Nuts
Harper died in June 2004. In April of that year he sat
with Sylvia Ross and together they produced the following.
It wasn't meant as an interview, just two friends talking.
Sylvia taped most of the conversation and the core of
it has been copied below. At the time Harry was still
on the 'missing list' this probably helped Nuts to speaker
more freely
Nuts would have wanted
this in the page it was his favorite song
Nuts:
I guess you're looking for some final answers
Sylvia: It would give me some peace if
I knew more of the story, Harry was closed mouthed, it
was like pulling teeth to get him to say anything.
Nuts: He wasn't always that way - that
came later when everything had gone wrong and fallen to
bits. To start with he was your normal chatty pom.
Sylvia: What do you think happened?
Nuts: There's no mystery about it, as
usual it was a woman and I think that even though he
was outwardly the right man for the job, inside, every
day killed him a bit. But mainly it was the woman.
Sylvia: Red
Nuts: Yes, 'Red'. To this day I'm not
sure if she was an angel or a demon from hell itself.
Sylvia: Did they really love each other
or was it just a physical thing; I believe she was very
good looking?
Nuts: She wasn't beautiful as most mean
it; she was 'stunning' that's the word and to say that
they loved each other would be like saying that boiling
water is slightly warm. They were beyond what we think
of as love, they had something much deeper and unique
and I think that's what eventually destroyed them - what
they had wasn't for mortals, it was far too powerful and
destructive.
Sylvia: Yes, it didn't end well.
Nuts: Don't be stupid woman, (sorry)
it hasn't ended, it never b;oody will. Nobody knows if
either of them is alive or dead, that doesn't matter.
They may have been torn apart, they might have died, they
might be alive on separate sides of the planet, but I
do know that whatever, they will still be lovers.
Sylvia: It was that strong?
Nuts: It was that strong.
Sylvia: Nuts, who really were the Ducks?
Nuts: Now there's a question, who were
the Ducks? The short answer is 'I don't know'. I led the
Ducks for a few years then Harry took over and I think
that if you asked him the same questen he would give the
same answer. I think that, perhaps, we were an experiment;
somebody wanted to test the waters with a sort of marine
police force that wasn't bound by any rules.
Sylvia: Mercenaries?
Nuts: If you like, OK mercenaries. But
I think they wanted people that had a sense of justice
and reason. It would be easy to put a band of thugs together
arm them to the teeth and send them to sea but that wouldn't
have done any good, probably just made things worse. They
wanted good people to do a bad job and I think they searched
long and hard to find the right people.
Sylvia: And did they?
Nuts: I guess they did, their little
experiment worked for close to 30 years made some people
rich and killed others Do you realise that when I go
there will only be three Ducks left out of the whole crew
and if Harry has died it will only be two left - what
a terrible legacy?
Sylvia: Perhaps the book will be a better
legacy, something for people to read and know they existed
and what they did.
Nuts: That's all very well but it will
have to go out as fiction or you'll have every police
force on the planet after you, so people won't really
know will they? And i don't think many will read the book
the way they should, not with heart, not with understanding.
To most it will just be a little story to pass a wet afternoon
or a long flight.
Sylvia: Not yet Nuts but one day they
will
Nuts: You mean after we're all dead and
gone - well that's OK, it won't be long now.
Sylvia: Nuts, tell me, given the chance
would you do it all again?
Nuts: Everything except falling off the
roof and buggering my back - the rest, if it were with
the same men, I would do again.
........ .(At
this time Nuts faltered. He was in very poor health and
very weak)
Nuts: She got it right, I read the manuscript
and it's OK as far as it goes. But Red asked the real
question "Is the price never too high"? That's what the
whole thing, the book, our lives and deaths, Harry and
Red, Taff, Morbid, Pics, Cyclops everybody, is about,
the price. It was all so beautifully - terrible.
Sylvia: What do you think happened to
Harry?
Nuts: There's no mystery there. He's
gone to find Red. Inside he knows it's a futile thing
to do, but there's nothing else left for him - he knows
his time has come and gone. Now I must rest a while but
we will pick up the conversation at a later date
There was no 'later
date' within a seven weeks Nuts died. Officially the cause
of death was listed as pneumonia but
those in the know knew that it was just time for all the
Ducks to leave the stage. Their work was done.
