The Casual Vacancy

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-we’re-in-this-together small-talk that jarred, because it sat alongside enquiries as to whether Terri was remembering to feed her son. But this time it was what she said, rather than how she said it, that upset Terri.
    ‘They’re closin’ it?’ she repeated.
    ‘It looks that way,’ said Mattie breezily, ‘but it won’t make any difference to you. Well, obviously …’
    Three times Terri had embarked upon the programme at Bellchapel. The dusty interior of the converted church with its partition walls and its flyers, the bathroom with its neon-blue light (so you could not find veins and shoot up in there), had become familiar and almost friendly. Lately, she had begun to sense in the workers there a change 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 pockmarked, 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 state’s record of Terri’s life. ‘You’re 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 time in her filthy chair in the sitting room, gnawing at her nails until they bled.
    The moment Krystal came home, bringing Robbie back from nursery, she told her that they were closing Bellchapel.
    ‘They ain’t decided yet,’ said Krystal with authority.
    ‘The fuck do you know?’ demanded Terri. ‘They’re closin’ it, and now they say I’ve gotta go to fuckin’ Pagford to that bitch that killed Nana Cath. Well, I fuckin’ ain’t.’
    ‘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 little bitch,’ she added, for good measure.
    ‘If you start fuckin’ usin’ again,’ said Krystal, scarlet in the face, ‘they’ll take Robbie away.’
    He was still holding Krystal’s hand, and burst into tears.
    ‘See?’ both women shouted at each other.
    ‘You’re fuckin’ doin’ it to him!’ shouted Krystal. ‘An’ anyway, that doctor didn’ do nuthin’ to Nana Cath, that’s all jus’ Cheryl an’ them talking shit!’
    ‘Fuckin’ 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 lying on the floor and brandished it. ‘Gerrout!’
    ‘I fuckin’ will!’ yelled Krystal. ‘An’ I’ll take Robbie an’ all, an’ you can stay here an’ fuckin’ screw Obbo an’ make another one!’
    She dragged the wailing 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 outside somewhere, not at home. It was Nikki’s mum who opened the door, in her Asda uniform.
    ‘He ain’ stayin’ ’ere,’ she told Krystal firmly, while Robbie whinedand tried to pull his hand from Krystal’s tight grip. ‘Where’s your mum?’
    ‘Home,’ said Krystal, and everything else she wanted to say evaporated in the older woman’s stern gaze.
    So she returned to Foley Road with Robbie, where Terri, bitterly triumphant, grabbed her son’s arm, pulled him inside and blocked Krystal from entering.
    ‘’Ad enough of him already, ’ave yeh?’ Terri jeered, over Robbie’s wails. ‘Fuck off.’
    And she slammed the door.
    Terri had Robbie sleep 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 angry 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 wouldn’t have done it. He couldn’t have.
    Obbo was one of the few people who had