Read Online Broken Places by Wendy Perriam - Free Book Online Page B

He leapt out of bed. Who cared about lost sleep, when his daughter was on the phone?
    ‘Sorry to ring you at the crack of dawn, but I wanted to say happy Christmas.’
    ‘Oh Lord, yes! It’s Christmas Day.’
    ‘Had you forgotten?’
    ‘Sort of.’
    ‘Dad, how could you? No one forgets Christmas.’
    ‘Well, now you’ve phoned, it feels like Christmas.’
    ‘It’s still Christmas Eve over here. We’ve all been to a party, that’s why I’m up so late.’
    The ‘all’ induced a surge of jealousy. ‘All’ included Dwight. Even the fellow’s name was an irritant: comic and pretentious both at once.
    ‘I love your present, Dad. It’s great!’
    ‘What, you’ve opened it already?’
    ‘Yeah, we had presents round the tree, just before we went out.’
    So what had Dwight given her? A diamond-studded mobile? A child-sized Cadillac? Something far superior to his gift – that was beyond alldoubt. He wrung the fellow’s neck, picked up the dead body and dumped it in the Puget Sound.
    ‘Has mine arrived yet?’ she asked.
    ‘No. I reckon it must have got lost in the system.’ This was the first Christmas he had received no gift from either his wife or his daughter.
    ‘It’s bound to turn up sooner or later. And listen, Dad – good news! I think I’ll be able to come and visit during the Easter holidays, if that’s OK with you. Actually, they don’t call it Easter hols over here. It’s known as the Spring Break – so as not to upset non-Christians – and it’s only five mingy days and doesn’t include Easter anyway, not this year, at least. But Mum says I can stay with you for longer – you know, to make up for not coming in the summer. And the school doesn’t seem to mind, so long as I take the work I’ll miss and get on with it in England. So they’re probably going to allow me a whole three weeks, which means I’ll be with you for Easter. And my birthday falls the Thursday of that week, so we can spend the day together, if you like.’
    Like ? Bells were ringing from every London church; red carpets unrolling across the length and breadth of England. ‘I’d love it, darling. What a treat! We’ll celebrate in style. Thirteen’s a real landmark.’
    ‘It’s scary, too, though, being in your teens.’
    He nodded. ‘I remember.’ Worse for a girl, though. Periods and breasts. Erica had neither yet, according to Christine, and that fact had made him stupidly relieved. Womanhood brought dangers, and he wasn’t there to protect her. ‘You’ve really made my day! I thought I wasn’t going to see you till July, so I’m thrilled you’ve brought it forward by three months. But what would you like to do when you’re here? I’ll start organizing it right away.’
    ‘It’s a bit early, don’t you think, Dad? But what I will need is some help with schoolwork and stuff. I’m still not used to the different syllabus. I mean, we never did Spanish at my old school, or things like Social Studies.’
    ‘Don’t worry, we’ll crack it between us!’ He’d do a crash-course, if necessary , in both Spanish and Social Studies – whatever the latter might be. Anything to help her.
    ‘But I don’t want to talk about school. Tell me what you’re doing for Christmas.’
    He hesitated, detesting the thought of her pity. In fact, he had deliberately chosen to spend the day alone, turning down several invitations. He just didn’t have the strength to face other people’s intact and happy families ,when the loss of his own was still so new, so raw. And, although he had offered his services to a couple of different charities, both had told him he’d left it too late to volunteer. ‘I’ve … planned a bike ride to the City.’
    ‘What, on your own?’
    ‘Er, no.’ It wasn’t quite a lie – he was going with Samuel Pepys. He had dreamed up the idea as the basis for a library project, later in the year, which he’d base on the Diaries and one or two biographies. Today, he planned to get the