And the MEEK Shall Inherit the Earth. Book One

Chapter Four Winston Black

                                                         26 September, 2020.

The Iron Horse public house is a substantial tavern set amongst a large local authority housing estate, which was built in the 1960s, where dilapidated structures point their high-rise, two-pronged towers accusingly at heaven as if to demand a rapid deliverance from their inevitable decline into a dusty wasteland.  

In one of its rooms gorgeous pole dancers perform mesmeric, mystical movements on the stage to a transfixed male audience who are feasting their eyes on voluptuous beauty and enjoying a temporary relief from their humdrum existence and the brutal ugliness of the outside environment.  The girls go hopefully to the punters with a pint glass for their euro-pound coins. 

In a much larger space, housed in front of the building, the stage is shaking with a much younger audience, to the sound of Circe's Sisters.  Alena Dvorakova commands centre-stage, strutting and snarling, dressed entirely in black, a tight, skimpy tee-shirt, leather mini-skirt, tights and heavy knee-high boots with steel toe caps and large silver buckles on the sides.  The place is in turmoil as the head-bangers push and jostle each other for the dominant place in the mosh pit and on stage the lead guitar shrieks, the bass pulsates and the drums pound out a thunderous beat.  Alena shakes her long blonde hair and bellows:

"EVERY BANKER IS A WANKER WHO DESERVES TO GET HIT

THEY CAN FUCK OFF OUT THE COUNTRY AND WE WOULDN'T GIVE A SHIT!

ALL OUR LEADERS ARE BLEEDERS MAKING OUT TO DO THEIR BEST

WHEN ALL REALLY WHAT THEY'RE DOING IS JUST FEATHERING THEIR NEST.

EVERY MP IS A NUMPTY WITH AN ARSEHOLE FOR A MOUTH

THEY NEVER LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE FROM THE NORTH TO THE SOUTH

OR THE OTHER ANGRY PEOPLE FROM THE WEST TO THE EAST

WHEN THEY'RE GASPING ON THEIR DEATH BEDS THEY'LL BE EATEN BY THE ....

        .....   B-E-E-E-A-S-T !!!"

The crowd are familiar with this song and all join in "B-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-A-A-A-S-T!!!" as they leap into the air and barge into each other.  Jumping the highest and performing scissor-kicks are Stefan and Peter.

In a dark corner, near the door to the exit, stands a tall man;  he's as black as ebony and built like the proverbial "brick shit-house".  He has a shaved head and a diamond stud in his right ear.  His broken nose and black overcoat give him a thuggish appearance.  With arms folded he's regarding the mayhem with an indulgent smile.  This is Winston Black MA hons (OU), - aka Sho Shin, after the king of the "new" Sho Dynasty who, in 1477, banned the carrying of swords and then ordered the collection of all weapons on the island of Okinawa.  Winston's the librarian at the last library in London and a sensei at the Twickenham Karate Club.  He has trained many students over many years including Alena, Stefan and Peter.

He first took up librarianship when he was "doing time" in Brixton Prison for grievous bodily harm.  In his early twenties he was sentenced to six years in prison which, due to his guilty plea, good conduct and prison overcrowding, was completed in three years.  He had been learning Karate since he was twelve and by the age of twenty had a black belt grade three.   He'd learned the martial arts but not the good manners and humility that should accompany them.  His arrogance had led him into a drunken brawl in a pub where he'd broken the arms of two bouncers and the noses of three policemen and it had eventually taken nine of them to arrest him.  Naturally this had made him an icon amongst his fellow prisoners.

His self-discipline came to him in prison where he'd combined keeping fit in the gym with studying for his Open University degrees in the Arts and the Sciences, as well as helping many of his fellow inmates to read and write. After leaving prison he'd travelled the world for five years taking prolonged stays in the USA,  Japan, Okinawa and Moscow honing his martial art skills including Kudo.  He was thirty when he returned to England and rented a flat in Twickenham.  From prison he'd developed the strange habit of putting plastic cups filled with water under the legs of his bed to prevent cockroaches climbing up.  He'd never married but enjoyed a succession of girlfriends and a surrogate-fatherly relationship with his students, especially with Alena and Stefan who'd been cruelly orphaned at such an early age.  The fact that they could not afford to go into higher education grieved him personally.  He considered it ironic, almost unjust, that two young people of impeccable character were being barred from the advantages of a university education whereas he, as a thuggish lout, had had his graduate status paid for by the State.

Winston worked occasionally for Peter's rock-legend father, Roger Jagend, as security manager/driver on the group's tours.  That was why he was waiting for the present stage performance to end so that he could drive the three back to Roger's mansion on Richmond Hill where they would all spend the night.  Fortunately for his eardrums the BEAST song was the last one of the night.  Hot, sweaty and slightly "munted" , the threesome eventually finished hugging and kissing their friends goodbye and clambered into the classic, vintage Hummer as Winston squeezed himself behind the wheel and drove them sedately into the night.  The adrenalin rush that had kept them going all night had now lapsed and by the time that they arrived at the huge house all that they wanted to do was to crawl into their beds and sleep.