A Rich Man
Once upon a time there was a man who didn’t have much money. He could spell, and he kept his hair tidy, but he lacked some of the more essentials. There was someone he cared about, but he couldn’t always show her what he wanted to let her know he was feeling. This made him angry. There isn’t much point being angry when you haven’t got much money, so he kept it inside himself. “Where are you my little petal flower?” he’d call to her. She didn’t often hear him because he didn’t have much money.
Then one day he went out and robbed a bank. He hit a man, and broke the nose of the woman behind the counter. That didn’t matter though, because now he had some money. “Let me take you out tonight darling,” he said. “Let me show you some sights you won’t have seen before.” But she didn’t like him now, and he got another woman who liked him a bit and went out for some sights, but it wasn’t enough for the another woman, she needed more. So he robbed a Post Office. There was a nice old man behind the counter who was frightened. Then the nice old man wasn’t frightened, because the man hit him hard.
Now after lots of banks and Post Offices he had more money and wanted a different woman. He wanted a woman who would love him and tell him he was handsome and a good man. He met a woman in a club. It was very dark inside and outside because it was night, and they liked to keep the drugs in the shadows. But they did champagne on ice for him and the new woman. She was very lovely and kissed him lots and told him that she loved the way his hair was and the shape of his nose. She wanted to go on holiday with him, and he was very happy because of that. He shot another man to get the cash from the garage till, he wore a Snow White mask because he loved the new woman. They went to the Bahamas, and had a very nice time. They both got tans, and she wore a nice swimming costume. He wore long shorts that reached his knees, but no-one said anything about it because he was a rich man.
They lived together for a long time, but she got bored with him, and he got bored with her, and so they went their separate ways, he went to America, she went into the big hole under the motorway bridge under a lot of concrete next to the man who forgot to pay for the drugs.
In America he made lots of friends in a special club for people with suits and funny hair that no-one said anything about. He liked the hair grease in America, he liked the guns in America. It was better for getting money in America. He met people and he killed people who he sometimes knew and sometimes he didn’t. “Look at you,” he said one day. “Look at you with your cars and money and friends and money,” but he missed the woman petal flower. “Hello my petal flower darling,” he said one day over the telephone. But she didn’t know him and put the phone down and he wasn’t happy and he killed a man in the street who was walking past and shouldn’t have been there.
The man went back to England and saw his petal flower, but she didn’t know him and he cried and he cried and he asked God where was everything in the world and please help him and then a policeman came and knew who the man was and he called some more policemen with guns and they all sat outside the house and the man watched them driving up and knew that this was where it all ended.
He ran out with his gun from America and shot lots of shots and the policemen shot lots of shots and the man fell down with lots of blood and shouted “Petal flower darling.” But she didn’t hear him.