Give Them A Voice

This was another video of Gemma and the man in a car. She is crying and asking to get out. He is saying no. That he dropped her friends’ home and she needed to keep him company. Up until this point, I had no idea how old this man was. But suddenly you could hear the age in his voice. The video shifted, Gemma had the phone in her hands when recording, and she had moved it so that now instead of black and the audio…I could see him. He was about 50-60 years of age and was quite overweight. He had greasy black hair combed across his head and had stubble. He looked dirty.

She stood at the bottom of the block and took a deep breath. She didn’t want to go back in, but this was it, it was time to step up. She pushed open the block door and two of the other youngers were sitting on the stairs playing music and chatting. “What’s good” one said, the other just nodded. She nodded back and stepped round them and started up the steps. The door at the top of the block was open and she could hear bear people talking. Music playing. People laughing. She took another deep breath. She got to the door and walked in. There were always bear heads in this place but right now…between the time it took her to go home and back…it had become fuller.

She sat down next to him and he said that he will get her the money for the rent. Thank you she said, all cheesy smiles. Then he said “Your gonna have to go country for it”. Her smile slowly disappeared, and she was suddenly aware of hear heart pumping in her ears. She tried to shake her head and then he stopped smiling. She got up of the sofa and said it was ok, she would sort it. He stared at her for a moment and said, “I said you’re going country blud”.