Father Unknown by Lesley Pearse Read Free Book Online

was in her compartmentalization mood again this morning.’ He smiled wryly. ‘She was terrified she’d be expected to cook, clean and do her college work, so she’ll be relieved. As for Tom and me, we just want you back where you belong.’
    That was enough for Daisy. She moved over to sit beside her father and hugged him. ‘Okay, I’ll come back on Monday morning. I’d do anything to try and keep you from feeling sad.’
    ‘That comes in waves,’ he said. ‘One minute I’m glad she was released from all the pain, the next I’d sell my soul to the devil to have her back. I keep getting these images of her around the house, sometimes they are so clear I really think she’s there. Maybe I’ll feel better once I get back to work.’
    ‘What’s that?’ Daisy said, suddenly noticing he had brought a bag with him.
    He grinned. ‘Actually it’s for you. I thought it might be a good time for you to go through it. It’s a box of stuff all relating to you, from when you were a baby. Your mum made one for each of you, she religiously added stuff whenever she thought something important had happened. I daresay there’ll be a letter in there for you too, you know how organized she was.’
    Daisy unzipped the bag. Inside was an oblong tin box, like a large cash-box with a handle on the top, only it had been decorated with a montage of pictures and varnished over.
    ‘Here’s the key,’ Dad said, standing up and taking it from his pocket. ‘I’ll be off now. I’ve got to get Fred some dog food and buy some bread.’
    After Daisy had seen her father out she took the box on to her knee and studied it. She thought she knew every single thing that was in her parents’ house, they’d never been one for keeping things secret, but she’d never seen this box before, and that made it even more exciting.
    All the pictures on the outside were of her, family snaps cut up and stuck on at random. She wondered exactly when Mum had finished it. Some of the pictures were only a year old, so it must have been quite recently, and there was no room for any more so she must have finished it off knowing her end was near. Daisy opened the box gingerly, not sure what to expect. Her eyes filled with tears at what she saw.
    There were newspaper cuttings about her gymnastics wins, school reports, an essay she’d written about her family, pieces of artwork she couldn’t remember doing, a needle case she’d made for her mother one Christmas. There were her first teeth, sealed in a little plastic bag, a photograph of her with no front teeth, and a class photograph from when she left junior school. So much stuff, important to nobody but her, and she was overwhelmed by the knowledge that it had all been collected with such love and care.
    Between the pictures, cuttings and miscellaneous items were many little notes written by her mother. Some were humorous reports on incidents, like the time she fell into a pond on a school outing and had to be brought back with a teacher’s gloves on her feet, or when she starred as Dorothy in the school production of The Wizard of Oz.
    Daisy laughed at many of these, for it was an adult view on occasions she’d almost forgotten, and an insight into how Lorna viewed her daughter’s character. But some were serious, and showed her just how worried her mother had been on many occasions.
    One such note was written at the time Daisy was seeing Kevin. He was the boy who dissuaded her against hotel or catering work when she was sixteen.
I feel so powerless and frightened for her , her mother had written. I keep asking myself am I just a snob that I can’t bear to think of my baby being with such an uncouth lout? I’m tortured with fear that she will get pregnant, and that will lead to a lifetime of misery for her. I wish I were brave enough to just lock her in her room so she can’t see him, but of course I know that will only make her keener on him. So I pretend to if not approve, at least seem resigned to