Daddy turns around and looks at me.
‘Don’t go far, Betsy.’
Then he smiles. I like when he smiles. It means he is happy. When he is happy we play games. When we get back to our house we can play hide and seek or football. I like hide and seek best but most times I play football because I know Daddy will play that for longer with me. Football lasts longer than hide and seek. A lot longer. Sometimes we play until dinnertime. But that’s only on days when Daddy is happy. Like today. We’ll probably play football until Mummy calls us in for some stew or pasta. Today is Wednesday. It might be pasta.
I smile back at Daddy and then he turns away. That is okay. Maybe he is busy thinking about work. When he can’t play with me he says it is because he is working. But normally when he is working he is on the phone or on his computer. But now he is just looking out onto the road. I don’t know what he is doing. I do some dancing while I wait. I’m a good dancer. There is no music. But sometimes I don’t need music. Then a man puts his hand towards Daddy and Daddy puts his hand in his. I don’t know who the man is. It is somebody Daddy works with I think. They just stand there talking. And talking. And talking even more. I’m bored. Too bored to even dance anymore.
I see a little wall at the end of the road and skip towards it. I am good at walking on walls. Mummy and Daddy say I should hold their hand if I’m ever walking on walls but sometimes I do it when they are not looking. I’m a big girl now. I don’t like holding Mummy and Daddy’s hands. Not all the time. My cousin Ceri doesn’t hold her Mummy’s hands anymore and she is five. I can’t wait to be five. But June seems a long way away. Even though Ceri is a bigger girl than me, I don’t think she is happier than I am. She doesn’t have a Daddy. I would hate to not have a Daddy. It would make me sad. Really, really sad. I would cry. A lot.
I put one foot in front of the other and spread my arms out. I have seen somebody do this on the TV when they were walking on a rope. I don’t know how you can walk on just a rope. But this man did it. Way up high. Almost in the sky. He walked on a rope from the roof of a building all the way across to the roof of a other building. Mummy says the man must have gone to school for lots and lots of years to learn how to do that. That seems like a fun thing to do at school. I wonder when I am going to start learning how to walk on ropes at school.
I put the other foot in front and then the other. Slow. I try not to look down because when I look down I feel a bit dizzy. The wall is big. It is about the same size as me. Mummy measured me with a measuring tape before. I think it was in the summertime. She said I was three foot, three inches. She said I was going to be a big girl soon. That made me happy. I can’t wait to be a big girl.
I put the other foot in front. Then the other. I am getting close to the end of the wall. I turn back to see if Daddy can see me. I want him to smile at me again. But he is too far away. He is just like a small spot at the end of the road. There are two small spots. He must still be talking to the man that works with him.
‘Daddy, Daddy.’ I wave.
He doesn’t look. I am too far away. I should shout loud.
‘Da—’
A man’s hand is on my face. He picks me up off the wall and then down behind it. He has one hand across my mouth. His other hand is around my legs. He’s holding me really hard. It hurts.
‘Don’t scream, Betsy.’
I don’t scream because I am scared. But I want to.