Young Mungo Quotes
"He smiled when he didn't want to. He would do anything just to make other people feel better."
"The day would be muggy and close. The younger man fiddled with himself. Mo-Maw licked the back of her bottom teeth."
"She tapped the glass again. Don't you scowl at me."
"St Christopher reached out and circled the boy's wrist with his long fingers. 'Ye're only a wee thing aren't ye? Ah would have put ye at twelve, thirteen, tops.'"
"His hair was clipped short. His fringe had been combed forward in a gelled line, the hairs formed little saw-toothed points, as though they had been cut by pinking shears."
"The games people played made his head hurt."
"Mo-Maw's demon was a flat, eel-like snake with the jaw and beady eyes of a weasel and the matted coat of a mangy rat."
"Mungo thought about all the aunties and uncles that crossed his door and had lain in waste with his mother."
"Mungo picked his cheekbone as the bus passed Dumbarton and the ochre banks of Loch Lomond came into view."
"St Christopher reached out a trembling hand and the tattooed man reluctantly let go of the cigarette."
"Mrs Campbell swept Mungo's hair off his face. 'Honestly son, ye are all kindness and no common sense.'"
"Gallowgate winked at him. It was an apology for the older drunk. It said that Gallowgate thought he was all right, that they'd suffer through St Christopher together."
"If one of my birds leaves me, how can I be angry? It's my fault for not making a good enough doocot for them. They must not have been happy enough to stay."
"You'd fuck off if you were unhappy, right?"
"No shame in becoming a man, ya big hairy beast. Happens to all of us."
"Imagine. God gives ye a beautiful face. Then he does that to fuckin' spoil it. What a spiteful bastard."
"I've got to try and squeeze a wee bit of happiness out of life while ah still can."
"What you do not do - what you absolutely do not do - is leave your children alone while you disappear."
"Ah wonder what grassin' basturt telt them that."
"She listened intently as a bin man talked about his union dispute with the corporation."
"You need to stay on yer own a wee bit longer. Jist till I know where me and wee Jocky are headed."
"You're too old for that," mouthed Jodie.
He's gonnae kill her," said Jodie. "Do something, Mungo!
"Lit what?" He wanted to put his fingers in his ears.
"We have to do something," repeated Jodie.
"I don't know. God's sake. Can you just be a bloody man, for once?"
"There was no man that Jodie would not answer back, and although Mungo admired that about his sister, he thought she put too much faith in the decency of men."
"Jodie opened her smart mouth amongst gangs of neds and wrote cheques that Hamish would have to cash later."
"Mungo tried to look crestfallen, but adrenaline coursed through his veins."
"Poor-Wee-Chickie placed a hand on his hip, his tongue darted across his bottom lip."
"The skin below her orbit must have split, for her hanky was spotted with blood."
"She said it so quietly that it seemed like she was talking to herself."
"Jodie exhaled sharply through her nose. 'Well, I think it's a bloody disgrace the way men get worked up over the football.'"
"It was a dream to afford beautiful clothes. It would be another dream entirely to be able to shun it and dress however you pleased."
"Mungo's strained breath caught the hairs and they changed direction, flowing away and twisting like the long grass in the trout river."
"She flicked her dout out over the headstones. 'He's taking me for a mug.'"
"The sky had dimmed again by the time Jodie came in from school."
"St Christopher's eyes grew wide. 'That's where the buggers are hiding.'"
"It would take a long time to stop raining."
"Gallowgate pushed the coin into the slot. He dialled the number and waited."
"To hear the different strangers describe the thousand different types of rain gave him a calming pleasure."
"She had taken the three of them away on the train, Angus, Jacqueline, and young Evan."
"She came back with buckets full of gritty, wet sand and upended them until there was a sandpit on the linoleum floor."
"Gallowgate was a born liar; his mother had learned that the hard way."
"He could picture his mother in happier times; a time when she had rented a cream and claret caravan down on the Saltcoats coast for the Fair Fortnight."
"The rain had fallen in solid curtains all that week."
"There was a familiar voice on the other end. 'Angus? What do you want?'"
"He had expected her to find a calming ordinariness in this."
"Gallowgate savoured the last of his mother's sighs."
"Everybody knows she only wanted a wean so she could get away from her maw and get a council house of her own."
"You're much better looking than yer brother."
"Here, if you mix them, it tastes like one of they fancy cocktails."
"You're my only maw. I just want guid things for you."
"I'm too many other bad things. I don't want to be a liar as well."
"He had done what had been asked of him and, best of all, he hadn't hurt anyone."
"His vision exploded like the sky on fireworks night."
"Mungo was writhing in the dirt, blinking, when soft brown eyes looked down at him."
"Mungo tried one last time, but the word escaped him quiet as a sigh."
"They were cheered by the turn in the weather."
"Every-Other-Wednesday joined the circle."
"Mungo was winded by the time he reached the patchy grass."
"All roads to home took him in front of the oppressive Royal Infirmary."