Cardiff Dead

Thing about black girls, Mazz reckoned: least black girls his age, they weren't quite so fucking up themselves as most of the girls you met. Most girls, pretty ones anyway, nineteen, twenty, you could just tell they thought they were the best thing ever, never had any idea the world was there to do anything except kiss your arse. Girls like Tyra, or Bobby come to that, you could see they knew it wasn’t like that; world was waiting there with a baseball bat behind its back ready to lick you down any time it felt like it.

Of course you have kids and stuff and you have to get more responsible, get up in the morning, feed them and clothe them and beg, steal or borrow the money to keep a roof over their head — all that was grown up, fair enough. But lot of people — specially women, she had to say — acted like that wasn’t enough just doing the grown-up business. No, you had to get all mature. And being mature, what was that all about? Mostly it seemed to be about not going out any more, not listening to music, not going to films unless you were taking the kids — not doing anything much apart sitting around and moaning about what losers men were.