Sue the West Indian who loved an Iranian boy
I met her when I was living in Clays lane which was a housing association for students, artists, the homeless, thieves, gangs and gypsies. This was in East End of London. She was a fit girl with a great sense of humor and good dance moves. But of all the people she could had fallen in love with she had chosen a shy Iranian student. The doodle is as I imagine her now a middle-aged woman perhaps selling things in the market who knows? I haven’t seen her for over 20 years. The boy whose name I don’t recall lets call him Ali joined a wacky militant political group (MKO). He was a student but decided to give it all up and join a military camp based in Iraq. The group MKO had the backing of Saddam Hussein, They used to make raids across the Iranian border. Ali died in one of these raids. We watched his transformation from a hard-working student to a brain-washed political guy and felt really bad. Sue was devastated, we all mourned Ali’s death. She used to come over and spend time with me chatting away, I’d been a good listener. Unfortunately she turned to drugs and alcohol and one night when she was high as kite she came for her regular late night chats but I put my foot down, did not let her in and told her to come back when she was sober. I felt bad about it, but the next day we made up. We’d been intimate and I liked her, and I think she liked me but I didn’t make a move, there was too much baggage with her.
We used to get our share of East End crime in Clays Lane, and she was telling me about the day that the territorial army with their guns did a raid against the Community room where the drug dealers did their deals. Being a student, I was as poor as a church mouse but left there after I had a job. Clays Lane site was built on an old rubbish dump and they used the excuse that it was radioactive and kicked out everyone including the gypsies who were based there for many decades. Then they knocked the place down and used it for the Stratford Olympics project. Living there was like a detective movie, one night a man who had evidence of Police brutality and had a case for court saw his car being broken into by the same Police men involved in the court case, they punched him and ran away. We once had a fugitive who had stabbed a man and escaped and the Police with their dogs came chasing after him and he ran into the cycle race track next to our state but they caught him. The best bit was the street parties, we had a few talented musicians singing their own lyrics. Our own flat with the four people was like a community centre for Artists. We had a painter, two actors ( one of them being me if you count being on stage three or four times) and a musician. We even had someone who was later nominated for Oscars ( Shohreh Aghdashloo) doing her rehearsals in our flat. Singers, musicians, actors, writers you name it they all gave a visit to that flat and several of our friends met their future wives in there, and the next day we all went back to our day jobs, shop keepers, techy nerds, and students.
As for Sue? I don’t know where she is but whatever she’s doing I hope she has a good life.
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