Down Daisy Street Read Online Free Page B

friend was not too keen to carry such bad news to a man, who might react violently. Besides, Jane knew the shop where her mother worked very well indeed; also, it was nearer home. Kathy had meant to run all the way to her mother’s shop and then to accompany her back to the Stanley, but she realised it was unfair to send Jane on the longer journey. Her friend still had responsibilities at home, whereas she, Kathy, had gone and landed her little responsibility in hospital. Accordingly, she said with as much cheerfulness as she could muster: ‘Yes, you’re right. It will be much better if you go and stir up me mam and I fetch Dad. I don’t suppose the sister really meant she wanted them both, just one or t’other, but they’ll both want to be with poor little Billy, so I’ll go to the sawmills and tell Dad while you run to Mam’s shop. Besides, Dad goes down to the docks sometimes, when a load of timber is expected, so if I can’t get hold of him I’ll go straight back to the Stanley. Tell Mam, will you?’
    Jane promised her friend that she would do so and the two girls set off on their separate errands. It was not far to the sawmills and very soon Kathy reached the high wooden gates and turned through them. There was a shout from a small, dusty little man in a cloth cap and overalls, sitting in a hut by the gate. Kathy went over to him and explained that she was Mr Kelling’s daughter, come on an urgent errand, and asked whether he might show her the way to her father’s office. The little man had a thin weaselly face with eyes so close that they appeared to jostle against his nose and he seemed, to Kathy, to be both bossy and self-important. ‘An urgent errand, eh?’ he said. ‘Whass wrong? Someone sick?’
    Even with her own worry, Kathy decided she did not like this man. He had a crafty look in his eyes and his thin, pink nose whiffled with curiosity. She could see he was avid for gossip and would probably prevent her from entering the premises if he could. ‘My little brother’s in hospital with concussion,’ she said coldly. ‘The ward sister said I was to fetch my father at once. So, if you wouldn’t mind telling me where I can find him . . .’
    The little man sniffed juicily. ‘I can’t let you wander about these premises, miss. It ’ud be more than my job’s worth,’ he said portentously. ‘I’ll have to go meself – if it’s really important, that is – whilst you wait here in this hut. Did you say the kid was seriously ill? Like to die? Only I dussn’t interrupt Mr Kelling if it ain’t real urgent and me instructions is clear: no unauthorised persons to enter the yard, pertickly kids. Sawmills is dangerous places, you know.’
    Kathy could have screamed. It was just her luck to alight on a self-important, bossy little man who was too big for his boots, but there was nothing she could do about it. She would just have to hope her father would appear soon. ‘Yes, Billy’s dangerously ill, and they want me dad to go straight to the Stanley so’s he can sign a paper; they won’t X-ray Billy’s head without a signature,’ she said recklessly. ‘Please hurry, mister, it’s a matter of life or death!’
    ‘Oh, well, in that case . . .’ the little man said, his eyes bright with ghoulish excitement. ‘I’ll have your dad back here before you can say knife . . . but just you stay in me shed, d’you hear me? Don’t you set one foot in the yard or you’ll likely get took to the police station.’
    ‘I’ll stay right here,’ Kathy said virtuously. There was little point in leaving the hut since she had no idea in which part of the offices her father worked. Apart from anything else, there were tottering piles of timber, great mounds of sawdust and huge lorries which kept lumbering through the gate and across the yard, their engine noise hidden beneath the screech and whine of the machinery which, she guessed, must be turning out lengths of wood at an enormous rate.
    She watched