a bit you did, but, Terri, a token effort isn't enough. After what I found when I called here yesterday, and after talking to your key drug worker and to Mrs Harper, I'm afraid I think we need to have another look at how things are working.'
'What's that mean?' said Krystal. 'Another fuckin' case review, is it? Why'djer need one, though? Why'djer need one? He's all righ', I'm lookin' after - fuckin' shurrup!' she screamed at Terri, who was trying to shout along from her chair. 'She ain' - I'm lookin' after 'im, all righ'?' she bellowed at Kay, pink in the face, her heavily kohled eyes brimming with tears of anger, jabbing a finger at her own chest.
Krystal had visited Robbie regularly at his foster parents during the month he had been away from them. He had clung to her, wanted her to stay for tea, cried when she left. It had been like having half your guts cut out of you and held hostage. Krystal had wanted Robbie to go to Nana Cath's, the way she had gone all those times in her childhood, whenever Terri had fallen apart. But Nana Cath was old and frail now, and she had no time for Robbie.
'I understand that you love your brother and that you're doing your best for him, Krystal,' Kay said, 'but you're not Robbie's legal - '
'Why ain' I? I'm his fuckin' sister, ain' I?'
'All right,' said Kay firmly. 'Terri, I think we need to face facts here. Bellchapel will definitely throw you off the programme if you turn up, claim you haven't used and then test positive. Your drug worker made that perfectly clear to me on the phone.'
Shrunken in the armchair, a strange hybrid of old lady and child with her missing teeth, Terri's gaze was vacant and inconsolable.
'I think the only way you can possibly avoid being thrown out,' Kay went on, 'is to admit, up front, that you've used, take responsibility for the lapse and show your commitment to turning over a new leaf.'
Terri simply stared. Lying was the only way Terri knew to meet her many accusers. Yeah, all righ', go on, then, give it 'ere, and then, No, I never, no I ain', I never fuckin' did ...
'Was there any particular reason you used heroin this week, when you're already on a big dose of methadone?' Kay asked.
'Yeah,' said Krystal. 'Yeah, because Obbo turned up, an' she never fuckin' says no to 'im!'
'Shurrup,' said Terri, but without heat. She seemed to be trying to take in what Kay had said to her: this bizarre, dangerous advice about telling the truth.
'Obbo,' repeated Kay. 'Who's Obbo?'
'Fuckin' tosser,' said Krystal.
'Your dealer?' asked Kay.
'Shurrup,' Terri advised Krystal again.
'Why didn' yeh jus' tell 'im fuckin' no?' Krystal shouted at her mother.
'All right,' said Kay, again. 'Terri, I'm going to call your drug worker back. I'm going to try and persuade her that I think there would be a benefit to the family from your staying on the programme.'
'Will yeh?' asked Krystal, astonished. She had been thinking of Kay as a huge bitch, a bigger bitch even than that foster mother, with her spotless kitchen and the way she had of speaking kindly to Krystal, which made Krystal feel like a piece of shit.
'Yes,' said Kay, 'I will. But, Terri, as far as we're concerned, I mean the Child Protection team, this is serious. We are going to have to monitor Robbie's home situation closely. We need to see a change, Terri.'
'All righ', yeah,' said Terri; agreeing as she agreed to everything, to everyone.
But Krystal said, 'You will, yeah. She will. I'll help 'er. She will.'
II
Shirley Mollison spent Wednesdays at South West General in Yarvil. Here, she and a dozen fellow volunteers performed non-medical jobs, such as pushing the library trolley around the beds, looking after patients' flowers and making trips to the shop in the lobby for those who were bed-ridden and without visitors. Shirley's favourite activity was going from bed to bed, taking orders for meals. Once, carrying her clipboard and wearing her laminated pass, she had been mistaken by a passing doctor for a hospital administrator.
The idea of volunteering had come to Shirley during her longest ever conversation with Julia Fawley, during one of the wonderful Christmas parties at Sweetlove House. Here, she had learned that Julia was involved in fund-raising for the paediatric wing of the local hospital.
'What we really need is a royal visit,' Julia had said, her eyes straying to the