Cherry hurried off into the crowd after the old woman. She found her not far off, leaning up against a wall, panting. The stallholder had given her a rough shaking. For someone in her condition it was as good as a beating.
'Now, then…' Cherry took her firmly by the shoulder, so she couldn't run off and looked into her eyes. The old woman avoided her look at first, until she saw the tell-tale slits. Then she looked up. 'If you have to be a thief, you'd better be a good one,' said Cherry. She slid her hand into her pocket and slipped out a short loin of pork, with a nice, fat kidney cuddled up against the bone. 'But you did a good job distracting him,' she complimented her. She grinned and put the meat into the old woman's hand.
The pig woman stared at her. Her hand closed tightly over the greasy meat and she tucked it out of sight before Cherry had a chance to change her mind.
'Present from King Val,' whispered Cherry. She dropped a few coppers into her hand and smiled at her.
'Now,' she said, 'Where do you live, my dear, hmm? And how is Siggy Volson getting on?'
Melanie stared blankly back. 'Oo?'
'You heard.'
Melanie sighed and bowed her head. How on earth had the news got out, all the way into the city? See now – someone else after her man!
'You betta come along o me, then, m'dear,' she whispered. She glanced about her and set off, limping and pushing her way in between the crowd, with Cherry at her heels.
Cherry was delighted with herself. How pleased Signy would be! She couldn't wait to question the old sow. Better get out of the crowds first, though. She walked along close to Melanie's heels, smiling and purring to herself. It was in the bag!
Cherry was young and fit and well fed, and Melanie was old, weak and thin. But the old sow was more cunning than she looked. The chops were a dream come true, the pennies were a good thing, too, but no number of chops and no amount of pennies were going to see her handing over her man!
She limped heavily, staggering from time to time into passers-by. Cherry watched her with concern. She was on her last legs! What sort of state would Siggy be in, looked after by the likes of her? They jiggled their way along for a couple of hundred yards, until at last the poor thing seemed to be overcome. She leaned against the wall panting in terror and exhaustion, her big amber eyes fluttering pitifully at her captor.
'Tchow! What now?' complained Cherry. But the old woman just waved her hand and shook her head, unable to speak.
'Do you want a drink?' demanded Cherry, noticing that they'd stopped by a stall selling apple juice. The old girl nodded, she was obviously starved half to death. Cherry took a couple of steps to the stall, put her hand in her pocket for the money. She ordered a drink, turned round to look at the old woman and she was gone.
Desperately Cherry ran to and fro up and down the street – she couldn't have gone more than a few yards – but Melanie had disappeared. It was infuriating. Who'd have thought that old thing could be so quick? It was another ten minutes before she noticed the drain cover right next to where Melanie had stood. She slid it off and slipped underneath, and there sure enough was the scent trail. The old sow had popped down under in a second and slid the lid back on, all in the time it took Cherry to take a few steps to the stall and to order the drink.
Cherry chirruped in admiration. Not as daft as she looked! She followed the trail as far as she could, but it was very smelly down there and the drains soon split into two and then three and then four, and there was no discovering which one Melanie had used. The quarry was lost Cherry hadn't even found out if Siggy was alive or dead.
42
Siggy
There were a few flakes of snow, just the odd one or two. They floated silently down the flue and sat there, refusing to melt.
Winter.
Everyone up and down the country would be looking out for thick rags to wrap their babies in, stuffing paper in the cracks and gaps around their houses and shelters, getting nervous at the first sign of a cough or a sneeze. King Winter, the killer. I was brought up to be a gangman, a fighter, but here's an enemy you can't see or hear or threaten or shoot When you're badly fed and you've got no heating, that cough can kill you in a few weeks. I was as helpless in front of the cold as I had been before the Pig. The winter was on me, at me, in me. He was wearing me down. I was sleepy all the time. I seemed to be moving through a thick mist.
I was starving to death.
I knew what I had to do: big fat pig, full of dripping. But I was too weak. I kept thinking, when I'm better, when I've got my strength back. I was telling old Melanie, only another few days, I'll be off out there and when I come back, girl…
The trouble was there was no way I was going to get any strength back unless I got myself properly fed. I did my best Melanie didn't bother locking me up now – we were on the same side, weren't we? – so I did my share of scavenging. Not that I was very good at it. I crawled off one night into the cabbage field and gorged myself on wet grass, like a cow. What a feast! A least I had a full belly, I thought, but I was shitting wet hay for a day until I was exhausted. Put myself back weeks. Melanie did her best. She always had something to bring home, but mostly it was crusts of bread and mouldy vegetables. She kept promising proper food, but it was just wishful thinking. She'd given me everything she had and there was nothing left, not even her strength. She was more starved than I was.
I was still doing the exercises. I was healed up. I could move around, I could lift weights, I could run, but it was just helping to kill me. There's no point in exercises if you haven't got the fuel to burn. I had to get the strength back to pull off that one heist!
Well, would you believe it? Old Melanie comes up with the goods again. Chops! Pork chops, proper ones. And a loaf of good bread. She looked as amazed as I was. I don't know if she'd ever even seen a chop before. She'd cooked 'em at home. There were three of 'em and they were still warm.
'Where'd you get these from?' I was amazed.
'A present,' she said.
'Who do you know who has pork chops to give away?'
'Ahh!' She tapped her nose with a finger. I was being nosy. Oh, well, chops is chops…
I picked up one of the chops. I held it in my two hands. Gave it a little squeeze. Ohhhh… It was firm. Sweet. Solid meat. I gave it a sniff. I was gonna enjoy this. Then I took a long slow bite. I made sure I bit off a big chunk of the fat as well as the meat. My mouth was so wet, you could have done the laundry in it. It was glorious! Then I lost my cool and started to gobble.
I was just nibbling bits off the bone when I saw Melanie looking at me sideways. I kept forgetting. Funny, when you're hungry… I mean, I don't know if it's like this if you're hungry all your life, but if you're used to loads of grub and then you get hungry, really hungry, proper starving… you never think anyone else might be hungry too. I knew she was starving herself to feed me, but I kept forgetting.
'Have you had any?' I asked her.
'Oh, yeah,' she said. 'Ad mine.'
I ate half the loaf, offered her the rest but she said no. I got stuck into the next chop. I'd polished off the bread and I was a couple of bites into the third and last when I thought, hang on, she's lying again.
'You haven't had anything at all, really, have you?' I said.
'I ave,' she insisted. And, well, I knew she was lying, but I finished the chop off anyway. I know. I'm a bastard. My mouth did it for me. I just wolfed it down before I had time to think. Then I wandered off outside to have a good belch and to let her chew the little ribbons of meat and gristle off the edges of the bones without me having to watch her at it I felt horrible. Horrible for having eaten so much meat so quickly after starving for weeks. I was getting these painful cramps. And horrible again for not leaving her any.
That's when I made up my mind. Weak I may be, but it was gonna be a long time before I was gonna get that much food in my gut again, unless I got it myself.
