“Ever
see Degger fight, in your mind? It doesn't take long before you're
out cold and he's made you his slave. He's deep. Don't let the kicks
fool you.
“He
was in our school, used to stand in a corner, supping something
illicit, lighting matches on his knuckles. If he looked at you you
went over, no question, you were over there. Sometimes he'd walk
over. You just saw him coming and waited dead still, tried to think
of things to say. If he approached you played ball, no question, or
whatever game he was playing. He taped a cat to a football one time
with regular sellotape and kicked it all over the place. That was a
game, he said. I think Tom Bagnut nicked it from his house, the
sellotape; the cat was local.
“So
yeah, anyway, I saw him fight a couple of times, when he was young.
He'd fight the older kids, bite their faces, leave them holding them,
leave them scarred. The opponent never really wanted it to go ahead.
You know like sometimes both parties are really fired up and can't
stop bouncing, and everyone's dancing and running everywhere; well
these guys looked like they’d lost all the bounce and were dreaming
of a better life, where Degger bit someone else. You could hear the
wind. It was like minutes of stillness all around, silence. Degger
just stood, tapped his shoe. I was hanging out with him one lunch.
He’d tapped his shoe and I came running: ‘Ask Sam Jenkins to come
over here. Politely.’ That was all he said, and you knew a fight
was on. You got the sense that he'd been watching Jenkins for days or
something. So I ran off and gave Jenkins the bad news and Jenkins
started crying, crying all the way over to Degger, who was blank as
anything I'd ever seen. Degger put his finger through Jenkins' eye
that day and then walked home. It was one-thirty. You could hear a
whistle as he receded, like the lips were laughing without a heart.
Jenkins was on the concrete making all sorts of noises I’d never
heard. Everyone walked off except Jodie Collins who scooped him up
and said 'f*****g hell'. Degger came back a few weeks later. Nothing
was said.
“Yeah,
it’s a little known fact, seeing as he never really told or spoke
to anyone - not that way anyway, but it was Degger 'Debussy'
Reynolds. I saw it written somewhere when I was asked round the house
to kill time between escapades. You didn’t say no. I could think of
a million things I would've rather been doing, and most of them
flashed through my mind the second Degger sealed my fate. This was a
couple of years later, if I remember.
“Yeah,
Degger Debussy Reynolds - weird name. I didn’t know where it came
from, but the truth came out. Sometimes it happens that way. It
clicked in what would now be year 11 music. Apparently, story goes,
his father was a French classical music aficionado. The 'Debussy' is
silent; his dad died when Degger was six. Rumour has it he set his
feet on fire and just went running. That’s right, spreading up him
as he fled the streets. That’s what I heard. Could be bollocks. I
think it was Degger told me - set his feet off and then ran.
“Degger’s
house was weird. Like I say I went round once. His dad was dead.
Degger said: ‘Come in.’ Think I hesitated. There were no lights,
and I remember looking up seeing no bulbs, all the curtains shut, and
freaking out. I wanted to say: 'Degger, where're the f*****g lights,
dude’ but said: ‘Your house is cool.' He smirked and walked
into the next room where his mum was sitting. Later he told me the
only light he liked was fire. But I remember the creepiest thing was
his mum. We walked in and this woman was hunched in the corner with
her hands on her knees looking straight at me. I completely freaked,
and Degger said: ‘Mate, this is my mum, Pat Reynolds’, and she
shook her head.
“Degger’s
room had nothing in. I mean nothing. Just Degger and me. We stood
there for a bit and then left. Then left the house. I think we met up
with Steve and Briggs. That was the day Degger turned to Ste
Holdsworth and said: 'Knock him out'. Last thing I remember hearing
was Degger saying ‘Night’.
“Degger’s
mum died a few years later. Degger must have been 17. Made his own
way after that. Degger said the firemen were there as soon as he
dialed. Apparently most of the house was saved but the fire had
started in her room and it was too late. He whistled that same way.”
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