Chapter 4

4th installment

   The days have gone by, and those days have made weeks, and those weeks have made months. Emma and Jade have finished paying off Angela, Emma is still going out with Andy and Jade has gotten herself a girlfriend.

   The twins are sat eagerly waiting for the doorbell to ring, not many people ring the doorbell of the Slades' house and when they do it's ususally a door to door salesman or the postie with a parcel, but today, well today was going to be different, today was the day Mr Slade came home, for good! The girls had been busy making a Welcome Home Daddy sign while Mrs Slade had been making a cake and getting the smell of smoke out of the house. Emma had been waiting for this moment for years, the day her dad wouldn't leave them again.

   "How long now?" Emma asked eagerly waiting for the moment the doorbell would ring. "Thirty secondsless than last time I told you, jus chill out sis, he'll come in his own time." Emma rolled her eyes, stood up and went to the window, she leaned forwards as far as she could and looked both ways, there was no sight of him. Mrs Slade came into the livingroom, she had done her makeup extreemly nicely and the day before she had gone to have her hair done professionally, she had changed out of her usual tracksuit and into a nice pair of fifty quid jeans and a nice hundred and fifty quid top.

   Finally the magic moment arrived, the doorbell rang, Emma jumped up and ran to the door, she tore it open, nearly wrenching it off its hinges, she ran out of the door and tightly hugged her father. "Daddy! Oh daddy I've really missed you!" she pulled away from her dad and saw his smile, finally she had her dad back.

   "Me too Emma, but you know I'm not going away anymore, I'm here to stay." she smiled and pushed him towards the house. Jade didn't stand up or even look at her father which confused Mr Slade but he just took it as shyness and turned to his wife and kissed her "Well, look at all this!" he looked truly surprised by the effort his girls had put into making the sign and the awesomness of the cake. "Jade say hello to your dad. He's missed you an I know you've missed him." Jade stood up and let her dad hug her although she didn't make an effort to hug back. "What's wrong Jade darling? Have I done something wrong?" her dad sounded sorry. Jade looked at her father "Something wrong? You missed my and Emma's 15th birthday when you promised you'd be there, then you missed Christmas when you promised you'd be there and now you expect me to believe this s**t about 'I'm staying for good'? You won't fool me, it'll be all of two weeks before you're off again, I know it." she stormed out of the room and slammed the door. Everyone felt shocked and tense "I'm sure she didn't mean it dad, she's just having a hard time with her girlfriend. I believe you." she smiled and hugged him again.

   Emma, Mr Slade and Mrs Slade all sat on the sofas, Mr Slade had a suitcase full of presents for the girls and his wife. Emma had loved every present she had got from her dad and so had Mrs Slade. They had talked about everything that had gone on in the time he had been away and how it was going to be great having him around now. Emma wanted to introduce him to Andy but Mrs Slade said she should do it another time when Mr Slade had settled in properly.

   Mr Slade had left his wife and Emma downstairs, he decided it was best to go and talk to Jade alone. He gently pushed the door of Jade and Emma's room open, it had changed a lot since he had last been in, the walls used to be a sickly pink and now they were a calm cream colo[u]r, the floor now had a soft deep pile carpet, and the barbie curtains had been replaced with silver blinds. He saw his daughter sitting at her desk her head in her arms, both elbows proped on the desk and her hair down, she was crying, and talking to herself.

   "Jade, can I talk to you? You're not in trouble or anything." Jade didn't reply but she stopped talking "Ok well, I was going to tell you and Emma this at the same time but I think it's best I tell you now." Jade sat up and turned around, her cheeks had black streaks where her eye liner had run and her fringe was a mess but she didn't care "So I can spend proper quality time with you and Emma I'm not going to work. I'm going to be a house husband." Jade gave a small smile "Hey, imagine me in a pinny with a duster and my cooking mittens on! That'll be funny won't it?" Jade tryed to hold her laughter back but she couldn't and gave a huge smile "Thats more like the Jade I remember! Now come downstairs, we'll have some cake and I'll give you your presents, how about that?" Jade smiled. "Yeah sure, just give me five minutes to sort my makeup out and I'll be down." Mr Slade openedthe door and was walking out "Hey, dad. Do you hate me because, well, because I'm going out with a girl? And I'm really sorry about before, it's just stuff got to me." he smiled at her. "Of course I don't hateyou, I'm really pleased that you had the courage to tell me and mum, lots of people wouldn't, I'll suppourt you through it though." he didn't mention the appology but Jade knew he had accepted, he turned and closed the door behind him.

   Emma and Mrs Slade had been talking about how great it would be to have dad around the house at last.

   Jade had come down stairs and said sorry to everyone for the earlier outburst. The family had enjoyed cake, shared stories, and everyone had made full use of their presents. It had gotten to a time where Mr Slade decided to tell Emma what he had told Jade before. He explained that he had told Jade just to cheer her up and that there wasn't any faviourtism going on, but Emma didn't care, she was just happy that she'd get all day with him, everyday.

   Emma looked around as her family sat talking, this felt right, this felt like a happy family, a proper family, that sticks together, through tick thin, and all the rest. Emma felt pleased, she was the happiest girl on Earth because she had her dad.

 

 

 

Reviews

[emmajoy]

I really do like the way this book is going, your characters are jumping about, really showing themselves, how they feel and react to things going on in their lives. You write very fluidly, the story runs smoothly and nothing obscures the actual tale.

There are still a great many spelling mistakes however, which is a pity because you could so easily avoid them by typing in Word and being automatically helped with punctuation and spelling warnings, then copying/pasting onto WritersCafe. When you have such a good story it's a pity not to take great care of the mportant incidentals.

Congratulations nonetheless, and, thanks for letting me share what's going to be a fine book.