The Killing Fields

Russ surprised me tonight.

Russ is the only Maori I know. I can't properly pronounce the tribe he's from, much less spell it, but he's incredibly bolshy (and considers this normal), and he's also a nice guy when he bothers to listen. Most times he just makes decisions before listening, which isn't so cool. I'd also guess that his given name isn't 'Russ'. I'd guess that's what he calls himself here.

He's due to fly back out home to New Zealand in the next few days. I hadn't seen him for a while, so didn't pick up on this fact until tonight - although he says he'll be back for more work in the luxury of South East England in the fairly near future. He'll be missed, and not only by me; he's somehow managed to wangle his way into the hearts and minds of several locals. I wish I knew how he did that :-z

He drank a toast to me tonight: 'You walk your own way and don't take shit from no man, and I like talking to you because you remind me of my tribe. We're the same.'

Bless. It must be some kind of tradition out there, to come up with a toast for every person in the block when you leave.

Meanwhile Rose, the beautiful, engaging, funny and sharp blonde behind the bar, has hit marital quagmire after mere months of wedded bliss. She has bruises on her arms and her chin is held high. 'I've told him to leave, and he's leaving'. I hope so, he was never right for her and her five children. But I remember Rose on their wedding day, skitting across from the bar in her wedding gown to pick up cigarettes from the off-license I worked in at the time, beautiful as ever and so very happy. She looks like a female version of Derick Rethans, whom few people would (I suspect) regard as beautiful - but she definitely has the same nose, chin, eyes. I don't know how the alchemy occurs, but it does. In Rose, the slanted eyes and comically long, thin nose and mouth turn out as 'delicate' and 'pixie'. Perhaps the mischief in her makes that difference, I don't know. It disturbs hell out of me to see the marks of her being beaten. The jealous marks of a man who just discovered that his wife's children will always come first. You'd think he'd figure that idea and learn to live with it before he married her...

They seemed so happy.

And maybe that 'seeming' is why Russ gave me the toast he did. I don't allow 'seeming' in my life, I prefer the truth.