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Chapter 6

Iris

A pit-pit-patter of drizzle against hts filled with Randal

My sto itself inside out since he left yesterday after settling e His last task before he left was to fashion a new door bolt fro me promise to latch it securely just after he left

While his huge presence was a bit overwhels he awoke in , like he was the destination I’d been sailing toward my whole life, and only now had he come into view

Itme Nobody had looked after me like that since my mother’s death in childbirth ould have been my brother, and the subsequent deterioration of my father’s health

And to think, he was co!

I listened for any noises froe, but heard none Relieved, I gave ling deeper into ht to think only of hi into a rickety dinghy

The night before, after he’d left, my father ca on the door when he couldn’t get in I’d hobbled to let hi him too drunk to wonder why the door wouldn’t open I’d known it as soon he stepped inside—the way he walked told ht

I should have been furious with him, should have told hi woken first thing in the e I saw in his that he’d screa myself to sleep

Always, the next , he would sheepishly ask that we start afresh I hated that—the idea of starting over, that all the anger and sadness could vanish, like winter turning into spring