‘Christ,’ panted Gordie, and seeing the man’s terror, Terry stepped forward.

‘I’ll put him out of his misery, eh, Charlie?’

Charlie stepped back a pace. Glared at his fallen enemy. Then he nodded, once.

Terry hit Gordie hard in the jaw. They all heard the snap as it broke. Gordie’s head flew back, and then he was out of it, unconscious. Terry gave Charlie a nod and got out of the way. Charlie stepped in and swung the bar back and crashed it into both Gordie’s legs and then his arms, pulverizing his limbs. Finally, satisfied, he threw the bar aside. It hit the dirty cement floor with a clatter. Charlie was breathing hard with the effort.

‘He won’t give us no more trouble,’ said Charlie. ‘Get him out. Dump him back by the pub when it’s clear.’

After the Pig’s Head incident, no one heard of Gordie Howard around town any more. He was – literally – a broken man. For a full month after the event, Charlie’s boys cruised the manor in their cars, herding up any stragglers from Gordie’s gang and seeing them out of town, until there was no one left and there was a change in the air. Now everyone knew Charlie had taken control.

The manor was his.

6

There were some things Mum saw as a treat, and having Nula accompany her to the hairdresser’s once a fortnight was one of them. There the same female hairdresser – Candy – would poodle-perm Mum’s hair into submission, leaving it frizzed out, lifeless and ready for a shampoo and tight set. Soon, Candy was doing the same for Nula. But now, having come to a decision about the direction her life was taking, Nula spoke up.

‘I don’t want her doing my hair any more,’ she said.

‘What?’ Mum looked poleaxed.

‘I don’t, OK? I’m growing this perm out.’

‘Well, if you want,’ said Mum.

‘Yeah. I do.’ Nula chewed her lip. ‘And I hate my bloody name. Nula the Loser they call me at school. What’d you call me that for?’

Mum’s myopic eyes were full of hurt. ‘It was my mother’s name,’ she said.

‘Well I hate the bloody thing.’

That little fracas caused a chill to descend that lasted for days. Nula hated to cause her mum pain, but she steeled herself to do it. Things had to change. Things had to be different. And then Nula had to find another hairdresser. She saved up and went to a new trendy one in town that everyone was talking about, Mr Fox, where inside everything was black and gleaming. As she entered, Elvis was singing ‘It’s Now or Never’ on the sound system.