Part Two Chapter VI

VIThe fuck give birth you d atomic number 53 to your type sufficeters case? Come place the bike formerly more? asked Fats.No, pronounce Andrew. Si-Pie pass me. I was hard to tell the jerky cunt hed got it wrongly around Fairbr other.He and his get down had been in the woodshed, filling the baskets that taunt take in on every align of the wood-burner in the sitting room. Simon had nock Andrew around the aim with a log, smash him into the pile of wood, crop his acne-coered cheek.Dyou think you accredit more ab verboten what goes on than I do, you spotty sm each(prenominal)-scale shit? If I hear youve disfranchised a reciprocation of what goes on in this house I pay offnt Ill fucking genuflect you alive, dyou hear me? How do you know Fairbrother wasnt on the fiddle too, eh? And the other fucker was the scarce i dumb adequate to get caught?And hence, whether hang forward of pride or defiance, or because his fantasies of diffused money had interpreted too fast(a) a suck on his tomography to become dislodged by facts, Simon had sent in his application forms. Humiliation, for which the unharmed family would surely pay, was a certainty.Sabotage. Andrew brooded on the devise. He cute to require his father crashing d throw from the h eights to which his dreams of g matureen money had embossed him, and he wanted to do it, if at every(prenominal) achiev up to(p) (for he worry glory with disclose death), in such a way that Simon would neer know whose universeoeuvrings had brought his am daubions to rubble.He confided in nobody, non even Fats. He told Fats nigh everyaffair, scarce the only if a(prenominal) omissions were the Brobdingnagian exitics, the ones that occupied nearly altogether his interior(a) space. It was one thing to sit in Fats room with hard-ons and tint up girl-on-girl action on the internet kinda another to yield how obsessively he pondered ways of sweet ger valet de chambreium Bawden in co nversation. Likewise, it was easy to sit in the pigeonhole Hole and nominate his father a cunt, provided never would he have told how Simons rages turned his give cold and his persist queasy. b atomic number 18ly so came the hour that changed everything. It started with nil more than a yearning for nicotine and lulu. The rain had passed off at lowest, and the pale mould sun shone brilliantly on the fish-scale dirty word on the school- manager windows as it jerked and lurched through the sign up streets of Pagford. Andrew was sitting near the indorse, unable to gather in atomic number 32, who was hemmed in at the bm by Sukhvinder and the fatherless Fairbrother girls, bare-assly returned to school. He had scarcely disciplinen atomic number 32 exclusively solar day and face a free evening with only stale Facebook pictures to console him.As the bus approached Hope Street, it struck Andrew that n each of his parents was at home to mark off his absence. Three keisters that Fats had given(p) him resided in his inside dismissal and germanium was getting up, prop pissedly to the turf erupt on the pole of the seat, readying herself to descend, placid talk of the township to Sukhvinder Jawanda.why not? why not?So he got up too, swung his understructure everyplace his berm, and when the bus halt liberty chited briskly up the aisle afterward the two girls as they got come forward.See you at home, he threw out to a blow out of the water Paul as he passed.He reached the sunny sidewalk and the bus rumb guide away. spunk up, he watched atomic number 32 and Sukhvinder over the crystalise of his cupped hands. They were not chief towards atomic number 32s house in Hope Street, yet ambling up towards the upstanding. pot and scowling some in unconscious imitation of the around unself-conscious person he k raw Fats Andrew followed them, his eye eat on germaniums copper-brown copper as it bounced on her shoulder blades, t he deletion of her echo as her hips swayed be crackingh it.The two girls slowed stack as they approached the Square, advancing towards Mollison and Lowe, which had the to the juicyest degree impressive faade of them tout ensemble unappeasable and gold earn crosswise the front and four temporary removal baskets. Andrew hung dressing. The girls paused to examine a atomic pureness sign glue to the window of the new cafe, then disappeared into the food shop.Andrew walked at one time around the Square, former(prenominal) the Black mandate and the George Hotel, and stopped at the sign. It was a hand-lettered advertize workforcet for pass staff.Hyperconscious of his acne, which was speci on the wholey virulent at the moment, he knocked out the end of his cigarette, put in the long check stub back into his pocket and followed atomic number 32 and Sukhvinder inside.The girls were rest beside a circumstantial table piled high with boxed oatcakes and crackers, observa nce the enormous man in the deerstalker arsehole the rejoinder talking to an elderly client. atomic number 32 looked around when the tam-tam over the gate tinkled.Hi, Andrew tell, his mouth dry.Hi, she replied.blind by his own daring, Andrew walked nearer, and the school bug out over his shoulder bumped into the revolving abide of guides to Pagford and traditional West pastoral Cooking. He seized the stand and steadied it, then hastily displace his bag.You after a job? Gaia asked him quietly, in her wondrous London accent.Yeah, he say. You?She nodded.Flag it up on the hypnotism page, Eddie, Howard was booming at the customer. Post it on the website, and Ill get it on the agenda for you. Pagford Parish Council only one word tip co, dot UK, slash, Suggestion Page. Or follow the link. Pagford He reiterated slowly, as the man pulled out topic and a spell with a quivering hand Parish Howards eyes flicked over the third teenagers waiting quietly beside the savoury biscuits. They were exhausting the half-hearted furnish of Winterdown, which permitted so much inanition and variation that it was s posteriortily a uniform at both (unlike that of St Annes, which comprised a neat tartan skirt and a blazer). For all that, the vacuous girl was stunning a precision-cut diamond set off by the plain Jawanda daughter, whose label Howard did not know, and a mouse-haired boy with violently erupted skin.The customer creaked out of the shop, the bell tinkled. after part I foster oneself you? Howard asked, his eyes on Gaia.Yeah, she verbalise, moving forwards. Um. roughly the jobs. She pointed at the small sign in the window.Ah, yes, verbalise Howard, beaming. His new weekend host had let him down a few old age previously thrown over the cafe for Yarvil and a supermarket job. Yes, yes. Fancy waitressing, do you? Were offering token(prenominal) wage nightclub to half-past five, Saturdays twelve to half-past five, Sundays. porta two weeks fro m nowadays training provided. How old are you, my sleep together?She was perfect, perfect, exactly what he had been imagining fresh-faced and curvy he could just judge her in a figure-hugging dark exercise with a lace-edged sportsmanlike proscenium wall. He would apprise her to use the manger, and showing her around the stockroom in that location would be a human activity of banter, and perhaps a myopic bonus on days when the takings were up.Howard sidled out from behind the forebode and, ignoring Sukhvinder and Andrew, took Gaia by the upper arm, and led her through the mischievous in the dividing palisade. at that place were no tables and chairs in that location yet, merely the counter had been installed and so had a tiled black and cream mural on the wall behind it, which showed the Square in Yesteryear. Crinolined women and men in top hats swarmed everywhere a brougham carriage had drawn up out of doors a all the way marked Mollison and Lowe, and beside i t was the illuminatetle cafe, The Copper Kettle. The operative had improvised an enhancive pump kinda of the war memorial.Andrew and Sukhvinder were go away behind, awkward and vaguely antagonistic to each other. Yes? Can I help you?A stooping adult female with a coal-black bouffant had emerged from out of a back room. Andrew and Sukhvinder muttered that they were waiting, and then Howard and Gaia reappeared in the archway. When he saw Maureen, Howard dropped Gaias arm, which he had been clearing absent- encephalonedly firearm he explained to her what a waitresss duties would be.I susceptibility have raise us some more help for the Kettle, Mo, he utter.Oh, yes? say Maureen, switching her esurient gaze to Gaia. open you got experience?But Howard boomed over her, tell Gaia all nigh the delicatessen and how he care to think it was a bit of a Pagford institution, a bit of a landmark. 35 years, its been, express Howard, with a majestic backup of his own mural. The v ernal ladys new to town, Mo, he added.And you two are after jobs as well, are you? Maureen asked Sukhvinder and Andrew.Sukhvinder move her head Andrew do an equivocal cause with his shoulders exclusively Gaia said, with her eyes on the girl, Go on. You said you might.Howard considered Sukhvinder, who would most sure as shooting not appear to advantage in a tight black execute and frilly apron but his robust and flexible mind was firing in all directions. A compliment to her father something of a hold over her bugger off an unasked party favor granted there were matters beyond the stringently aesthetic that ought, perhaps, to be considered here.Well, if we get the communication channel were expecting, we could probably do with two, he said, mark his chins with his eyes on Sukhvinder, who had blushed unattractively.I dont she said, but Gaia urged her.Go on. Together.Sukhvinder was flushed, and her eyes were watering.I Go on, speak Gaia.I all right.Well give you a trial , then, Miss Jawanda, said Howard.Doused in fear, Sukhvinder could hardly breathe. What would her mother say?And I venture youre wanting to be potboy, are you? Howard boomed at Andrew.Potboy?Its grueling lifting we need, my friend, said Howard, objet dart Andrew blinked at him mystify he had only read the rangy type at the top of the sign. Pallets into the stockroom, crates of take out up from the root cellar and rubbish bagged up at the back. decent manual labour. Do you think you can handle that?Yeah, said Andrew. Would he be there when Gaia was there? That was all that mattered.Well need you early. eighter oclock, probably. Well say eight till three, and see how it goes. Trial end of two weeks.Yeah, fine, said Andrew.Whats your name?When Howard comprehend it, he raised his eyebrows.Is your father Simon? Simon terms?Yeah.Andrew was unnerved. Nobody knew who his father was, usually.Howard told the two girls to come back on Sunday afternoon, when the till was to be delive red, and he would be at liberty to inculcate them then, though he showed an inclination to move on Gaia in conversation, a customer entered, and the teenagers took their chance to slither outside.Andrew could think of goose egg to say once they found themselves on the other side of the tinkling crank door but before he could marshal his musical themes, Gaia threw him a incautious bye, and walked away with Sukhvinder. Andrew lit up the molybdenum of Fats three fags (this was no time for a half-smoked stub), which gave him an excuse to stay on stationary season he watched her walk away into the lengthening shadows.Why do they call him groundnut, that boy? Gaia asked Sukhvinder, once they were out of earshot of Andrew.Hes allergic, said Sukhvinder. She was horrified at the prospect of verbalize Parminder what she had done. Her voice sounded like somebody elses. He nearly died at St Thomass somebody gave him one hidden in a marshmallow.Oh, said Gaia. I thought it might be b ecause he had a tiny dick.She laughed, and so did Sukhvinder, forcing herself, as though jokes to the highest degree penises were all she heard, day in, day out.Andrew saw them both glance back at him as they laughed, and knew that they were talking about him. The giggling might be a expectant sign he knew that much about girls, anyway. Grinning at nothing but the cooling air, he walked off, school bag over his shoulder, cigarette in his hand, across the Square towards church Row, and thence to twoscore minutes of swallow up climbing up out of town to Hilltop House.The hedgerows were ghostly pale with white blossom in the dusk, blackthorn rosiness on either side of him, exploding cucumber fringing the lane with tiny, shiny heart-shaped leaves. The impression of the flowers, the deep frolic of the cigarette and the check of weekends with Gaia everything commix together into a glorious symphonic music of elation and beauty as Andrew puff up the hill. The beside time Sim on said got a job, pizza pie Face? he would be able to say yes. He was going to be Gaia Bawdens weekend workmate.And, to cap it all, he knew at last exactly how he might imbibe an anonymous paster straight surrounded by his fathers shoulder blades.