She was growing so fast. I could barely remember when she was just a wee baby in me arms.
"Pa, are you even listening to me?" Asks Elsa.
"Oh, sorry dearie... please tell me all about yah lessons." I say scratching the back of my head and smiling at her.
"I got me first hard task today. Feeding the turkeys. They run so fast, if yah not careful you will land on your face, like I did today." She says, showing me her dirty garments. I laugh then guide her in the barn.
It had taken a while but I had finally managed to turn the barn into a decent home for the both of us.
A nice old lady across the river bank had accepted to teach Elsa how to read and write if she helped around her little compound.
That was two weeks ago. Elsa being an apt and fast learner was already blowing my mind away with what she had learnt.
"Alright, alright. I believe that a day's hard work deserves pay does it not sweet pea?" I tease.
"Sure does pa. Let me bathe and join yah for supper." She says and skips away joyfully.
It was hard to believe that thirteen years had passed. Thirteen years of pain and secrecy. It was all we needed to keep our lives happy and comfy.
She had already begun asking alot of me but I promised her that by the time she was an adult, I would tell her but every time she protested that I would be too old to tell her.
"What are you planning now old man?" She asks.
"Already cleaned up so fast eh?" I ask, she nods and sits down across me to start eating.
"I made yah favourite, champ." I say.
She rolls her eyes at me and answers, "That is yah favourite pa. I told yah, mine is soda bread."
I slap myself on the forehead and answer, "I am truly growing old."
She laughs and takes a bite of her food as we continue to chat.
***
"That's not how yah write the letter 'o' dearie." Says lady Mary as she laughs at my terrible writings.
"It almost looks like it." I say proudly then she sits next to me and takes the pen from my hand then she corrects me.
"There. Now you can write the whole thing again." She says as she waddles off into her room. "Feed the hens today before yah leave." She adds.
"Aye lady Mary!" I shout back and head off to do what I am told before heading home.
When I arrive, the inside of the barn is so brightly decorated. "Pa! Hello! Pa, are yah in here?" I call out.
"Ofcourse darling. Come in." He answers.
"Why are there decorations here? Did the queen pass by?" I ask making a face at him.
He laughs and shakes his head no. "It is your special day. You are growing up so fast I cannot count the years anymore. And if it means I smother yah in kisses before my eyes give away then I will." He says.
I run into his arms and hug him tightly. "Oh pa. Thankyou." I say.
"Aye, now eat yah cake before it melts away in this heat. Yah knew right to wear that light dress lass. I have been roasting in here all day!" He says while I laugh at him.
My pa. The most important person in my life. I would not imagine my life without him. He is my everything, aside from diablo ofcourse.
I go off to look for a book in his room when I bump into a trunk.
'This wasn't here when we moved to this barn.' I think to myself.
I open it out of curiosity. Maybe the person who had loved here left it by mistake and forgot all about it.
YOU ARE READING
Destined Hope
Ficção Histórica"Go! They will surely have our heads if they know of this!" She says handing the baby to him. The guards are catching on and there is no time left. With one last look, she says, "Promise me you will never let her out of your sight." "But..." he sta...
