The Journal of Dora Damage Read Online Free Page B

The Journal of Dora Damage
Book: The Journal of Dora Damage Read Online Free
Author: Belinda Starling
Tags: Fiction, General
Pages:
Go to
fat either,
     but the opposite: it’s the worst sign of hunger, and Peter’s fingers were the worst sign of something else, I didn’t know
     what. He was born in the caul, his sister Rosie had told me, and drank his mother dry by the time he was four months old.
     Her tit gave up on him, and he on her, for she was rather partial to gin, and Peter had been an advocate of the temperate
     way of life since he could talk. But he could certainly drink water and tea by the gallon. He had already had nine cups of
     tea today, and would drink another six more before the day was out. Three to every one of Jack’s; four to every one of mine.
     Still, tea wasn’t costly, and left me with a fine bunch of leaves to sweep the dust up with each afternoon. Besides, it was
     his only excess, and I believed all men had to have one. He did not squander our money in the ale-house; I could forgive him
     his weekly pound of tea.
    At half past six I aired Lucinda’s nightdress over the fire, then put her to bed, read her a story, and heard her prayers.
    ‘Mama,’ she said to me, in that tone of voice which always preceded a difficult question.
    ‘Yes,’ I said.
    ‘What if God doesn’t look on me tonight, and something bad happens?’
    ‘God always looks down on you, little one.’
    ‘But bad things do happen too.’
    ‘Yes, they do, but maybe they are God’s will.’ I didn’t believe it, but it was said to me, and I said it to her, and she will
     say it to her children too, and so the conspiracy goes on. Besides, I did not have a better answer.
    ‘But why would He want bad things to happen, if He loves us?’
    ‘Some things He just can’t help. But bad things won’t happen to you tonight.’
    ‘How do you know?’
    ‘Because I know.’
    ‘Because you won’t let them?’
    ‘That’s right. I won’t let them.’
    ‘But what if a spider comes into my room, and wants to get into my bed?’
    ‘You must tell it to shoo.’
    ‘But what if the spider’s mother had told him to tell me to shoo?’
    ‘Then you must call me, and I will come and lie down with you, and then the spider will see that I’m bigger than its mother.
     Now, good night. And sleep well.’
    ‘Good night.’
    And as I left her bedroom I thanked the Lord as always that we had lived another whole day together, even if He does let bad
     things happen.
    The clock on the mantel chimed seven as I descended, and I quickly scanned the parlour, which looked very dark tonight. The
     walls were papered with brown sprigs of flowers; the blue of the round tablecloth on the table was the only source of colour.
     Four ladder-backed chairs were neatly tucked in to the table, and a Windsor chair and an armchair with fatigued upholstery
     were turned towards the fire, on top of a faded floral rug. On the wall above the fire was an old print of The Annunciation , and below it on the mantel was a black marble clock, with a jar of spills on one side and a box of lucifers on the other.
     I heard Peter dismiss Jack and Sven through the curtain, so I checked that Peter’s slippers were warm by the fire, and his
     pipe padded with fresh tobacco. I knew that Jack was helping him on with his overcoat, and I could hear the keys outside in
     the street as Peter locked the external workshop door.
    Peter was just now standing and waving Jack and Sven off up Ivy-street, before turning to walk the few steps along the pavement
     to his own front door. He could, of course, have simply locked the workshop from the inside once his workers had departed,
     then entered the house through the curtain. He would have stayed warm and dry like that, but then, the good folk of Ivy-street
     would not have got their twice-daily glimpse of Mr Damage.
    On cue, the front door to the house opened, and I was behind it. I relieved him of his coat, then crouched down to change
     his boots for slippers. I hung his coat and placed his boots by the fire, then pulled his chair out for him at the table and
    

Readers choose

Judith Pella

Niobia Bryant

Marcia Muller

Peter Straub

Mali Klein Sheila Snow

John Sandford

Lindsey Davis

Jane Kirkpatrick

Mack Maloney