ABSTRACT
JEAN. Oh I know what I'm saying all right but. I don't doubt you wanted me to have the bairns. You knew you couldn't cope with them, and you knew Micky didn't want them, he was just trying it on to spite us. You're not daft, I'll give you that, not daft by a long chalk. (Pause.) But I wanted them. When I came back from Middlesborough I wasall for turning over a new leaf. No more Micky. No more Elswick Road. Just me and the bairns. Heaven, it could have been, if only he'd left us alone. (Pause.) But he-couldn't. Leastways he couldn't leave Michael alone. Always had to be interfering, stirring
him up. First it was just against me, and then when Sean came on the scene he was stirring him up against him as well. But clever. Dead clever, I'll give him that. (Mimics.) 'Want to come for a ride in my car down the coast, son? Sean hasn't got a car has he?' 'Don't worry your mam and Sean about that son, they haven't got as much money as me. We'll go down town in the car and I'll get you one.' (Nonnal voice.) Do you know what he bought him last week? A baseball bat. The bairn's seven year old, what does he want with a baseball bat? Nearly put some kid's eye out with it, till I took it away from him. (Pause.) Do you know what Michael calls him? Magic daddy. Magic daddy can do anything. Magic daddy's got a big car, magic daddy's got lots of money, magic daddy's the strongest man in Newcastle, why he can even climb up walls with his bare hands and get into bad people's houses and take all their money away from them. It's a wonder magic daddy can't friggin fly. [JEANNIE. You can't blame a man for taking an interest in his own flesh and blood. Michael's his own flesh and blood after all.] It's no use talking to you Jeannie. You're just like Micky, you've got an answer for friggin everything. Oh you'll moan on about him not giving you enough money and suchlike. But anything else and you think the sun shines out of his friggin backside. Always wiping his arse for him, so I suppose you've got to think that. Who did he run to when I'd had enough of him? Back to his mammy, back to his friggin wet nurse. Thirty-three year old and he's still living with his mother, paying no rent, getting all his meals, his washing done, bringing back little bits oflasses and knocking them off under her roof, and she says nowt. Never has said nowt, always let him have whatever he wants. Couldn't keep the father could you Jeannie, so you thought you'd have the son instead. Have a son and man all rolled into one . Well you got what you wanted. And I hope you friggin choke on it.
