Daddy's Coming Home

• Hannah Ainsworth-Griffiths, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2007

My stomach churns and sways as I remember that today is the day that Daddy is coming home. They promised me a life free of regret and full of safety. That is no longer possible and the freedom I yearn for I will never have.
The cool autumn chill brushes up against my skin and the shady trees sway. Leaves fall on to my back from the trees that make canopies over the driveway. The sun’s rays beat down on the ground making my feet burn as I step onto the hot tar.
My heart shrivels and I coil away from the road as I see the car turn around the corner and head down our street. I look out to the road. Blinds close; people go inside and use hushed tones as they stare at me with sympathetic faces. I smile politely at them and then look down to the ground.
What made the Judge decide that he was ready to come home? Did they even think about me? How I would be feeling? Did they even bother to ask me whether I wanted him to come home or not?
I look up again and there is no more waiting. No more time to look back down at the ground and pretend that nothing is wrong. The car stops. Car doors open and then close. An essence of vanilla whooshes into my face and I give a little dramatic cough. My mother speaks to me in a stern voice and forces me to stand up and say hello.
I roll my eyes and reluctantly stand up. I push my hair over my face because for now it is all I’ve got. It’s the only shield I have that can block him out. The only shield that won’t let him see what he has missed out on for the past three years. For I have changed. I have grown up. I see him differently now, and I don’t think he knows how to deal with that.
As I come face to face with the monster that I thought was gone forever, I realise that sooner or later I am going to have to plan an escape from here. I need a place where I can disappear and find myself. My mother forces me to give him a hug. I throw-up into my mouth as I wrap my arms around him. I feel so sick that I have to do this.
Mum wants us to be a family again. For now that has to do. I can’t run away and I can’t make a scene so I just have to follow. For now, in this world it seems I just exist. It seems unfair though as he gets to live his life like everything is normal, and I can’t live mine. For now, so that I am able to survive, it has to be enough.