Serik Jumanov - Rise of London Gambler. Second edition

“What did you say?” asked Mike.

“Did I?”

“Yeah, you were murmuring something. I thought, maybe, you’re talking to me”

“Oh… never mind! I bought soft avocado to have them with doughnuts. It’s delicious, and it doesn’t make you too fat.”

They have heard a young white girl’s voice from the kitchen. The voice was smoky and boozed.

“Who are the other tenants? You know them?” asked Mike.

“Well, they are Pakistani guys too. Some of them are students, but it seems like they work most of the time as salesmen or cleaners, I don’t know exactly.”

“Come on, ladies, come on, ladies! One-pound fi-i-i-ish! Come on, ladies, come on, ladies! One-pound fish!” One Pakistani guy started singing the popular song, and a burst of laughter exploded in the kitchen.

“It seems like they’re having fun tonight too,” said John.

“By the way, what about Julie?” Julie was John’s classmate at business school. Once he invited her to the cinema, then a football match, and to his flat when he lived with Mike.

“I don’t know, man,” replied John. “I haven’t seen her for ages. I talked to my advisor at school so he let me work on my assignment at home, so… also, you know, girls are consuming a lot of time, effort and money… it’s kind of…”

“Oh, I see. You’re becoming an old asshole, man!” laughed Mike.

Emil came back with the saucepan of his exotic tea. He also brought a kettle of water to add in case if the tea is too strong for the guys.

“We have visitors tonight? I never saw a lady living in the house,” asked John.

“No… they are colleagues. She is Karim’s colleague,” replied Emil, being confused for something.

“Nice voice,” laughed John. “Is she the same beautiful like her voice?” Guys laughed. “Maybe, we can invite her to our ‘royal’ party? Look, I have to heat up the doughnuts.”

He took the doughnuts and went to the kitchen. He saw Karim earlier; it was young long-limbed and a gimlet-eyed guy. John never found him nice so avoided unnecessary contact with him. Karim was sitting at the table with a good-looking woman, approximately 27—30 years old, with tons of make-up on her face.

“Good evening! Sorry for bothering you,” said John, entering the kitchen. “I just need to use the microwave.”

The woman took stock of John, and said: “Hello, my name is Jenny.”

“Nice to meet you, Jenny! I’m John. By the way, we’re having tea in our room. Wanna join us? You’re welcome!”

“God’s sake, men stopped drinking beer around here or what?” asked Jenny slowly, becoming somewhat upset.

“He is a sportsman,” laughed Karim. “He plays football,” he added and broke into laughter.

“What’s so funny?” thought John.

“You play football?” asked Jenny, while microwave oven began buzzing.

“Yep, I play some football with my friends. It’s an amateur team, each Saturday.”

“Amateurs, you see?” laughed Karim again.

“Yeah, amateurs,” said John, starting to get mad about Karim. “Nothing special, just having fun to play footie.”

“Call me when you have some beer, sweetie,” said Jenny. “What is in the box? Doughnuts??”

“Yeah, we’ve just brought them from Sainsbury’s.”

“Fuck me-e-e! Fuck me! Jesus! Grow up! How old are you?! You’re a bunch of suckers!” Karim and Jenny burst into laughter again.

“I’d fuck you till you appeal for mercy, bitch,” thought John, starting to get mad, but he laughed with them instead.

The oven has signaled that doughnuts are ready. John took them and went out of the kitchen.

“See you, guys!”

“Bye!”

When he entered the room, Emil and Mikey were talking about John’s bets.

Emil was talking excitedly: “One player of Pakistani national cricket team was found guilty in fixing the matches. It was written in the newspaper!” He looked around at the floor, trying to find the lying newspaper he was talking about, but now it was impossible.

“Shit! Bastards! I can imagine how much they make out of it, man!” said Mike. “Wow, doughnuts!”

“Here you are. Help yourself, guys, don’t be shy. Nobody likes shy guys!” said John.

The tea was amazing, and so were the doughnuts. After having four or five of those, John asked Mike:

“By the way, how is your new roommate? What was his name, again?”

“His name is Stephen,” replied Mike. “Good guy, he studies a lot. The only thing he is too religious, so he talks about the doomsday and Illuminati all the time, but it’s okay. He would like to play football with us some day. He says he used to be a good defender at school.”

“Yeah, no problem. Let him come to our training on Wednesday. By the way, Emil also talks to me about Islam a lot, so we both are kind of on the firing line!” smiled John.

“Once he told me,” continued Mike, “he told me, that you can find devil’s sign “666” in the name of Coca-Cola, “‘cause each “C” looks like “6”. So he never drinks it. And he doesn’t celebrate Christmas because it is not really a Jesus’ birthday, and Santa is an anagram of “Satan’!”

The guys laughed. Emil started cleaning the room and said he had to go to the fast-food shop he worked at to help his back-to-back with cleaning. Also, he said, there might be some chicken fries unsold, so he’d like to bring them, as usually.

“You know what,” said John as Emil left. “Religious fanatics usually lack education or mental aptitude, I don’t know. At the same time, they either have an enormous ego or they are absolute nice guys. Nothing in between. They usually come from those who we think are nerds or losers, but they will never say so. They just want to look big, like ‘you all are plain shit, but I know the Truth with capital ‘T’. So, honour me!’ An easy way to the public recognition. No need to study, no need to work hard, etc. Just read only one holy book and feel important.”

“Yep, probably right. People like freebies. Some people like to think they are more important just because they are white, black, purple, or if they’re coming from some local area. Or if they got more money than you!” replied Mike.

“I bet there always will be someone looking for such reason to be more important than others. If all people would be black, they still will be looking for the differences – some might be deep black, some would be violet black, and some would be yellowish-black. I think, they just need a dream they could believe in, and it makes their day. Deep inside, they subconsciously realize that they are ‘plain shit’ and their existence is meaningless, but they want to be important somehow. They need a purpose in their lives. Well, Mike, do you have a purpose in your life?”

“Do I what?! What purpose, man? I’m just trying to survive here each fucking day!” replied Mike, laughing. “Do you have a purpose?”

John thought to himself for a moment.

“Good question, mate! Well, I don’t know what to say… I just want to be happy. That’s all. As soon as we were placed into this world, we have to survive and enjoy the process, if possible. But if you enjoy bullying others, then you’re a piece of shit.”

Mike a said he has to go since it is becoming late, and John went out to send him. For John, it was a chance to walk and smoke in a company.

“So what are your plans now, John?” asked Mike. “You wanna come back to our flat or move to some better place?”

“No, I’m fine,” replied John. “Yeah, this new place is shit. Recently I caught a cold here while sleeping. But I still have to make some more money. When I have enough, I’ll move out.”

They were walking down Southcroft Road. A red bus passed them by, leaving in silence.