Hometime

I keep waiting for daddy to come and get me. I don't like it here. I
want to be at our house, with Bruiser the dog and mummy and sissy
Jane.

On Sunday I go to church, then Sunday school. We get a glass of milk at
Sunday school and I wear my best dress, which is very lovely. But mummy
says I mustn't be proud - that's a sin. And it's not fair to people
like Adeline, who's poor because her daddy went away one day and didn't
come back. Maybe my daddy won't come back. It seems like I haven't seen
him for ever such a long time and now I'm getting a little
scared.

My name is Millicent or Milly. My teachers and the vicar call me
'Millicent' so it must be my important name and Milly is my special
home name and my friend name. Mummy's slim and the prettiest woman in
the world, especially in her green dress. But she and daddy say that me
and Jane are the prettiest girls in the world. When I grow up I want to
marry Steven Matthews - he plays cricket in the village and he smiles a
lot, especially to me.

Daddy keeps chickens. One day a fox came and got them and we found a
chicken head on the lawn. It scared me and I cried all day but I was
really a baby then and I'm not anymore.

The school is next to the church. We in live in a village - that means
it's smaller than a town and much smaller than a city. I've been to
Warwick - that's a town. But I've never been to a city. Maybe I'd get
lost in a city. I feel lost now. Someone took me here, but I don't
think it was daddy. But it's all right, because he'll be coming to get
me soon. One of the ladies is coming! I'll ask her if she knows when
daddy will be here.

'Your daddy won't be coming Milly,' says the lady, all quietly, 'Do you
remember what I told you? This is the Riverbank Nursing Home, where we
take care of you.'

Why can't mummy and daddy take care of me? They must be away somewhere,
maybe they're seeing aunty Dee. I'll ask again next time a lady comes
round.