MIDNIGHT - HarperCollins NZ

MIDNIGHT
‘What d’you mean, I’m not well?’ The older woman
rounded on her. ‘You think I’m off my head, don’t
you? You think I’m incapable of making my own decisions.
Well, you just listen to me for a minute, young
lady. I know you were upset when your father left us,
but now he’s back – and if you’re not happy with that,
then you can pack your bags and bugger off!’
‘Please, Mother, don’t be like this.’ Libby knew she
must calm the older woman before it got out of hand.
‘Please hear me out.’
‘No!’
With surprising suddenness Eileen became docile.
She was no longer the angry woman who had threatened
to throw her daughter out of house and home.
‘I’m sorry, dear,’ she said, looking bewildered. ‘What
were you saying?’
Relieved that the moment had passed, Libby told
her, ‘I’m about to make breakfast for us.’ She glanced
cautiously up the stairs. ‘When he comes out of the
bathroom, you need to send him on his way.’
Eileen followed her gaze. ‘Send who on his way?’
‘Your friend.’
‘What friend?’ Not for the first time, Eileen Harrow
had somehow sneaked out of the house in the early
hours, desperate to find the man who had deserted
them so long ago. ‘Oh! You mean your father!’ In her
fragmented mind she was young again, deliriously happy
because her man was home. Clapping her hands
together, she giggled like a child. ‘I told you I’d find
him, and now I have. It was so dark, though. I got worried
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