I Know Who You Were by Nick Curran

Author:Nick Curran [Curran, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-05T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-THREE

But first I needed to be a dad, and that meant going up and watching a couple of hours of Disney with Poppy.

I poked my head around the door. She’d got her toys all lined up and was in the middle of seemingly re-enacting something I didn’t quite understand, giving a couple of the stuffed bears a stern telling off. I always loved these little moments, the few seconds before she saw me while she was still in her own world.

‘All set?’

Poppy looked up and flashed me the most infectious smile before she patted the side of her bed. I joined her.

We spent the next couple of hours watching impossibly bright colours, up-beat music, and some mildly amusing double entendres, and loving every minute of it.

After the credits rolled, I sent Poppy to clean her teeth and get ready for bed.

I’m a simple man.

The greatest pleasure of my life for nearly ten years was reading to my little girl before she fell asleep, introducing her to the worlds I’d fallen in love with when I was younger. She had her favourites, of course, and they were hardly ever my favourites, and that really didn’t matter. It wasn’t so long ago she’d have been begging to go to bed just for story time.

But things change, meaning kids grow up, and one by one break the ties that bind us. It had broken my heart the first time Poppy said she wanted to read to herself rather than have me tell her a story.

It hadn’t been any easier the second or the third or the fourth time, but I’d grown used to it, even if it hurt every single time. Eventually I’d stopped offering because I didn’t want to hear her say no.

It had been six months since I’d read to Poppy.

‘Tell me a story,’ she said, coming back in her pyjamas.

‘You want me to read to you?’

She shook her head. ‘No. I want you to tell me a story.’

I smiled then, and made myself comfortable beside her, fluffing up the pillow so that I could lean against the headboard without performing human origami on my spine.

Downstairs, I heard the key in the lock. Olivia letting herself in with the spare I’d given her. She shouted up, ‘Only me.’ And we shouted back down, ‘Only us!’ And for a moment it was the most natural thing in the world. I could follow her by sound only as she took her shoes off, dumped her bag at the bottom of the stairs and went through to the kitchen. Now would have been the perfect time to explain away the stranger in our house and how she had her own key. But what was I supposed to say? Again, she was nine, not stupid. I wasn’t ready to tell her the truth, so I stuck with the lie that we were working on a new film idea, and Olivia was helping me out with my research like Uncle Mac had. Poppy accepted everything at face value.

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