Read Online Our Daily Bread by Lauren B. Davis - Free Book Online

her eye. She said nothing, merely locked her gaze on the set again. A shadow caught Tom’s attention and it was then he realized he hadn’t actually heard Ivy’s feet going up the stairs. He cocked his head, listened, but there was only the sound of the television and the silence of the house.
    â€œI’ll be right back,” he said.
    He poked his head around the doorway. Ivy stood at the bottom of the stairs near the kitchen. She looked at her feet. Her hands were clenched. She glanced up at the top of the stairs and then down at her feet again.
    â€œWhat’cha doin’?”
    Ivy’s head snapped around and her mouth opened, but no sound came out.
    Tom went to her. “What’s the problem?”
    â€œNothing,” she said, blushing furiously.
    He knelt down and put his hands on her arms. “Something got you spooked?”
    She shook her head.
    â€œYou can tell me, you know that, right? I am extremely good at dealing with spooky things.” He smiled and waited. From the living room came the bass-heavy theme song for the crime show.
    Ivy looked to the top of the stairs again. “I don’t know. There’s something . . . up there.”
    â€œWhat kind of something?”
    She squirmed. “Bad. You know.”
    Tom looked up the staircase, at the twist in the stairs, and saw how the darkness of the upstairs hall seemed to spill toward them. He saw how it must look to a little girl whose parents had not taken her up to bed in a very long time.
    â€œLight switch for the hall’s a long way away, huh?” he said.
    â€œYeah, but if I get to the switch quick enough . . .” She shrugged.
    â€œI see. Well, how about I go up with you tonight?”
    â€œOkay.”
    They started up the steps, her hand hidden in his. When they got to the landing she reached up and turned on the light, keeping her eyes turned from the hall.
    â€œBetter?” Tom said.
    â€œYes.” She sounded unconvinced.
    â€œI think we better fix some new lights up here, don’t you?”
    â€œMaybe.”
    â€œTell you what, I’ll hang around for a few minutes and tuck you in, how’s that?”
    He was rewarded with her smile. She scampered quickly down the hall to the bathroom and when she came out again a few minutes later he walked her to her bedroom and sat on the small bed while she changed into her pyjamas, the ones with pink rabbits all over them. Tom pulled back the blankets and she hopped in.
    â€œBetter?”
    â€œThanks, Daddy. I get scared, just sometimes. It’s better now.” She took his hand and stroked the back of it, so the hairs lay flat and smooth. “The worst, though, you know, really the worst?”
    â€œWhat’s the worst?”
    â€œIt’s when I come out of the bathroom, because I have to switch the light out there, you know, at that end of the hall and run down here.” She stopped patting his hand and instead picked and smoothed and worried the sheet without looking at him.
    â€œSweetie, why didn’t you tell us?”
    She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
    â€œYou know there isn’t really anything up here, don’t you?”
    â€œI know. I’m not a little kid, Dad.”
    â€œBut still, right?”
    â€œBut still.”
    â€œOkay. Here’s what we’re going to do. Tomorrow, I’m going to fix up another light switch, right outside your room, so you don’t have to go down the hall in the dark. And I can put a night light in here if you want one.”
    â€œNo. That’s just for babies.”
    â€œNot at all. Lots of people prefer to sleep with a little light.”
    She looked sceptical and toyed with the ends of her hair. “I saw on a TV show once
,
about this man who gets left behind in a cave, because his leg’s broken. But there are sabre-toothed tigers in the cave, left over from prehistoric times, right? And the others say they’ll come