Rules Are Rules.

A short extract from something much, much longer that i've been working on.

Our family have rules. And they’re simple rules. You hurt us and we’ll hurt you back. But double time.

You disrespect me and mine and we’ll have a problem. Call me or my family a name and I’ll break your windows, do it again and I’ll break your face.

Your kid hurts one of mine and I’ll come round and put all of yours in the hospital.

You get the picture? Don’t mess with me and mine.

But some people didn’t get it in one. They thought the rules didn’t apply to them. They were wrong. Take Mark Reynolds for example.

Mark was a big man. Stood six feet seven inches and weighed around twenty stone.  A face on the local estate. But his lad hit mine. Not just that, he kicked the shit out of him when he was on the floor and busted his leg and arm. Now, my lads no angel. He probably deserved to get hit. But them aint the rules.

The rules are simple. You hurt anyone of us and we’re gonna hurt you back.

Mark came round the next day. Tears in his eyes.

“They didn’t know it was your boy. Honest. They didn’t know.”

I did the usual thing. Shook his hand. But we both knew what would happen.

His kid moved away. Went to stay with an Aunt in Liverpool. After a year he went to stay with another relation in Edinburgh. But one day he was found in a bad way. Close to death near a railway line.

I went round to Marks the next day. Shook his hand. “Even” was all I said. Mark just nodded.

So imagine my state of mind when my wife was mugged coming home one night. She’d stopped to get some money out of the cash machine at Asda’s. As she walked away two guys threw her to the floor and took her bag.

She was in hospital for three days. Cuts, bruises and a dislocated shoulder.

Word got round. The two guys realised what they’d done and gave themselves up to the police. I pretended to let it go. But everyone knew what the consequences would be.

They went to trial and got two years suspended sentence. They screamed in court. They WANTED to go away. But they were let out and back on the streets. They even asked for Police protection.

Fair play to the old bill, they ignored them. They were scum. If truth be known I think the boys in blue wanted to see them get their comeuppance.

I waited. No rush. It was eighteen months before anything happened. One of the guys had fucked off to Spain. Didn’t matter, we found him. Just by total coincidence he was also mugged, coming home late one night from a club. Nasty business, blood everywhere. They took his money but also slit his throat.

Me? I was indoors watching Strictly.

Two months later and the other one jumps from one of the Tower Blocks on the Langley Estate.  Nothing to do with me...really. He just jumped rather than wait for the inevitable.

So it's been quiet for the past few years. The rules have been adhered to.

But... last night my daughter came home in tears. She’s twenty and works for the local Building Society. She said that the manager touched her arse as she bent over to pick up some papers.

What the fuck's the matter with these people. Don’t they understand?

Rules are rules.