat at the back next to Denise Jones and…'

She stops speaking and I stop eating. I look up from my dinner and put down my knife and fork.

'And…?'

'Jack's in Year Six,' she continues. 'The children sit on the floor in age order with the youngest at the front so Jack's class was at the back of the hall near where we were. Mrs Shields had just asked them to bow their heads for the final prayer before lessons…'

She stops again.

'So what happened?' I press.

'I was sat there at the back and Jack stood up right in front of me. Most of the children were in front of him and they all had their heads down so there wasn't much of a reaction at first. Then he just started to run towards Mrs Shields. He was kicking and tripping over the kids and some of them got hurt and started to shout and squeal. By the time everyone had looked up Jack had made it over to the side of the hall. He shoved Eileen Callis off her chair and she ended up flat on her face on the floor. All this happened in seconds. We were all just sat there, too surprised to do anything. Jack grabbed hold of Eileen's empty chair, lifted it up over his head and ran at Mrs Shields. She moved towards him to try and stop him but he was running at her, swinging the chair round over his head and just missing the kids sitting down at the front. He missed her a couple of times but then he hit her right across her face, just under her eye. Jack's almost as tall as Mrs Shields. He kept swinging the chair at her and before anyone knew what was happening she was lying flat on the floor with him standing over her, smashing the chair down on her back again and again.'

'Didn't anyone stop him?' I ask.

'Don Collingwood and Judith Lamb got to him first,' she answers, nodding. 'Don grabbed him and Judith tried to wrestle the chair off him. Bloody hell, Danny, it was like he was possessed or something. It was horrible. Mrs Shields was screaming and that was making some of the kids scream. She was curled up in a ball on the floor next to the piano with her hands over her head. Her hair was all over the place and her glasses were smashed. She had blood running down her face and…'

'But why?' I interrupt. 'What was the matter with him?'

She shrugs.

'Nothing as far as I know. I saw him before school started and he seemed fine. He was having a laugh with his mates. I've never known him do anything like this. There are plenty of kids at that school who wouldn't have surprised me if they'd done it, but not Jack…'

'Doesn't make any sense,' I mumble, my mouth full of food.

'You're telling me.'

'So what did they do with him?'

She shakes her head.

'The place went crazy. Don dragged Jack off into one of the offices and locked him in. He trashed the place. He was screaming and shouting and… and God, it was horrible. The poor kid, you could hear him right the way through the school. He sounded terrified.'

'What about the Head? What about Mrs Shields?'

'They took her to hospital and had her checked over. I think she was okay, just a few cuts and bruises, that's all.'

I turn my attention back to my food for a second but it's impossible not to keep thinking about what Liz has told me.

'What made him do it?' I ask, knowing full well that she won't be able to answer.

'No idea,' she sighs, getting up to make another drink. 'Makes you wonder if it's connected to what we saw over the weekend.'

'Can't be,' I snap instinctively. 'This was a kid at a school, how could it be connected?'

'I don't know. Anyway, they closed the school not long after it happened and it's probably going to be closed again tomorrow. We tried to keep the kids distracted but you know what it's like, Dan, it's a small school. It's a close school. Everyone knows everybody else. They had to call the police in to deal with him in the end. Christ, I felt so sorry for Sally. You should have seen her. She looked like she was the one who'd done wrong. And when they took Jack away…'

'When who took him away?'

'They took him off in an ambulance in the end. He wouldn't speak to Sally, wouldn't even look at her. He was screaming for help. Poor kid had lost it completely. He didn't have a clue what he was doing. Wouldn't let anyone near him. It was like he was scared of the rest of us.'

11

It's past ten o'clock before we know it. The children are finally settled and asleep and the flat is silent. The television has been off all evening but now the living room is too quiet so I switch it on just so that we have some background noise. Liz is subdued and preoccupied and we've hardly talked. It's getting late. It won't be long before we go to bed. Before we know it I'll be up again and back into the grind. Sometimes I feel like I'm running at a different speed to the rest of the world. I feel like I'm always having to go flat out just to keep up.

I go to the kitchen and make us both a drink. I take Lizzie's through to her.

'Drink.'

She looks up and smiles and takes the cup from me.

'You okay?' I ask.

'Of course I am. Why do you keep asking me if I'm okay?'

'Just want to be sure you're all right. You've had a shitty day.'

'I have but I'm okay,' she says, her voice a little edgy and tense.

'Fine,' I grumble, overreacting, 'sorry I asked.'

'Oh come on, don't be like that…'

'Be like what? I only asked if you were okay, that's all.'

I sit down next to her. She stretches out her arm behind me and begins to gently rub my back.

'Sorry.'

'Doesn't matter.'

Same old rubbish on TV. I pick up the remote and work my way through the channels. The comedies aren't funny tonight and the dramas are too dramatic. Nothing seems to suit the mood. I head for the news. I want to find out more about what's been going on. Apart from hearing the odd snippet of information at work today this is the first chance I've had all day to catch up. What we see is more of what we saw yesterday - more trouble and more violence. What we don't get is any explanation. Each individual report seems to follow a pretty standard format - one or more incidents take place in a particular area and they report how people react to the fall-out. This is insane. I keep hearing phrases like 'copycat violence' and 'revenge attacks' being banded around. Are people really as stupid as Harry tried to suggest yesterday? Would anyone really want to start trouble just because they've seen others doing it?

'Look at that,' Lizzie says as we stare at the headlines together, 'they're even giving them a name now. How's that going to help?'

She's right. I heard the word used a few minutes earlier but didn't think anything of it. The minority who are causing the trouble have been branded 'Haters'. It came from a tabloid newspaper headline that was published this morning and it's quickly stuck. It seems appropriate because there's still no mention of these people fighting for any cause or reason. Hate seems to be just about the only thing driving them.

'They have to give them a name,' I mumble. 'It makes it easier for them to talk about it if they give them a name.'

Lizzie shakes her head in disbelief.

'I don't understand any of this.'

'Nor me.'

'They're talking about it like it's an epidemic. How can it be? It's not a disease, for Christ's sake.'

'It might be.'

'I doubt it. But there has to be a reason for all of it, doesn't there?'

She's right, but like everyone else I have no idea what that reason might be so I don't bother answering. Watching the news makes me feel increasingly uneasy. It's making me feel like shutting the front door and not opening it again until all of this sudden violence and disruption has stopped. I instinctively start trying to come up with an explanation to try and make myself feel better if nothing else.

'Maybe it's not as bad as they're making it out to be,' I suggest.

'What?'

'They always exaggerate things on the TV, don't they? They've just been saying something about an increase in the number of violent incidents being reported, but that doesn't necessarily mean there's been any increase in the number of incidents actually taking place, does it?'

'Not necessarily,' she says, sounding unsure.

'There might have been just as many fights as last week, but they weren't newsworthy then. Problem is when something like this makes the headlines people start jumping on the bandwagon.'

'What are you saying?'

'Maybe this whole situation is something the TV and newspapers have created,' I say. I'm making this up as I'm going along.

'It can't be. Something's definitely happening out there. There are too many coincidences for…'

'Okay,' I interrupt, 'but if they haven't created the problem they're definitely making it worse.'

'What about what happened at the concert on Friday? And in the pub? And whatever was going on with that car last night and what happened at school this morning… are you saying that all those things would have happened anyway? Do you think we're reading more into them just because of what we've seen on TV?'

'I don't know. There's no way of telling, is there? All I'm saying is that we've seen things like this get out of control before.'

'Have we?'

'Of course we have. It happens all the time. Someone somewhere broadcasts a story, then a brain-dead section of the audience copy just to try and get themselves on TV or on the front pages of the papers.'

Now I think I've really lost her. I can tell from the expression on her face that she doesn't understand. Either that or she doesn't believe me. I'm not entirely sure about this myself.

'Don't get you.'

'Remember dangerous dogs?' I ask. She shakes her head and screws up her face again. 'A few years back a kid round here got attacked by their neighbour's pet Rottweiler, remember? The kid's face got all messed up and she needed surgery I think. They had the dog put down.'

'So? What's that got to do with what's happening now?'

'Point is until that story broke hardly anyone had heard anything about dogs attacking kids, had they? But as soon as it made the papers there were suddenly stories about the same thing happening all over the place. There was a bloody epidemic of dogs attacking kids. Now you only hear about it happening once in a blue moon again.'

'What's your point? Are you saying that those kids didn't get attacked?'

'No, nothing like that. I guess what I'm saying is that things like that must happen all the time but no-one's interested. As soon as it makes the news, though, people start to report it and before you know it you've got dogs biting kids on every street corner.'

'Not sure if I agree with you,' she says quietly. 'Still not even sure I know what you're talking about. There's never been anything on this scale before…'

'I think that these idiots,' I explain, pointing at the TV, 'are doing more harm than good. By giving these people a label and giving them airtime they're glorifying whatever it is that's happening and blowing it out of all proportion. People are seeing the violence and the glory and rebellion on TV and they're thinking, I'll have some of that.'

'Bullshit. You're starting to sound like Dad.'

'It's not bullshit. Remember those riots last summer?' I ask, luckily managing to think of another example to try and strengthen my tenuous argument. About eight months ago there was a string of race-motivated disturbances in a few major cities, ours included. Lizzie nods her head.

'What about them?'

'Same thing again. Someone started a little bit of trouble out of the way in some back-street somewhere. The media got hold of it and the problem was made to look a hundred times worse than it ever was. It was the way they reported it that made it spread and maybe that's what's happening now. There's a genuine problem somewhere that gets reported and before you know it you've got mobs in every city starting trouble using whatever it was that caused the very first fight to kick off as an excuse to get involved.'

'And do you really believe that?'

I stay quiet. I don't honestly know what I believe.

'I think you're talking crap,' she snaps. 'None of what you've said explains why I watched a perfectly healthy and normal eleven year-old boy beat the hell out of the headteacher this morning, does it?'

I still stay quiet. I'm relieved when, at long last, something different happens on the news channel. The usual presenters behind their expensive-looking desk have suddenly disappeared and we're now watching a round table discussion between four people who are probably all politicians or experts in some field or other. They've already been talking for a couple of minutes so we've missed the introductions.

'What are they going to be able to tell us?' I grumble. 'How can these people be experts if no-one knows what's happening yet?'

'Just shut up so we can listen,' Lizzie sighs.

I can't help being sceptical. The whole set-up reminds me of the start of that film 'Dawn of the Dead' where the views of another so-called expert are ripped apart by a non-believing TV presenter. I know we're not dealing with a zombie apocalypse here but the way these people are talking to each other makes it feel eerily similar. No-one's backing up what they say with any facts. No-one has anything to offer other than half-baked theories and ideas. No-one seems to believe what anyone else is saying.

'The police force is already operating at full stretch and our hospitals are struggling to cope with the increase in injuries,' a grey-haired lady is saying. 'The situation must be brought under control soon or we will not have the capacity to react. If this situation continues indefinitely and at the rate of increase we're presently seeing we'll be in danger of reaching saturation point where we simply will not be able to deal with what's happening.'

'But what is happening?' someone finally asks. It's a middle-aged man. I think he's a doctor. Not sure if he's a medic or a shrink. 'Surely our priority must be to identify the cause and resolve that first.'

'I think with this situation the cause and the effect are one and the same,' a small, balding man (who, I believe, is a fairly senior politician) says. 'People are reacting to what they see on the streets, and their reactions are making the situation appear far worse than it actually is.'

'See,' I say, nudging Liz.

'Shh…' she hisses.

'Do you seriously believe that?' the other man challenges. 'Do you really believe that any of this is happening purely as a result of the violence we've already seen?'

'The violence is a by-product,' the grey-haired lady says.

'The violence is part and parcel of the problem,' the politician argues. 'The violence is the problem. Once we've restored order we can start to…'

'The violence is a by-product,' the grey-haired lady says again, annoyed that she's been interrupted. 'You're right in as far as there is a huge element of copycat violence, but the violence is not the cause. There's an underlying reason for what's happening which needs to be identified before…'

'There's no evidence to suggest that's the case,' the politician says quickly.

'There's no published evidence to suggest that's the case,' the middle-aged man snaps, 'but how much unpublished information is being withheld? This is unprecedented. With an escalation in trouble of this scale there has to be an identifiable cause, doesn't there? For this to be happening independently in so many different geographical regions there has to be an identifiable cause.'

'If you look at what we've seen over the last few days,' the politician says, shaking his head, 'there has been a steady increase in the recorded levels of violence around major cities where there are high population levels. This is wholly expected. With situations like this the more people who are concentrated in a particular geographic area, the more likely it is that trouble will develop there...'

I stop listening. I sense that this bureaucrat is launching into some pre-arranged spiel in which he'll no doubt deny all cover-ups and hidden agendas. This sounds like more bullshit. The other people taking part in the debate challenge him but, although he squirms and struggles to keep control, he ultimately remains tight-lipped. I get the feeling that this programme might have been arranged as a public relations exercise but it's failing miserably. The politician's unease and the way he's blatantly avoiding the questions people are putting to him means one of two things. Either the government knows full well what's happening and is simply choosing not to tell the public, or the authorities genuinely don't have a clue. Both alternatives are equally frightening.

Twenty minutes more of the news channel and my eyes are starting to close. The debate is over and the headlines are back on. They say that the military may be drafted in to help maintain law and order if the police do become over-stretched as the grey-haired panellist suggested in the debate earlier. They also say that the problem is largely limited to major cities and there are, as yet, no reports of it spreading to other countries. Most worryingly of all, there's talk of an after-dark curfew and other restrictions being introduced to keep people off the streets and out of each other's faces.

It's what isn't being said that bothers me. I'm just concerned that no-one seems to have a clue what's going on.