[Tears and Rain]

Thankyou a lot guys, seriously.

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March 14th 2007

21:43
Arriving home she wiped her face before opening the door, on the off chance that someone would be there to see her, though she needn’t have bothered. Once again making her way upstairs, she plugged the phone back in and continued to her room. Little after she had shut the door to her room she heard the phone ring, and making her way back down to it she lifted the receiver, “Hello?”
“Rosie! At last! Where the blood hell have you been girl? I tried your mobile countless times but it was off, and then your house phone too! This is the first chance I’ve had to get through!”
“Sorry Jack. I was out.”
“Out where? The bloody moon? Anyway, on more earthly world topics, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, you?”
“Come on Rosie, how long have I known you? I know when Rosie Griffiths says she’s fine that she’s really either suffering from serious PMT, or something more serious is up. And I know it’s not the former. Rosie… you know you can talk to me yeh? About anything?”
“Yeh I know, Jack. Sorry, my head’s just been everywhere all day. I’ll be fine in the morning, I just need some sleep I think.”
“Rosie, I also know that when you say you ‘need some sleep’ you’re really saying ‘get the **** off asking me and get back to your own life’, but then you’ll also know that I, Jack Evans, never do that either.”
Rosie smiled, he was right, she did know that. She also knew that he wouldn’t give up until he knew she was okay. “Jack, do you ever wonder what your mum’s middle name is?”
If Jack was put out by this question, his reply did not mirror this as he answered calmly “No? I know what her middle name is, it’s Ann. Why not instead of wondering just ask her…?” he paused, “Where’s this going, Rosie? Is your mum okay?”
Rosie heard a key in the latch, “Sorry Jack, dad’s home, I have to go, thanx for calling, I’ll see you tomorrow,” and with that she hung up and went to open the door for her father.
“Heyyy Rosiee love thankyooou,” he slurred at her, stumbling through the door way and collapsing onto the sofa in the front room.
“How are you, Dad?”
“I’m gooooooood thankyouu, just went d’an the pub for a lit-littt-little tipple y’know how it goes. Get ‘s a glass of wata would you gem?” Rosie was already on it, coming back to her drunk father with a glass and a jug of water. “Oh you starrrr, I had to talk to you abaaat something didn’t I? Schoooool maybe? How’z school, Rosie? Where’zz your mother?”
“Your wife, Dad, said she was going out with you.”
“Ohh bastard it, I must’ve just missed herrr. Ahh she’ll be alriiiite.” He gulped down a glass of water and, pulling himself up a little, looked at his daughter standing there before him. The image of her mother, he thought, as he fell back onto the cushions of the sofa and passed out.
Rosie stood there watching him for a minute, turning him slightly to his side and lifting the jug of water onto the coffee table for when he woke up in the night and was thirsty. Then, pulling the door to behind her, she crept back up the stairs and closed the door to her room behind her…

March 21st 1997

07:13
The girl tip-toed down the stairs as she was always told to do in the mornings, for a minute forgetting that there was only one person left for her to not wake up. Pushing her way into the living room, she found her dad lying there asleep on the sofa, only one unopened bottle of wine left beside him. As she moved around him as quietly as she could, she cleaned up the bottles around him, and took them into the kitchen. She then filled up one of the empty jugs, from the ‘party’ the day before, with water, and set this down beside him on the coffee table with a new glass. Creeping back upstairs she had no idea that this cracked picture of her father would soon become the fully framed backdrop of her life…