Don't You Love Your Daddy? by Sally East

Author:Sally East [East, Sally]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781407470658
Google: DQBUMAEACAAJ
Amazon: 0718192281
Publisher: Michael Joseph
Published: 2010-10-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-seven

Sue started to become a regular visitor to our house, just brief visits that never lasted more than an hour or so, but always long enough for me to see how much she wanted to be in control. Each time she and my father sat down for tea, my grandmother fussed over them and I found myself comparing Sue unfavourably to my mother.

While my mother had been vulnerable, Sue was brittle and assured. My mother’s laugh had been melodic, but Sue’s was high and tinkling. My mother always smiled at me with eyes softened by love, but Sue’s remained hard and indifferent. She might have said that she knew we would be friends, but I saw no effort on her part to put those words into action. When she thought I wasn’t looking I saw her push Dolly roughly away, and wrinkle her nose when she saw the little dog jump up against my legs for attention. Every time I sat down for tea she checked that my hands had been washed. I envied Billy his apparent indifference to her remarks, but he had learnt to save his energy for getting what he really wanted: more juice or sweets, which earned whoever gave them to him a beatific smile.

My anger with her for having taken my mother’s place left me glowering, and I wished that she would go away and leave us alone. I resented her comments and disliked how often I heard her saying that animals shouldn’t be allowed into the kitchen when food was being prepared or eaten. In fact, she suggested they should be outside, where I knew Dolly would be for the duration of Sue’s visit, if she had her way.

‘Just thinking of you, Sally,’ she said, on more than one occasion. ‘Your father told me you’re delicate and we don’t want you catching anything from the dirt she brings in, do we?’

Apart from her comments about Dolly, her conversation, which was interspersed with her shallow laugh, was entirely about her wedding plans. The first time the wedding was mentioned I had frozen and stared, bewildered, at Nana and then at my father. Receiving no denial or reassurance, I ran out into the garden with Dolly hot on my heels. I sat on the step hugging her and crying into her fur. Her cold nose pressed against my cheek and her little pink tongue licked away the tears. I didn’t want a new mother, certainly not Sue, I wanted my old daddy all to myself – but if he married then maybe, just maybe, the visits to my bedroom would stop.

My grandmother came outdoors and gently closed the door behind her. She tried to comfort me, and when I asked if it was true, she said, ‘Your daddy did tell you and Pete you were to have a new mother, didn’t he, Sally?’ I nodded slowly. He had been telling us he was planning to get married. ‘You must be excited for your daddy, Sally. You and Billy need a mother and I’m getting too old to cope with Billy as much as I have to do.

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