House of the Ancestors
Tony Crisp’s true story of a passionate love affair and the death of my best friend
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“Shaun always did introduce me to firsts. I think someone I knew turned up with him at my house, and he adopted me. He used to call me his ‘old man,’ and each time I saw him after that he had a different woman with him. Gillian and I had plenty of rooms in the place – after all it was a converted dancehall – and Shaun would find a space and sleep with whoever was with him.
That was what I mean about the firsts. I had never seen anything like that before, and to begin with it was like someone screeching chalk on a black board to my nervous system. But one gets used to things, and Shaun told us our place was his spiritual home. He never rang to ask if he could come, he would just turn up. Gradually it would be without a woman. But he needed women like some people need a drink. He had the knack though of finding one wherever he was. So he would go out for a coffee and come back with a woman’s phone number.”