| About the author: | I am a creative writer and poet writing mainly on themes of people, relationships and the human body. I have been writing poetry since 1986. I also write short stories, including children's stories, and am currently at work on my first novel. I am currently working as a writer on the Relating Rutland project for Rutland County Council, enabling artistic intervention within isolated communities, alongside visual artist Jo Dacombe. |
"Molly," said Elliott Hughes as he came into the living room, "what are you doing?" For the past half hour he had heard his five-year-old daughter chattering earnestly to no one at all. Molly looked up from the drawing that she was bent over, depicting two big people, two smaller ones, a sun with a smiling face and some rather lopsided flowers. "Just drawing, Daddy," she said. Elliott looked at his daughter, at her pale clear eyes, the soft bloom of her skin, her muted auburn hair, and the scar that curved from the bridge of her nose across her forehead and down towards her left ear. Just that morning, his wife Amanda had spoken about the scar as she drank her tea. "Do you think it bothers her?" Amanda had asked. "Darling, she's only a child. Of course it doesn't bother her." "But it will. When she's older. Teenagers can be very cruel." "We'll deal with that when it happens," Elliott had said, wanting to move off the subject, because he wasn't really sure that he could deal with anyone insulting his little girl, let alone Molly herself. "Maybe she can have plastic surgery," Amanda had persisted, irritating Elliott intensely. "Oh for God's sake," he snapped, "She's five! Just leave it, can't you?" And Amanda had. It had been only a small bump at first, barely noticeable on the baby's soft skull, but as the weeks went by and Molly grew, so did the lump, gradually protruding over her eyebrow, then expanding until half her forehead was distorted by it. The hospital did some tests, but couldn't be sure what it was. |
