GTF Editor writes; Don't normally do much in the way of fiction. Here's a wee story that's part of a bigger whole.
Brad,
Brad Washington speaks....
“My
name is Brad, Brad Washington” is the line. “I fly helicopters”.
The
man warms to his theme.
“Meaning
I earn a lot of money and in the eyes of all the women in the Spirit
Level I have a glamourous well paid profession.
Being
Kenny, a turner from Bellshill just isn't the same attraction.
Sending money back to keep the wife and kids and family back home
just isn't what my life was meant to be.
And
so I turned myself into a work of art. I became my own creation.
My
shagging life as performance art.
And
why not? If loyalist killer Michael Stone can burst into Stormont
while armed to the teeth to assassinate politicians and then in
mitigation at his trial claim it to be performance art, why can't I?
Like
every artist I have my creative eras and periods. The “Brad, Brad
Washington” period marks my mature period I think. Never before
have I enjoyed this level of deception, of creation, of re-invention,
of becoming. In other times I have created other personas. Brad,
Brad Washington is my finest expression of merit, my finest work.
Like
those guys from Dundee who pretended to be Hip-Hoppers from
California in order to get a record deal. This is a deception with
an end.
And
that end justifies the means. I become someone that someone wants.
I stop being someone that is not someone someone wants. The shags
are often nice as well.
Every
artist needs dedication. Application, perspiration, learning, my art
is no different.
Doesn't
mean that there aren't highs and lows. Highs and lows. Lows are
hanging out in hing-oot bars in Aberdeen picking up women who are
also works of art. Who perform like me.
In
all the dozens of women I have taken back to hotels and flats, not
one of them has ever asked why my hands are the hands of a turner and
not a pilot. In all the dogging sessions I have attended, all the
livecam sex sessions I have participated in no-one has ever
challenged me about this persona.
My
American accent is almost pukka Boston. Like Lloyd Grossman. Took
research, learning and practise. Much practise. And research. Maps
of Boston. But also a younger life full of travelling and
rootlessness.
My
daddy flew Helicopters in the US Army.
All
part of the life. I flew helicopters in Iraq and Kuwait. Adds to the
dangerous charm.
Everybody
in the scenes I hang out in has a need to hide something. Being outed
as an enthusiast for outre sexual practices in public is still a
guarantee of social and professional oblivion.
If
I was rich and privileged in real life, this would make me a sex
addict in need of treatment and rehab. I am not rich and privileged
in real life.
Well, I work twelve hour shifts as a turner in
specialised engineering here in Aberdeen.
I
slog my guts out in heavy manual labour requiring skill, knowledge
and strength. I clear eighty grand a year, most of it overtime. It
still makes me an outcast though. I am and will always be seen as
scum, if I try to better myself, I'm an upstart.
I'm
not a sex addict, I'm a mad shagger. I'm excluded.
I'm
in internal exile. Remitting money back home like a Turkish guest
worker in Germany. Sending the dough back to the wife and kids.
Everyone
needs a hobby don't they? My hobby is making a life. Making a new
me. Making a me which is so different from the real me, whatever
that fucking is.
Does
this make me a bad person? I can make Brad, Brad Washington as kind
as I like. Don't know about Kenny. Kenny is nearly 60. Brad, Brad
Washington is 46.
Kenny
is as much the creation of Brad, Brad Washington as the creator.
Living the part-time life of Brad, Brad Washington changes Kenny too.
Who
am I? Who am not-I?
Why
do you want to write about me? “
eh?
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