{"id":13936,"date":"2021-05-04T16:21:28","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T15:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/the-boy-in-the-subway\/"},"modified":"2021-05-04T16:21:28","modified_gmt":"2021-05-04T15:21:28","slug":"the-boy-in-the-subway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/the-boy-in-the-subway\/","title":{"rendered":"The Boy in the Subway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>The Boy in the Subway<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>by Tony Webb<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I met my wife for breakfast.<br \/>Futile negotiations<br \/>in the bookshop caf\u00e9 at the Dylan Thomas Centre.<br \/>A peaceful haven amongst books and old pictures.<\/p>\n<p>I ordered hot chocolate, knowing this would bother her.<br \/>The cream on my lips and other parts of my face<br \/>were bound to annoy.<br \/>\u2018Why can\u2019t you drink it like normal people?\u2019 she said.<br \/>Who is this normal person who stands invisibly behind<br \/>my shoulder, setting examples I can never follow?<br \/>I bit into my sandwich.<br \/>\u2018\u201dMasticate discreetly\u201d the menu should say,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n<p>That was it.<br \/>I got up and left the building, and headed for town.<br \/>Down into the stinking subway:<br \/>\u2018Built in 1966\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Half-way along, I noticed the youngster.<br \/>Knees under his chin, squatting and begging.<br \/>I normally would have given him a pound,<br \/>but I was angry.<br \/>Someone was going to cop it.<br \/>I let rip:<br \/>\u2018What you need is a job instead of scrounging!\u2019<br \/>\u2018I want a job,\u2019 he answered. \u2018I can\u2019t effing get one.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>I set out to expose him.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Follow me, then. I own a shop in High Street.<br \/>I\u2019ll give you a job right now,\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n<p>I was out to reveal his fakery.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Great!\u2019 he said, jumping to his feet. \u2018I\u2019ll do anything!\u2019<\/p>\n<p>We were nose to nose.<br \/>Him, streetwise.<br \/>Defiant eyes,<br \/>he was already four steps ahead of me.<br \/>I wasn\u2019t the first to try this ruse.<br \/>What now? Apologise?<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Sit down. Who\u2019d employ you, you scrounger.\u2019<br \/>\u2018Eff you, you\u2019re not effing normal!\u2019 he replied and sat back down.<\/p>\n<p>I walked briskly out of that putrid chamber,<br \/>Escaping the clammy town air.<\/p>\n<p>Two weeks later, I was back in the Dylan Thomas Centre.<br \/>Books on the shelves, the same pretty pictures.<\/p>\n<p>I ordered hot chocolate and sat down,<br \/>alone and unhindered.<br \/>Someone had left a copy of the local newspaper.<br \/>There was a headline:<\/p>\n<p>\u2018MAN, 19, FOUND DROWNED IN MARINA\u2019<\/p>\n<p>There was a hazy photograph; his school prom.<\/p>\n<p>It looked like him,<br \/>the boy in the subway.<\/p>\n<p>It looked like him,<br \/>but I can\u2019t be certain.<\/p>\n<p>I can\u2019t be sure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Boy in the Subway by Tony Webb I met my wife for breakfast.Futile negotiationsin the bookshop caf\u00e9 at the Dylan Thomas Centre.A peaceful haven amongst books&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":598,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1660],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13936\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}