Barbara Comyns

Living with her cruel father and ailing mother, Alice Rowland discovers she has the power to levitate

The Vet's Daughter

hessensitive

The day was nearly over and it was like most of the days I could remember: overshadowed by my father and cleaning the cats’ cages and the smell of cabbage, escaping gas and my father’s scent. There were moments of peace, and sometimes sunlight outside. It was like that all the time. 

So I left her there writing, and on my way to the frozen waste land even remembered to buy some stamps. I felt so grateful for my freedom. 

I awoke with a great weight on my mind. I went straight to Mrs Peebles’s room to see if she needed anything. She lay there very quiet and remote, and in her strange way, rather beautiful. 

I ran outside to the caravan and lay there listening to the sandpipers and an occasional sea-gull. I couldn’t even cry because I hated myself so much.

I was crying when he left, and he thought it was because I would not see him for a week. Even humble men are conceited sometimes. 

There was Father kneeling on the floor, almost as if he were praying. His eyes had rolled back so far that they were all white, with no pupils showing, and he was drooling at the mouth. Then in a thin, whining voice, he called, ‘Alice, I won’t hurt you. I was drunk and didn’t know what I was doing. Come down, there’s a good girl! Forgive me, Alice!’

‘Married, my foot!’ She exclaimed. ‘Who would marry such a half-witted deaf and dumb creature? No, that’s a bastard brat, and I’m telling you now: your father won’t have you seeing that Lucy anymore.’

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