here<\/a>. — Editor’s Note]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cGonby! So wery glad you could come! Is your friend looking for anything in particular\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I shook my head. \nWhile Carnaby Street had undoubtedly got tackier, Szabo\u2019s shop had\nsimply got dustier. \u201cI think Dicky\u2019s cape phase has passed,\nPetru.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThen you are here\nbecause of my telegram. Please: follow me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Szabo led us into\nthe back room, a windowless, candle-lit space with a heavy walnut\ntable in the middle. On it was a messy but deliberate arrangement of\nmaps, charts, lunar calendars, handwritten letters and horoscopes. \nMosca served whisky from a crystal decanter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think the word\nyou used was\u2026 lycon, lickan, ly…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLycanthropy,\nGonby. When a man can change his form into that of a wolf. A wery\ndangerous condition. Mosca. Go and check the skies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mosca scurried out past the counter. Nobby Clarke asked, \u201cWhat exactly is gooin\u2019 on, Mr Szabo, and how does it involve us?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Szabo removed cigars from his tailcoat and offered us each one, which we all politely refused, preferring my Woodbines. Having lit his perfecto, the Transylvanian gave a quizzical look to the returning Mosca, who shook his head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is cloud,\nmaster,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThank you, kind\nfriend. \u2018Tis a pity you weren\u2019t here earlier, gentlemen. The\nnight is not our ally. We ought to be leawing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAre you coming to\nthe match?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMatch? It is a\nhardly a match. Not a fair one, any way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhaddaya mean?\u201d\nsaid Dicky, petulantly, \u201cWe done \u2018em 3-1 back in August. At\nHighbury.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGentlemen, ewery year dere wis a gaddering, a wild conwention of dee wolfmen…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Arsenal Stadium would provide dem with de flesh dey desire…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWerewolves?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI know. Hawing studied my charts, their prewious appearances and some of the more cryptic behawiour of dem, I am fully conwinced that this years wabid carnage will take place in N5.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhere\u2019s that?\u201d\nasked Nobby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHighbury. Your\ndestination tonight, I believe?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou mean\n\u2018Highbury\u2019 the area, or \u2018Highbury\u2019 the ground\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDe wolfmen like green spaces. Dey may choose Highbury Fields. But Arsenal Stadium would provide dem with de flesh dey desire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFlesh? Human\nflesh?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDey are wolfmen,\nafter all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWerewolves?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes, I know. But\ndis is different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u25a1 \u25a1 \u25a1 \u25a1 \u25a1<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We took Szabo\u2019s\nlandau to the ground, despite the rush hour. The traffic on Upper\nStreet was appalling, and by the time we neared Highbury Fields the\nafter-work traffic had bled into football traffic. We entered the\nClock End around 7.15, Mosca staying behind to tend the horses. \nSzabo surveyed the scene agitatedly, his eyes flitting between sky\nand stands. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first half was enjoyable enough, and we got to see King John\u2019s opener and Charlie George\u2019s equalizer in relative peace. Dicky Toolan fell in love with the girl at the snack bar. Nothing out of the ordinary at all. The problems began at half time. Just as an American marching band was taking to the field to entertain the public, the clouds above the open terrace parted and between them shone a huge and perfectly round moon. I heard a spine-chilling howl, and watched as one by one, the parkas, polo-necks, bell-bottomed corduroys and sheepskin overcoats of the assembled Londoners began tearing, to reveal black fur and powerful hind quarters. After terrified gasps, the crowd began to warn each other, or anybody who could listen and might be able to help them, what they were seeing. \u201cWerewolves! Werewolves! Werewolves!\u201d they cried, as the wolfmen began tearing into the clothes and flesh of their victims. \u201cWerewolves! Werewolves! Werewolves!\u201d The marching band was playing \u201cStars and Stripes Forever\u201d and gradually the cries of the crowd and the melody of the band combined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We-re-wolves, we-re-wolves, we-re-wolves<\/em>,
We-re-wolves, we-re-wolves, we-re-wo-olves...<\/em><\/pre>\n\n\n\n\u201cI know! I know!\u201d shouted Szabo back at them, agitatedly, and as the line of wolfmen spread from the paddock of the West Stand we made a break for it and headed for the exit on Highbury Hill, our trousers flapping as we ran. Before we could make it out, however, a wave of wolfmen started emerging from the East Stand terracing, flailing at the humans with their long, bent claws and snarling with sharp teeth. We retreated hastily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back in the middle of the Clock End, away from both fronts, Szabo produced some blue flowers from his tailcoat jacket and passed them to me. \u201cIf they get too near,\u201d he said, \u201ctry to force this on them,\u201d then, responding to mycuriosity, he added, \u201cThis kills dem. And pretty much ewerything else. Be wery careful…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The band had disappeared and the teams were back on view. Supernatural carnage continued on the terracing. But when the referee blew his whistle, all the werewolves suddenly stopped their feeding frenzies and maiming binges and cocked their ears. And they remained well-behaved for the rest of the match, even after the Doog had put us back in the lead. The whistle-happy referee had much to do with this, as did the crowd who expressed their disapproval at the whistle-happy ref by whistling. St John\u2019s Ambulance began clearing away the dismembered limbs and fleshless carcasses, unmolested by the perpetrators of the gruesome acts, who sat stock still on the terraces, but for the occasional happy wag of the tail; survivors went to the snack bars for a reviving cup of tea, and we had to settle for a two-two draw after John McAlle managed to find his own net late on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back in the landau,\nas Mosca drove us to Euston, I asked Szabo what he thought of the\nmatch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cInteresting. I\nwouldn\u2019t mind seeing another one someday. Hopefully next time it\nwon\u2019t be marred by wolfmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWerewolves,\u201d I\nsaid, lighting up a Woodbine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIndeed we are,\nGonby,\u201d replied Szabo, \u201cIndeed we are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Facial hair abounded in 1973. But what I saw that day in the Clock End simply wasn’t human…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gonbys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}