Chapter 62: The Football Hooligans Part 3
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Tang En was not afraid to face these impetuous drunks. The man standing closest to him could have just swung his fist forward and hit his nose, but Tang En did not step down when faced with other men’s fury.
He flung the torn flag toward Hodge. “Michael’s son is dead, and you’re all his murderers!”
The pub, which had just been noisy like a coliseum, suddenly fell silent. Everyone looked at Twain in shock and let the flag that they had considered as life, fall to the ground.
Hodge was also shocked, and he asked, “What are you talking about?”
The door behind Tang En was pushed open once again, and a sweaty Kenny Burns appeared in front of the crowd. “What Tony said is right. Your men knocked down Gavin while you were running away, and you and the Millwall b*stards trampled all over him.”
Hodge’s eyes widened. He could not believe what he just heard. He had not drunk much, and his mind was sober.
Tang En stepped forward and glared at Mark Hodge. The “Honor is my life” lost its golden glow when he stepped on it.
“Football hooligans?” He sneered as he turned to leave the deathly still pub. “Go to hell!”
Everyone watched him leave in silence. Hodge’s eyes had widened in shock, and he could not believe it. Burns looked at the stunned Hodge and his men, turned away, and followed Twain to leave.
“Kenny… You know, when I heard Gavin was… I really wanted to kill those b*stards,” said Tang En when they had walked out of the pub.
Burns nodded. “I understand.”
“But when I saw them, I suddenly felt they were pathetic. I couldn’t figure out why, I suddenly felt sorry for them… This feels strange. I should have rushed up to punch Hodge. How did it turn out like this?” murmured Tang En as he stood on the street with his head down.
“Tony, even if you had put all of them in the hospital for half a year, Gavin’s not coming back.” Burns patted his shoulder to console him.
Tang En looked up at Burns and nodded. “I know, I know… That’s why I feel so angry. It’s like, like when I watched the team lose, and there was nothing I could do about it… the failure, the pain… F*ck!”
Suddenly, he punched the phone booth next to him. Crash! The glass was shattered.
“I had a chance to prevent all this! I could have kept Gavin’s death from happening! I upbraided Hodge and told them that they were murderers, but I know I am one too! I’m a f*cking murderer!” Tang En held his head as he crouched down, and blood was dripping down his wrists to the ground.
Burns did not stop him, he just stood quietly at the side as he watched him vent.
The passers-by cautiously circled away from them and looked at them with fear and pity, thinking they were part of the gang inside the Robin Hood Pub.
One by one, cars drove past and splashed them with the water pooled at the side of the road. The two of them did not try to avoid nor dodge it. They just let the dirty water splatter them.
The next day, the Nottingham Evening Post first reported on the clash between the Nottingham fans and Millwall fans in the final round of the League Championship. It was followed by corresponding reports from the other major media outlets. Even the national newspaper, The Times, had followed the incident with interest.
Brawling fans were not unusual in the United Kingdom. The media and the public had long been immune to it. The only reason so much media focus was on a post-match fan brawl in the League Championship was because someone had died.
“…During yesterday’s last round of the English Football League Championship, after the match between Nottingham Forest and Millwall, fans from both sides’ gangs had gathered in an alley for a brawl. During the clash, an innocent 12-year-old boy was unfortunately involved and died after failure to revive.”
There were only two lines of information about Gavin Bernard in the report. Besides his age, there was nothing else—no name, no character description. People would never know how smart and adorable this innocent dead child was, how likable he was… How he never should have died.
The cold and impersonal report was so objective and fair that Tang En was disgusted. But later, when the media dug deeper into the boy’s death, Tang En did not want to read the papers anymore. Because looking the pictures of Gavin that the reporters had dug up from his school, and reading how they had described Gavin’s death, Tang En felt as if he was going through everything from that night again.
He was furious, but he had nowhere to vent.
Because he was the head of the fans, Michael had a very good relationship with many of the players on the Forest team, such as Michael Dawson, Andy Reid, Marlon Harewood, Eoin Jess and so on… Everybody knew he had a smart and cute boy, Gavin Bernard.
So, when they learned from the media that little Gavin had died during the fans’ clash, almost everyone was not in the state of mind to do their training. The coaches did not yell at them on the training ground, and Tang En, too, did not ask them to concentrate. The entire club was immersed in sorrow.
Because of the pain of Gavin’s mother being unable to accept her child’s death, Michael decided to hold his burial at an earlier date. The date of the funeral was chosen to be on May 9th. Tang En informed the players of the funeral at the end of the training on the 8th and hoped that everyone would be able to send the poor child off.
No one objected to Twain’s decision. The coaches, the team doctors, the assistant managers, and even Mr. Chairman Doughty had agreed to this decision. Everyone, including Tang En himself, might have forgotten that the day after the next, they were going to have a home match with a strong opponent. It was an important match for them.
On May 10th, Nottingham Forest would be playing against Sheffield United in the first round of the English Football League Championship semi-final playoff.
