Read Online The Paradise Trees by Linda Huber - Free Book Online Page B

memory lane
together over a bottle of something, shall we? Alicia, I have to go, Logan has a fencing lesson in half an hour and I’m chauffeur as usual. I’m really looking forward to seeing you!
Bye, honey!’
    Alicia found herself smiling as she replaced the phone. Sonja hadn’t changed, scatty but with a heart of gold nonetheless. She stood up and stretched, glancing through to her father in the
living room.
    Sonja was wrong about one thing though. There were plenty of odd memories attached to those years. But soon they’d be able to sit down together and have a real talk. So one little thing
– big thing, actually – had gone right today.
    Counting out her father’s evening pills, Alicia thought about Frank. It sounded like he’d been through the wringer when his wife had died. You’d never know it to look at him
now, though. And he hadn’t mentioned it at all yesterday.
    Wasn’t that just a little strange?

Chapter Eight
Thursday, 13th July
    Alicia
    Tripping over her feet in her hurry, Alicia rushed into Jenny’s room and gently shook the little girl awake. By the smell of things Margaret was grilling bacon
downstairs, and Alicia grabbed clean jeans and a t-shirt from Jen’s wardrobe and tossed them onto the bed.
    ‘My alarm didn’t go off, we’re running late. Get dressed, have breakfast, and
don’t go off to play
!’ she said, already halfway out the door. ‘Your
bus leaves at ten, and Margaret won’t be pleased if she misses it because you and Conker are out gallivanting in the woods!’
    It had been Jenny’s own idea to go with Margaret and visit David and Sheila. Alicia had agreed, knowing that Jen would enjoy seeing Sheila preparing for the baby expected in September. The
little girl was to come back by herself – with Conker – on the half past six bus. Alicia frowned uneasily. Margaret had assured her that she’d place Jen on the bus herself, and
ask the driver to keep an eye on her. The journey took less than an hour, and with so much else to worry about, Alicia felt she needed to trust Margaret on this one. After all, no child needed an
overprotective mother.
    Staggering around in haste, Alicia grabbed some clothes, anything at all would do in the meantime. Of all the days to sleep in. Now she had little more than an hour to get Jen organised for her
trip, as well as get her father up, dressed and fed before Eva Campbell from next door came to sit with him. Tears welled up in her eyes as she scraped her hair back into one of Jenny’s
scrunchies. She was just so tired. Her father was sleeping a bit better with the new pills but even one nocturnal excursion to his room left her half-dead the next day. The whole situation made her
skin crawl, how she loathed being with him in the bedroom that reeked of old man. It was horrible, going in there at night, when it was dark and nobody else was awake... The nausea she’d
experienced twice hadn’t returned, though, and neither had the young voice warning her about ‘the bad room’. Still, the sooner she could get him safely into St. Joe’s the
happier she would be.
    She pushed her father’s bedroom door open and knew straightaway that she was in for a bad run. Again. The new pills maybe helped him sleep, but they had the unfortunate side effect of
making him doubly incontinent. Determinedly closing her mind to the horrible thing she was doing, Alicia helped the old man out of bed and into the shower. As a nurse she’d dealt with plenty
of similar situations, but somehow it was a lot less bearable when it was your own father. Your own father who you didn’t love as a daughter was supposed to... but he hadn’t loved her
either.
    She took him downstairs and then raced back up to deal with the bed and open all the windows. When at last she was sitting at the breakfast table with a slice of toast in front of her and the
washing machine sloshing the bed linen around, Alicia just felt sick. It was tempting to start ranting to