Part Five Chapter I

Privilege7.32 A person who has do a defamatory statement may claim privilege for it if he earth-closet show that he made it with start malice and in fol mooers of a public duty.Charles Arnold-BakerLocal Council Administration,S neverthelessth EditionITerri Weedon was use to people leaving her. The first and greatest departure had been her mothers, who had never order goodbye, and had simply walked go forth one day with a purse spell Terri was at school day.There had been lots of social workers and care workers later she ran a course at fourteen, and some of them had been nice enough, besides they every go away at the end of the working day. Every fresh departure added a fine new layer to the crust building over her core.She had had friends in care, but at sixteen they were all on their own, and life had disordered them. She met Ritchie Adams, and she bore him two children. Tiny teensy-weensy pink things, pure and elegant the like zipper in the whole world and the y had come out of her, and for shining hours in the hospital, twice, it had been like her own rebirth.And then they took the children from her, and she never power axiom them again, either.Banger had left her. Nana Cath had left her. Nearly everybody went, hardly anyone stayed. She ought to be utilize to it by now.When Mattie, her regular social worker, reappeared, Terri demanded, Wheres the other one?Kay? She was only showing for me firearm I was ill, give tongue to Mattie. So, wheres Liam? No I mean Robbie, dont I?Terri did not like Mattie. For one thing, she did not hurl kids, and how could people who didnt have kids tell you how to raise them, how could they understand? She had not liked Kay, exactly, either extract that Kay gave you a funny feeling, the same feeling that Nana Cath had once given Terri, in the first place she had called her a whore and told her she never wanted to see her again you felt, with Kay take down though she carried folders, like the rest of them, even though she had instituted the case reexamination you felt that she wanted things to go right for you, and not only for the forms. You in truth did feel that. But she was gone, and she probably dont even think roughly us now, thought Terri furiously.On Friday afternoon, Mattie told Terri that Bellchapel would almost certainly close.Its political, she utter briskly. They want to free money, but methathrough treatments unpopular with the District Council. Plus, Pagford wants them out of the building. It was all in the local paper, maybe you saw it?Sometimes she spoke to Terri like that, veering into a kind of after-all-were-in-this-to requireher small-talk that jarred, because it sat alongside enquiries as to whether Terri was remembering to menstruate her son. But this time it was what she said, rather than how she said it, that upset Terri.Theyre closin it? she repeated.It looks that way, said Mattie breezily, but it wont make any difference to you. Well, obvio usly Three times Terri had embarked upon the political program at Bellchapel. The dusty interior of the converted church with its partition walls and its flyers, the pot with its neon-blue light (so you could not find veins and shoot up in there), had go bad familiar and almost friendly. Lately, she had begun to sense in the workers there a heighten in the way they spoke to her. They had all expected her to fail again, in the beginning, but they had started talking to her the way Kay had talked as if they knew a real person lived inside her pock chase aftered, burned body. obviously, it will be different, but you can get your methadone from your GP instead, said Mattie. She flipped over pages in the distended file that was the states drop cancelled of Terris life. Youre registered with Dr Jawanda in Pagford, right? Pagford why are you going all the way out there?I smacked a nurse at Cantermill, said Terri, almost absent-mindedly.After Mattie had left, Terri sat for a long ti me in her filthy chair in the sitting room, gnawing at her nails until they bled.The moment Krystal came home, convey Robbie back from nursery, she told her that they were closing Bellchapel.They aint decided yet, said Krystal with authority.The fuck do you whop? demanded Terri. Theyre closin it, and now they say Ive gotta go to fuckin Pagford to that bitch that killed Nana Cath. Well, I fuckin aint.You gotta, said Krystal.Krystal had been like this for days bossing her mother, acting as though she, Krystal, was the grown-up.I ain gotta do fuckin anythin, said Terri furiously. Cheeky lilliputian bitch, she added, for good measure.If you start fuckin usin again, said Krystal, scarlet in the face, theyll take Robbie away.He was still holding Krystals hand, and burst into tears.See? twain women shouted at each other.Youre fuckin doin it to him shouted Krystal. An anyway, that doctor didn do nuthin to Nana Cath, thats all jus Cheryl an them talking shitFuckin little know-it-all, ain t yeh? yelled Terri. You know fuck-all Krystal spat at her.Get the fuck out screamed Terri, and because Krystal was bigger and heavier she seized a shoe lie on the floor and brandished it. GerroutI fuckin will yelled Krystal. An Ill take Robbie an all, an you can stay here an fuckin screw Obbo an make another oneShe dragged the holler Robbie out with her before Terri could stop her.Krystal marched him all the way to her usual refuge, forgetting that at this time in the afternoon, Nikki would still be hanging around away somewhere, not at home. It was Nikkis mum who opened the door, in her Asda uniform.He ain stayin ere, she told Krystal firmly, while Robbie whined and tried to pull his hand from Krystals tight grip. Wheres your mum?Home, said Krystal, and everything else she wanted to say evaporated in the older womans stern gaze.So she re false to Foley Road with Robbie, where Terri, piercingly triumphant, grabbed her sons arm, pulled him inside and blocked Krystal from enteri ng.Ad enough of him already, ave yeh? Terri jeered, over Robbies wails. Fuck off.And she slammed the door.Terri had Robbie stay beside her on her own mattress that night. She lay awake and thought about how little she needed Krystal, and ached for her as badly as she had ever craved smack.Krystal had been hot under the collar(predicate) for days. The thing that Krystal had said about Obbo (She said what? he had laughed, incredulously, when they had met in the street, and Terri had muttered something about Krystal being upset.) he wouldnt have done it. He couldnt have.Obbo was one of the a couple of(prenominal) people who had hung around. Terri had known him since she was fifteen. They had gone to school together, hung out in Yarvil while she was in care, swigged cider together beneath the trees on the footpath that track its way through the small patch of remaining farmland beside the Fields. They had shared out their first joint.Krystal had never liked him. Jealous, thought Te rri, watching Robbie sleep in the street light pouring through the thin curtains. Just jealous. Hes done more for me than anyone, thought Terri defiantly, because when she tallied kindnesses she subtracted abandonment. Thus all of Nana Caths care had been annihilated by her rejection.But Obbo had hidden her, once, from Ritchie, the father of her first two children, when she had fled the house barefooted and bleeding. Sometimes he gave her free bags of smack. She saw them as equivalent kindnesses. His refuges were more reliable than the little house in go for Street that she had once, for trey glorious days, thought was home.Krystal did not return on Saturday morning, but that was nothing new Terri knew she must be at Nikkis. In a rage, because they were low on food, and she was out of cigarettes, and Robbie was whining for his sister, she stormed into her daughters room and kicked her habilitate around, searching for money or the odd, overlooked fag. Something clattered as she threw aside Krystals crumpled old rowing kit, and she saw the little plastic jewellery box, upended, with the rowing medal that Krystal had won, and Tessa Walls watch fraud beneath it.Terri picked up the watch and stared at it. She had never seen it before. She wondered where Krystal had got it. Her first presumption was that Krystal had stolen it, but then she wondered whether she might have been given it by Nana Cath, or even left it in Nana Caths will. That was a much more distressing thought than the idea of the watch being stolen. The idea of the sneaky little bitch hiding it away, treasuring it, never mentioning it Terri put the watch inside the firing of her tracksuit bottoms and bellowed for Robbie to come with her to the shops. It took ages to get him into his shoes, and Terri lost her temper and slapped him. She wished she could go to the shop alone, but the social workers did not like you leaving kids behind in the house, even though you could get things done much qui cker without them.Wheres Krystal? wailed Robbie, as she manhandled him out of the door. I wan KrystalI dunno where the little tart is, snapped Terri, dragging him along the road.Obbo was on the corner beside the supermarket, talking to two men. When he saw her he embossed a hand in greeting, and his two companions walked away.Ows Ter? he said.Nbad, she lied. Robbie, leggo.He was excavation his fingers so tightly into her thin leg that it hurt.Listen, said Obbo, couldja reserve a bit more blank out for me fer a bit?Kinda stuff? asked Terri, prising Robbie off her leg and holding his hand instead.Coupla bags o stuff, said Obbo. Really service of process me out, Ter.Ow long for?Few days. hold it round this evenin. Will yeh?Terri thought of Krystal, and what she would say if she knew.Yeah, go on then, said Terri.She remembered something else, and pulled Tessas watch out of her pocket. Gonna sell this, whaddaya auspicate?Not bad, said Obbo, weighing it in his hand. Ill give yeh tw enty for it. Bring it over tonight?Terri had thought the watch might be deserving more, but she did not like to challenge him.Yeah, all righ then.She took a fewer steps towards the supermarket entrance, hand in hand with Robbie, but then turned abruptly.I ain usin though, she said. So don bring Still on the mixture? he said, grinning at her through his thick glasses. Bellchapels done for, mind. All in the paper.Yeah, she said miserably, and she tugged Robbie towards the entrance of the supermarket. I know.I aint going to Pagford, she thought, as she picked biscuits off the shelf. I aint going there.She was almost inured to constant criticism and assessment, to the sideways glance of passers-by, to abuse from the neighbours, but she was not going to go all the way to that smug little town to get double helpings to prompt back in time, once a week, to the place where Nana Cath had said she would keep her, but let her go. She would have to pass that pretty little school that had se nt horrible letters home about Krystal, saying that her clothes were too small and too dirty, that her behaviour was unacceptable. She was afraid of long-forgotten relatives emerging from Hope Street, as they squabbled over Nana Caths house, and of what Cheryl would say, if she knew that Terri had entered into voluntary dealings with the Paki bitch who had killed Nana Cath. Another mark against her, in the family that despised her.They aint making me go to fuckin Pagford, Terri muttered aloud, pulling Robbie towards the checkout.