Page 82 of Playing to Win

Andrew stepped back and adjusted his glasses. Had he been recognized?

“It is him.” Colin put an arm around his shoulders. “Mate, this lassie and her wean were on the bus with me that day after the rave. She’s the one recommended I draw on the pic you sent me.”

“I telt you to draw a mustache!” she said, laughing so hard she snorted.

“Okay, I confess.” Colin winked at Andrew. “The big fat tadger was my idea.”

“Aye.” The girl shushed the baby, who looked on the verge of bawling again. “So are you two boyfriends now?”

“Erm…” Colin straightened up and pulled his arm away. “Nah, we’re just—”

“Actually,” Andrew said, “we’re here canvassing for the independence referendum.” He looked at his sheet. “Are you Samantha Murray?”

“I’m Lexi. Samantha’s my mum. Sorry, I cannae vote yet. I’m only fifteen.”

“Oh, I—I see.” He looked at Colin, whose shocked expression mirrored Andrew’s own feeling. Fifteen with a child already born, and living in this…place.

While Colin salvaged the conversation and gave Lexi a leaflet for her parents, Andrew stood to the side and scanned the living room behind her. That same black stain ran around the perimeter of the balcony doors and dotted the vertical blinds covering them.

As they said goodbye, Colin gave Lexi a card with his address and mobile number. “If you need anything. Anything.”

He and Andrew didn’t speak on their way to the next flat, where an elderly man answered. He was leaning No, but he listened politely to Colin’s calm, reasoned arguments, and agreed to take a leaflet, along with Colin’s card.

“You’re giving your address and number to complete strangers?” Andrew asked him when they returned to the stairwell.

“What are they gonnae do, steal my nonexistent possessions? These people need to know I’m one of them. I’m not some well-meaning middle-class Yesser come to the Drum to rescue them from their own ignorance. If these folk’ll listen to me, then I owe it to them, to myself, to this entire fuckin’ country, to make myself available.” Colin shoved open the door to the next floor, but paused to hold it for Andrew. “I shouldn’t have started this contest. This isn’t a game. It’s dead serious.”

“I know.” Andrew stopped on the bottom stair, then pointed to the window on the landing behind him. “That’s mold, isn’t it?”

“Mildew.” Colin avoided his eyes. “Our tower block had it too, before the refurb. Probably why my sister’s got asthma.”

Andrew’s heart twisted. “I’m sorry.”

“Okay.” Colin pushed the door open wider. “It’s your turn.”

They canvassed for another two hours, and though Colin was his usual animated, charming self with the people they met, between flats he was silent. No more singing or dancing, no more flirting. Andrew wasn’t sure if Colin was angry with him, or if he was still reeling from the fact Lexi was only fifteen, or if he was ashamed Andrew was seeing how his neighbors lived. Howhelived.

“Not so much noise in that flat, at least,” Andrew remarked as they left another divided household—this time, unusually, the woman was Yes and the man, No.

Colin jotted a note on his clipboard. “Yeah, life gets real quiet without electricity.”

“What?” Andrew stopped short and looked back at the door to the flat. It had been rather dim, with daylight the only illumination. “Why don’t they have electricity?”

“No money.”

“What do they spend their benefits check on?”

“Rent. Food. Clothes for their kids, who apparently have this annoying habit of growing bigger. Or perhaps a man or woman would like a haircut or a decent shirt to wear to a job interview. Mad, extravagant things like that.”

As Colin paged through the sheets on his clipboard, Andrew examined him, as if seeing clearly for the first time. His torn jeans and duct-taped trainers weren’t a fashion statement. He didn’t wear ragged clothes to make himself look tough. He wore them because they were all he had.

Colin brushed past Andrew on his way to the stairs. “That’s us finished.”

Andrew’s stomach went cold. “You’re breaking up with me? Because I was an idiot about the mildew and the electricity?” He hurried after him. “I know I’ve been unfathomably naive, thinking the welfare system provided at least the basics. I’m truly sorry. But don’t let this be the end of us.”

“God, would you shut it?” Colin spun to face him. “I meant we’re finished canvassing. We’ve visited all the names on our sheets.”

“Oh.” Andrew swallowed, catching his breath. “Did you want to stop at your flat before we—”

---