Part Four Chapter VII

septetteIt was a bright, balmy morning, and the computing lab at Winter follow up Comprehensive became stuffy as lunchtime approached, the smutty windows speckling the dusty monitors with derangeing spots of light. Even though on that point was no Fats or atomic number 32 present to distract him, Andrew Price could non concentrate. He could think of cipher save what he had overheard his pargonnts discussing the previous pull d admiting.They had been talking, quite seriously, ab prohibited(predicate) moving to Reading, where condolences sister and br early(a)-in-law lived. With his ear move towards the devote kitchen door, Andrew had hovered in the tiny dark h entirely(a) and listened Simon, it appeared, had been proposeed a job, or the possibi light upy of a job, by the uncle whom Andrew and bang-up of Minnesota barely knew, because Simon dis ilkd him so much.Its little money, Simon had say.You dont last that. He hasnt give tongue to Bound to be. And itll be to a greater extent(prenominal) expensive any round, living at that place.Ruth do a noncommital noise. Scarcely daring to breathe in the hall, Andrew could tell, by the mere fact that his begin was non rushing to agree with Simon, that she cute to go.Andrew found it impracticable to imagine his parents in any support barely Hill nobble House, or against any adventuredrop hardly Pagford. He had taken it for granted that they would remain at that place for ever. He, Andrew, would leave one day for London, save Simon and Ruth would remain rooted to the hillside bid trees, until they died.He had crept stern upstairs to his chamber and stared out of the window at the twinkling lights of Pagford, cupped in the deep black cakehole amidst the hills. He felt as though he had never seen the view before. Somewhere d suffer there, Fats was smoking in his attic room, probably expression at porn on his computer. Gaia was there too, absorbed in the mysterious rites of her gender . It occurred to Andrew that she had been through this she had been torn away from the place she knew and transplanted. They had something profoundly in popular at last there was almost somber pleasure in the idea that, in leaving, he would share something with her. notwithstanding she had not caused her own displacement. With a squirming unease in his guts, he had picked up his rambling and texted Fats Si-Pie takeered job in Reading. Might take it.Fats had comfort not responded, and Andrew had not seen him all morning, because they shared no(prenominal) of their classes. He had not seen Fats for the previous two weekends either, because he had been working at the Copper Kettle. Their longest conversation, recently, had touch Fats posting just rough snug on the council website.I think Tessa suspects, Fats had told Andrew coolly. She spares looking at me like she receives.Whatre you gonna enunciate? Andrew had muttered, scared.He knew Fats desire for glory and credit, a nd he knew Fats craze for wielding the truth as a weapon, but he was not sure that his suspensor understood that his own pivotal role in the activities of the Ghost of Barry Fairbrother essential never be revealed. It had never been easy to formulate to Fats the reality of having Simon as a father, and, somehow, Fats was becoming to a greater extent difficult to explain things to.When his IT teacher had passed by out of sight, Andrew looked up Reading on the internet. It was huge compared with Pagford. It had an yearly music festival. It was totally forty miles from London. He contemplated the lead service. Perhaps he would go up to the capital at weekends, the way he currently took the cumulation to Yarvil. But the whole thing seemed unreal Pagford was all he had ever whapn he smooth could not imagine his family existing anywhere else.At lunchtime Andrew breaker pointed straight out of school, looking for Fats. He lit up a cigarette bonny out of sight of the grounds, and was delighted to hear, as he was slipping his lighter casually patronise into his pocket, a female voice that express, Hey. Gaia and Sukhvinder caught up with him. whole right, he said, blowing dumbbell away from Gaias beautiful face.The troika of them had something these days that nobody else had. Two weekends work at the cafe had created a fragile bond between them. They knew Howards stock phrases, and had endured Maureens prurient interest in all of their home lives they had smirked together at her wrinkled knees in the too-short waitresss dress and had exc returned, like traders in a unlike land, small nuggets of personal information. Thus the girls knew that Andrews father had been pillaged Andrew and Sukhvinder knew that Gaia was working to save for a grow ticket back to Hackney and he and Gaia knew that Sukhvinders start out hated her working for Howard Mollison.Wheres your Fat friend? she readed, as the three of them fell into step together.Dunno, said Andrew. Hav ent seen him.No loss, said Gaia. How many of those do you smoke a day?Dont count, said Andrew, elated by her interest. Dyou want one?No, said Gaia. I dont like smoking.He wondered instantly whether the dislike extended to kissing peck who smoked. Niamh Fairbrother had not complained when he had stuck his tongue into her intercommunicate at the school disco.Doesnt Marco smoke? asked Sukhvinder.No, hes always in training, said Gaia.Andrew had induce almost inured to the persuasion of Marco de Luca by now. There were advantages to Gaia being safeguarded, as it were, by an allegiance beyond Pagford. The power of the photographs of them together on her Facebook page had been blunted by his familiarity with them. He did not think it was his own wishful mentation that the subjects she and Marco left for each other were becoming less frequent and less friendly. He could not know what was happening by telephone or email, but he was sure that Gaias air, when he was mentioned, was dispi rited.Oh, there he is, said Gaia.It was not the softwoodsome Marco who had bob up into view, but Fats Wall, who was talking to Dane Tully outside the newsagents.Sukhvinder braked, but Gaia grabbed her swiftness arm.You can walk where you like, she said, tugging her gently onwards, her flecked discolour eyes narrowing as they approached the place where Fats and Dane were smoking. tout ensemble right, Arf, called Fats, as the three of them came close.Fats, said Andrew.Trying to head gain trouble, especially Fats bul falsehood Sukhvinder in drive of Gaia, he asked, Did you get my text?What text? said Fats. Oh yeah that thing about Si? You leaving, then, are you?It was said with a cavalier indifference that Andrew could only attribute to the presence of Dane Tully.Yeah, maybe, said Andrew.Where are you dismissal? asked Gaia.My old mans been offered a job in Reading, said Andrew.Oh, thats where my dad lives said Gaia in surprise. We could hang out when I go and stay. The festival s awesome. Dyou wanna get a sandwich, then, Sooks?Andrew was so stupefied by her voluntary offer to spend time with him, that she had disappeared into the newsagents before he could cope with his wits and agree. For a moment, the dirty bus stop, the newsagents, even Dane Tully, tattooed and shabby in a T-shirt and tracksuit bottoms, seemed to burn off with an almost celestial light.Well, I got things to do, said Fats.Dane sniggered. onward Andrew could say anything or offer to accompany him, he had loped away.Fats was sure that Andrew would be nonplussed and hurt by his cool attitude, and he was glad of it. Fats did not ask himself why he was glad, or why a general desire to cause pain had become his overriding emotion in the last a couple of(prenominal) days. He had lately decided that questioning your own motives was in legitimate a refinement of his personal doctrine that had tell on it altogether easier to follow.As he headed into the Fields, Fats image about what had hap pened at home the previous evening, when his mother had entered his bedroom for the first time since Cubby had punched him.(That message about your father on the Parish Council website, she had said. Ive got to ask you this, Stuart, and I wish Stuart, did you write it?It had taken her a a couple of(prenominal) days to summon the courage to accuse him, and he was prepared.No, he said.Perhaps it would have been more authentic to say yes, but he had preferred not to, and he did not see why he should have to justify himself.You didnt? she repeated, with no change of bill or expression.No, he repeated.Because very, very few people know what Dad what he worries about.Well, it wasnt me.The post went up the same evening that Dad and you had the row, and Dad cause Ive told you, I didnt do it.You know hes ill, Stuart.Yeah, so you keep telling me.I keep telling you because its true He cant help it hes got a serious kind illness that causes him untold distress and misery.Fats mobile had beeped, and he had glanced down at a text from Andrew. He read it and experienced an air punch to the diaphragm Arf leaving for good.Im talking to you, Stuart I know what? both these posts Simon Price, Parminder, Dad these are all people you know. If youre dirty dog all this Ive told you, Im not. youre causing untold damage. Serious, awful damage, Stuart, to peoples lives.Fats was difficult to imagine life without Andrew. They had known each other since they were four.Its not me, he had said.)Serious, awful damage to peoples lives.They had made their lives, Fats thought scornfully as he turned into Foley Road. The victims of the Ghost of Barry Fairbrother were mired in hypocrisy and lies, and they didnt like the exposure. They were stupid bugs running from bright light. They knew zero point about real life.He could see a preindication ahead that had a bald tyre evasiveness on the grass in front of it. He had a strong suspicion that that was Krystals, and when he axiom the number, he knew he was right. He had never been here before. He would never have agreed to run across her at her home during the lunch hour a couple of weeks ago, but things changed. He had changed.They said that her mother was a prostitute. She was certainly a junkie. Krystal had told him that the house would be empty because her mother would be at Bellchapel colony Clinic, receiving her allotted amount of methadone. Fats walked up the garden running without slowing, but with unexpected trepidation.Krystal had been on the watch for him, from her bedroom window. She had closed the doors of every room downstairs, so that all he would see was the hall she had thrown everything that had spilt into it back into the seated room and kitchen. The carpet was gritty and burned-over in places, and the bulwarkpaper stained, but she could do slide fastener about that. There had been none of the pine-scented disinfectant left, but she had found some bleach and sloshed that nearly the kitchen and bathroom, both of them sources of the worst smells in the house.When he knocked, she ran downstairs. They did not have long Terri would probably be back with Robbie at one. Not long to make a baby.Hiya, she said, when she opened the door.All right? said Fats, blowing out smoke through his nostrils.He did not know what he had expected. His first glimpse of the interior of the house was of a grimy bare box. There was no furniture. The closed doors to his left and ahead were strangely ominous. be we the only ones here? he asked as he crossed the threshold.Yeah, said Krystal. We cn go upstairs. My room.She led the way. The deeper inside(a) they went, the worse the smell became mingled bleach and filth. Fats tried not to care. All doors were closed on the landing, except one. Krystal went inside.Fats did not want to be shocked, but there was nothing in the room except a mattress, which was cover with a sheet and a bare duvet, and a small pile of clothes heaped up in a corne r. A few pictures ripped from tabloid newspapers were sellotaped to the wall a mixture of pop stars and celebrities.Krystal had made her collage the previous day, in imitation of the one on Nikkis bedroom wall. Knowing that Fats was coming over, she had wanted to make the room more hospitable. She had drawn the thin curtains. They gave a blueish tinge to daylight.Gimme a fag, she said. Im gasping.He lit it for her. She was more nervous than he had ever seen her he preferred her cocky and worldly.We ain got long, she told him, and with the cigarette in her mouth, she began to strip. Me mumll be back.Yeah, at Bellchapel, isnt she? said Fats, somehow trying to season Krystal up again in his mind.Yeah, said Krystal, sitting on the mattress and pulling off her tracksuit bottoms.What if they close it? asked Fats, victorious off his blazer. I heard theyre thinking about it.I dunno, said Krystal, but she was frightened. Her mothers willpower, fragile and unprotected as a fledgling chick, could fail at the slightest provocation.She had already stripped to her underwear. Fats was taking off his shoes when he noticed something nestled beside her heaped clothes a small plastic jewellery box lying open, and curled inside, a familiar watch.Is that my mums? he said, in surprise.What? Krystal panicked. No, she lied. It was my Nana Caths. Dont But he had already pulled it out of the box.It is hers, he said. He recognized the strap.It fuckin aintShe was terrified. She had almost forgotten that she had stolen it, where it had come from. Fats was silent, and she did not like it.The watch in Fats hand seemed to be both challenging and reproaching him. In straightaway succession he imagined walking out, slipping it casually into his pocket, or handing it back to Krystal with a shrug.Its mine, she said.He did not want to be a policeman. He wanted to be lawless. But it took the recollection that the watch had been Cubbys bribe to make him hand it back to her and carry on takin g off his clothes. Scarlet in the face, Krystal tugged off bra and pants and slipped, naked, beneath the duvet.Fats approached her in his pugilist shorts, a wrapped preventative in his hand.We don necessitate that, said Krystal thickly. Im takin the pill now.Are you?She moved over on the mattress for him. Fats slid under the duvet. As he pulled off his boxers, he wondered whether she was lying about the pill, like the watch. But he had wanted to try without a condom for a while.Go on, she whispered, and she tugged the little foil agora out of his hand and threw it on top of his blazer, collapse on the floor.He imagined Krystal pregnant with his child the faces of Tessa and Cubby when they heard. His kid in the Fields, his flesh and blood. It would be more than Cubby had ever managed.He climbed on top of her this, he knew, was real life.