Part Four Chapter VII

VIIIt was a bright, balmy morning, and the computing lab at Winterdown Comprehensive became stuffy as lunch m approached, the dirty windows speckling the dusty monitors with distracting floating policy of light. Even though thither was no completes or Gaia hither to distract him, Andrew Price could non concentrate. He could think of nothing and what he had overhcapitulumd his parents discussing the forward tear downing.They had been talk of the town, quite seriously, ab push through moving to Reading, where Ruths sister and brother-in-law lived. With his ear turn towards the open kitchen door, Andrew had hovered in the tiny dark h alone and listened Simon, it appeared, had been offered a job, or the possibi lighty of a job, by the uncle whom Andrew and Paul marginally knew, because Simon dis standardized him so much.Its less money, Simon had express.You dont know that. He hasnt tell Bound to be. And itll be more(prenominal) expensive all round, living there.Ruth do a no ncommital noise. Scarcely daring to breathe in the hall, Andrew could tell, by the mere situation that his mother was not rushing to agree with Simon, that she pauperismed to go.Andrew found it unfeasible to animadvert his parents in any house but Hilltop House, or against any spikeletdrop but Pagford. He had taken it for granted that they would stick there for ever. He, Andrew, would leave one day for London, but Simon and Ruth would keep on rooted to the hillside like trees, until they died.He had crept back upstairs to his bedchamber and stared emerge of the window at the twinkling lights of Pagford, cupped in the deep black delve between the hills. He felt as though he had neer turn aroundn the view out front. Somewhere down there, Fats was smoking in his attic room, plausibly feeling for at porn on his computer. Gaia was there too, intent 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 deeply in common at last there was almost sorrow pleasure in the idea that, in leaving, he would share something with her. besides she had not caused her own displacement. With a squirming unease in his guts, he had picked up his mobile and texted Fats Si-Pie offered job in Reading. Might take it.Fats had still not responded, and Andrew had not seen him all morning, because they shared none 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 relate Fats posting most cubby on the council website.I think Tessa suspects, Fats had told Andrew nonchalantly. She keeps looking at me like she knows.Whatre you gonna say? Andrew had muttered, scared.He knew Fats desire for glory and credit, and he knew Fats passion for wielding the truth as a weapon, but he was not sure that his friend understood that his own pivotal role in the activities of the Ghost of Barry Fairbrother must never be revealed. It had never been easy to develop to Fats the reality of having Simon as a father, and, somehow, Fats was becoming more difficult to relieve things to.When his IT t separatelyer had passed by out of sight, Andrew looked up Reading on the internet. It was commodious compared with Pagford. It had an annual music festival. It was alone forty miles from London. He contemplated the train service. mayhap he would go up to the capital at weekends, the way he currently took the bus to Yarvil. But the whole thing seemed unreal Pagford was all he had ever known he still could not guess his family existing anywhere else.At lunchtime Andrew headed straight out of school, looking for Fats. He lit up a cigarette just out of sight of the grounds, and was delighted to hear, as he was slipping his lighter casually back into his pocket, a female voice that tell, Hey. Gaia and Sukhvinder caught up with him. whole right , he tell, blowing smoke away from Gaias beautiful face.The three of them had something these days that nonentity else had. Two weekends work at the cafe had created a fragile stick between them. They knew Howards stock phrases, and had endured Maureens prurient interest in all of their plate lives they had smirked together at her wrinkled knees in the too-short waitresss dress and had exchanged, like traders in a foreign land, small nuggets of in the flesh(predicate) information. Thus the girls knew that Andrews father had been ravaged Andrew and Sukhvinder knew that Gaia was working to save for a train ticket back to Hackney and he and Gaia knew that Sukhvinders mother hated her working for Howard Mollison.Wheres your Fat friend? she asked, as the three of them fell into step together.Dunno, said Andrew. Havent seen him.No loss, said Gaia. How many of those do you smoke a day?Dont count, said Andrew, elated by her interest. Dyou wish one?No, said Gaia. I dont like smoking.H e wondered instantly whether the dislike extended to kissing bulk who smoked. Niamh Fairbrother had not complained when he had stuck his tongue into her mouth at the school disco.Doesnt Marco smoke? asked Sukhvinder.No, hes unendingly in training, said Gaia.Andrew had father almost inured to the thought 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 thinking that the messages 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 dispirited.Oh, there he is, said Gaia.It was not the tolerant Marco who had bugger off into view, but Fats Wall, who was talking to Dane Tully outside the newsagents.Sukhvinder braked, bu t Gaia grabbed her pep pill arm.You can walk where you like, she said, tugging her gently onwards, her flecked green eyes tapering off as they approached the place where Fats and Dane were smoking.All right, Arf, called Fats, as the three of them came close.Fats, said Andrew. laborious to head off trouble, especially Fats bullying Sukhvinder in front of Gaia, he asked, Did you get my text?What text? said Fats. Oh yeah that thing virtually 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 going? 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 festivals 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 gather 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 glow with an almost ethereal light.Well, I got things to do, said Fats.Dane sniggered. Before Andrew could say anything or offer to survey him, he had loped away.Fats was sure that Andrew would be nonplussed and hurt by his quiet 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 few days. He had belatedly decided that questioning your own motives was inauthentic a refinement of his personal philosophy that had made it altogether easier to follow.As he headed into the Fields, Fats thought or so what had happened at ingleside the previous eve, when his mother had entered his bedroom for the first time since Cubby had punched him.(That message around 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 few days to scrape up 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 tone or expression.No, he repeated.Because very, very few mass 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 hit 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 mental 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 midriff Arf leaving for good.Im talking to you, Stuart I know what?All these posts Simon Price, Parminder, Dad these are all people you kno w. If youre behind all this Ive told you, Im not. youre causing untold damage. Serious, nasty damage, Stuart, to peoples lives.Fats was essay 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 discharge from bright light. They knew nothing about real life.He could see a house ahead that had a bald tyre lying on the grass in front of it. He had a strong doubt that that was Krystals, and when he saw the number, he knew he was right. He had never been here before. He would never have agreed to meet 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 t old him that the house would be vacant because her mother would be at Bellchapel Addiction Clinic, receiving her allotted amount of methadone. Fats walked up the garden path 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 sitting room and kitchen. The carpet was spunky and burnt in places, and the wallpaper stained, but she could do nothing about that. There had been none of the pine-scented disinfectant left, but she had found some decolour and sloshed that around the kitchen and bathroom, some(prenominal) 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. ar 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 they went, the worse the smell became mingled bleach and filth. Fats time-tested 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 covered with a sheet and a bare duvet, and a small pile of fit out heaped up in a corner. 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 h ospitable. She had gaunt 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 self-asserting 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 harden 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, taking off his blazer. I comprehend theyre thinking about it.I dunno, said Krystal, but she was frightened. Her mothers willpower, fragile and undefended 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 curling 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 knock over seemed to be both challenging and reproaching him. In quick 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 memory that the watch had been Cubbys gift to make him hand it back to her and carry on taking off his clothes. Scarlet in the face, Krystal tugged off bra and shorts and slipped, naked, beneath the duvet.Fats approached her in his boxer shorts, a wrapped base hit in his hand.We don need that, said Krystal thickly. Im takin the pill now.Are you?She moved over on the ma ttress 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 square out of his hand and threw it on top of his blazer, crumpled on the floor.He imagined Krystal pregnant with his pincer 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.