In the Mouth of the Bear Read online

asked about masturbation? I told him the sin of Onan was between him and his god. Deuteronomy forbids it, you know.'

  As it happened I did.

  Jock didn't, it appeared:

  'Tell 'um. Paddy, I'll no be spoken tae like tha'

  We took him away, to explain it to him, while the 94 bus rumbled over the S-Bahn tracks crossing the Heerstrasse.

  And Berlin faded out, as the diesel-rattle of the crew bus went down to idle. Jock put his bible in the leg-pocket of his flying suit.

  'You really don't remember?' I asked for the third time.

  'No.' he said, succinct, precise, accentless. 'I don't.'

  I wondered if he could hear the sound of the cock crowing in the distance.

  Afterword/Afterwards

  Madame Stradivarius, or Birgitte, is an MEP for the Greens representing the NeuBrandenburg Region.

  Dave is married with 2.4 children.

  Jock has found God, although he says God found him. I'm surprised he was looking.

  Ute married a former Neo-Nazi in a civil ceremony in 2007.

  Jurgen 'retired' to Majorca, got bored, opened a club and sold it for a lot of dollars which a Russian delivered in a suitcase one dark night.

  Nada married a Somalian refugee and is a campaigner for refugees' rights in Germany

  Phil runs a taxi business in a town in East Anglia

  Julischka disappeared while on holiday in Kos in 1991. Her ex-husband was in jail at the time.

  Doc is not Jock, despite being Scottish. He survived a bout of cancer and works for the BBC.

  Kurt lives in Majorca, possibly with Jurgen.

  Mustapha's restaurant is now a laundrette. I hope Mustapha's taxi is for hire in Pristina, but I doubt it.

  Eddie made a pile of money and spends his life on holiday.

  Steve is a senior officer in the RAF. I hope he's happy anyway.

  Paul is a TEFL teacher in the Far East, I think he might do some DIY building on the side.

  The Cricketers are in the Members' Bar in the Sky.

  There were actually two Paddys: one is very high up in a world of diplomats and spies, the other, I suppose, is still alarming women when drunk, by making faces at them.

  Mon Cheri's and the Elephant Bar are still open for business during the late hours in Charlottenburg. The girls have been Asian and are now, mostly, Eastern European. The beer is better though.

  And me? I make things up, but you know that, don't you?