16 January 2012. Best Man Dead
Photo: Jonathan Waring
Spoken word performance for ‘Terry’s Back Passage’ Curated by Phillip Henderson as part of Reactor’s ‘Deathtrap’
Part of the ‘my life stories’ series.
Text:
There was this one day I remember when me and Andy, that’s my brother, wanted to go to the cornfield, but mum said no.
We had heard the combined harvester on the way home from school the day before and knew that meant straw bales, or so Andy said.
You break the bales up at the bottom of Harry; that’s the name of the big oak tree at the edge of the field that has the sideways branch. Then you get up on Harry and jump into the straw. Sometimes we do somersaults or play best man dead which means someone kills you like in a way you said to, then you fall off like you are dead.
Anyway, that day, we weren’t allowed to do that and had to put on smart clothes and go slow driving again. My trousers hurt because I had growed a bit, but I still had to put an extra pair of socks on cos I hadn’t growed into my shoes yet.
At the big field everyone looked very smart, like it was a wedding like Dawn’s who is my cousin. They all looked serious and the talk man talked to them from a book.
They tried to put a box into the ground but it wouldn’t go so they had to hold it up on a strap while a man with a spade made the hole bigger. Everyone held on to each other and I laughed at the red faces as they held the box up. Mum smacked me and made me sit in the car.
We went home then.