Day 4 500 Words
Planning and Logistics for the fight in the park
Being asked to join the old guard in a pub was like being accepted for the first time in my life. Whilst it isn’t something to be proud of now, I do recall with genuine pleasure how it made me feel.
Drinking a pint with these guys was interesting, they spoke of their Mrs and jobs and things I hadn’t really begun to experience yet. I liked it though and they were good to me.
They had heard about my planning from a couple of the guys who mentioned that they had been spared a proper beating by my plans and teh actions we agreed on if the worst was to happen. It’s a funny thing telling older men how to plan an operation. I’d got my skills from reading loads of army books, my dads friend was in the TA Paras and I had been in the Army Cadets. None of the time on reconnaissance was wasted.
The Park occupied an island of land bordered on one side by houses another, the main road, the third was a residential street with little parking and the final one faced the main road and a traffic light junction nearby a football stadium. The entire park was ringed with wrought iron railings, topped with spikes. The enormous ornamental gates to main entrance were a sight and would certainly be difficult to scale in a hurry.
I’d recced the entire park by going for a run around the entire boundary both inside the park and outside too. I knew every gate, hole in the fence, driveways which accessed the park, where the lights were and importantly where we could muster and then make our way back after the event. Drawing the area in a scrap book with coloured pencils and pens added to the plan and whilst I did feel a little embarrassed when I got the scrap book out in the pub, no one laughed. Quite the opposite actually, a few compliments and good few fuck me’s where thrown into the conversation. Men who had known the park from thier childhoods were amazed at what existe din the park and surrounding area. Many times I heard them say, I never knew that was there.
I talked them through the details of my outline plan and actions on. Once finished I paused and looked at the group, silence…. My mind raced and honestly my mind raced away into overdrive, had I fucked this up, would they just laugh at me. But no, silence hung for a few seconds longer and the questions rained down. What about if this happens or that changes. I turned the pages and walked them through the scenarios I’d considered and they just laughed, well it’s complete mate, I’ll give you that. How long did it take to do all this? In all I reckon it had taken 3 days end to end. It had meant loads of walks in the daytime and at night. The night recces were brilliant, I was seriously scared on more than one occasion as I got so close to the Skinhead gang and the place they hung out. Most of the time they were high on glue sniffing or drunk on cider. The girls were roudy and swore like paratroopers, there were more than a few very pretty ones and I considered an approach but knew I’d get a major kicking. I watched them for what seemed like hours before withdrawing and heading back to my home.
Plans agreed they bought me 2 more pints and crisps. I had not wanted to drink too much but 3 pints in, I was jaded and knew I’d be a massive target and unable to properly defend myself. As another round was being organised, I shared my predicament with one of the guys and he announced that he was going to run me back on his scooter. I could not believe my luck, it was sports tuned Li 125 Lambretta, it looked the business in ice white, black rubber running board and pedal caps, a 3 light cluster on the front and a whip antenna on the rear. It was a dream scooter.
Home safe, well as safe as I could be, I set about refining my plan and making additions from the meeting in the pub. We agreed to meet more of the gang in the week and get the whole mob genned up on the plan. It was exciting and terrifying at the same time. I could not wait.
So how did it all turn out?
