A knock at the door sometime during the afternoon woke Joseph from his nap, the knocks were light, almost non-existent, as if the person there only mildly wanted an answer. Serena peeked through her bedroom door to see why her father hadn't gotten up yet and discovered it was because he had only just realised there was somebody there. She watched him rise from the couch and stretch before walking over to turn the knob.
The afternoon sun glared in his eyes and made it difficult for him to see who it was, however his eyes became accustomed to the rays and he made out a figure standing in front of him. It took a moment for him to register the person, she had changed well beyond belief, but he still knew her, blonde hair shimmering in the warm breeze, eyes like blue diamonds, pearly white teeth and the most positively unreadable expression he'd ever seen…
Suddenly he slammed the door, rubbed his eyes and pinched himself to see if he was having another recurring dream. He wasn't – this was real.
"Who was it, father?"
Breathing heavily, Joseph snapped, "Nobody! Stop being so nosey! Get back in your room!"
Serena didn't like being yelled at, especially for no reason. Tears welled in her eyes and she closed the door, locking it as she fell to the ground and putting her hands over her eyes.
"Shit!" Joseph growled, pushing up the skin on his forehead, "Shit!"
The knocking continued, this time harder and more demanding.
Joseph looked towards the door and slapped himself across the face, he began hyperventilating, but slowly, he calmed himself down and straightened up his jacket before opening the door again.
"I've come for my daughter," Clarisse announced unexpectedly.
Joseph looked her up and down then went to slam the door in her face again, but she'd already stepped into the house, "Joseph please hear me out."
In a husky voiced he asked, "Why should I?"
"Listen I know you probably hate me for running off, but…I've sorted out my problems and well…I'm back to stay now."
Without invitation, she entered the lounge and clasped her hands together, "So where is my little munchkin?"
"Get out," he whispered angrily, "Leave and don't ever set foot in this house again."
Clarisse looked offended, "I beg your pardon? I have just made a long journey from Africa to meet my daughter and I expect you to present her to me."
Joseph's blood was boiling and he felt his fists clench, "You have no right to make any sort of orders or demands whatsoever. I'd suggest you leave before my temper gets the better of me."
"Joseph-"
"I'm going to count to three and I want you to be out that door or I'm going to have to use physical force. One…"
She didn't leave, she merely slumped down on the sofa and asked for a cup of tea.
"Two…"
"I see you haven't changed the place much."
"Three!"
Confused by the fact she had no intention of leaving, he threw her over his shoulder, carried her across the lounge and dumped her on the doorstep.
"Joseph! What do you think you're doing? Can't you see all I want to do is reconcile?"
The door slammed shut and she found herself bewildered by his temper, "Perhaps we could about talk this over a nice cup of tea? Joseph?"
Joseph had dead bolted the door, making it impossible for her to get back in.
"Father? Who was that scary lady? I don't like her, she made you yell at me."
His little girl was peeking at him through a peephole in her door, "She's someone you're better off living without, princess."
Clarisse started banging on the door again, shouting Joseph's name, "Open the door I need to speak with you. Just five minutes, ten at most."
Ignoring the woman at the front door, Serena crossed to the kitchen and poured a glass of water to drink.
"Honey," Joseph said in his sweetest voice, "Could you possibly stay in your room until I say it's safe to come out? That lady out there and I need to talk."
"But she's going to yell and make you angry again."
He bent down to her level, "Sweetie, I'm at boiling point, I don't think things could get any worse. Just stay in your room and put the television up loud, or listen to white noise or something, just stay in there and don't listen to a word, alright?"
"Alright."
Ducking back into her deep red-painted bedroom, she sat down and turned on the radio, no station was set, so all that could be heard was the screaming white noise. It was the most comforting thing in the world for her, it took her away to a better place where only she existed.
Meanwhile Joseph shut her door and took a moment to breathe, he was about to confront this woman he hadn't seen for five years and he had to think of what to say. Slowly his feet dragged along the ground until he reached the front entrance, he paused, then unlocked the door, "I don't want anything to do with you, I don't want you to come back into Serena's or my life, I want you to leave and never return. Now I think that's fair enough for a person who left for five years to understand, is it not?"
"Joseph," she said calmly, "I just want to talk to you, tell you why I ran away, why I came back."
"No!"
"I want custody of Serena."
Fire blared in his eyes as soon as she said 'custody' and he slammed the door, this time so hard all the paintings fell off the wall and smashed to the ground. He wiped his forehead and clenched his fists so tight they went pale.
Deciding the best thing to do was to calm himself down, he took deep breaths and sat on the couch. Again the knocking continued, but this time he turned the stereo on and pumped up the volume so he couldn't hear anything but the sound of rock music drumming in his ears.
The next morning Joseph had forgotten all about being angry and concentrated on happy thoughts, like taking his daughter to the zoo in order to increase her knowledge of animals. The zoo was her favourite place in the whole wide world, provided it was a cold and rainy day and no people were around. She loved animals, she felt as if they understood her more than people did. One of the reasons she didn't associate with humans much is because humans are known to lie, but animals can't speak, therefore are always sincere. Serena liked that about animals, which is why she was looking forward to seeing a whole bunch of them.
"I hope there aren't many people there. I hate too many people being in the one place at the one time, they form crowds and I don't like crowds because people push each other too much and they push me and I fall on the ground and I cry because I usually get hurt and have to visit the doctor and I don't like doctors because doctors make mistakes like leaving things inside people and making them be in pain for years and then the people sue the doctors and get rich."
Joseph shook his head and asked her to get in the car. She always sat in the back so she could spread out her books on the spare seats to read.
"What are you reading today, princess?" Joseph asked looking at her through the rear-view mirror as he pulled out of the driveway. She didn't reply, she was too engrossed in her book on Algebra. Joseph knew well enough that he wouldn't hear a peep out of her for the duration of the trip, so he listened to the radio to pass time.
As soon as Joseph opened the car door for his daughter to get out, he was immediately being pressured to see the baby giraffes.
"I like baby giraffes," Serena stated as she leaned over the fence to take a closer look, "They remind me of that jacket you bought for me after I spilled red drink on my new blue one remember? You yelled at me and I got scared and curled up into a ball and wouldn't stop screaming remember? And everyone in the food court was looking at us and I wet my pants and you had to wash them and buy me new pants to wear home and I didn't like the new pants and you said to just wear them, but I didn't like the colour so I took them off and you had to buy some pants that I liked and you were really angry and you hit me and I started screaming louder and you had to cover my mouth until we got to the car, remember?"
"Yes," he sighed sadly, "I remember."
"Can we look at the platypuses now?"
"I don't see why not."
The platypus enclosure was dark and gloomy, Serena felt at peace because she couldn't see anybody around. Two sparkling eyes glared at her from behind the weeds in the tank, then suddenly a large platypus swum out and caught a fish in its bill.
"I think I'd make a good platypus, father, I like being alone in the dark."
Joseph observed the animal and waited for his daughter to extend her sentence into another one-thousand word essay. But she didn't, she remained silent and watched bubbles form in the tank.
"Okay, can we see those flying things that live in a house now?"
"The butterflies?"
"Yeah, can we? But I don't want to go past the snakes or the monkeys, monkeys are scary cos last time we were here they took my hat and tried to wear the hat and I wanted the hat back cos it was my favourite hat and it didn't even suit the monkey cos the monkey was brown and my hat was pink and I told the monkey he should have taken the boy who was standing near me's hat instead because it was yellow and would look better on the monkey than my red hat did. But the monkey didn't take that boy's hat and it started tearing up mine and I was upset and you had to go and buy another one for me to stop me from crying. And the hat you bought was a different shade of red and I wanted the exact same as the hat the monkey took, but you couldn't find one and I wasn't happy about it and started kicking the bins over and the zookeeper wasn't very happy about it and called you a bad father for not controlling me."
Joseph felt a headache coming on and knew it was going to be a long day…
It was almost dark when they arrived home, Joseph was exhausted from having to listen to Serena's ramblings all day and wanted to get to bed as soon as possible. Unfortunately though, someone was waiting for him when they returned.
He didn't see her until he'd stepped out of the car and opened Serena's door, but when he did, he immediately asked his daughter to lock herself inside the house until he said it was safe to come out.
"Clarisse, did I not make it clear that I, or should I say we want nothing to do with you?"
"You did, but I can't just walk away. I want my daughter back."
"You have no rights to her, you made it clear that you didn't want her when you dumped her on the doorstep when she was only a few days old."
"But I've changed," she wailed.
Joseph looked at her unconvincingly and spoke in a cold tone, "I never want to see or speak to you again, I'd appreciate it if you left us alone."
"But I-"
"Don't make me call the police."
He walked slowly to the house and asked to be let in. Serena opened the door slowly to see if the woman had gone, but she hadn't, she was standing ten metres from the house just staring at Serena through the dark. Clarisse felt a shot of pain jump through her heart at the sight of her daughter - she was beautiful. As the door closed, she felt something warm going through her eyes, tears of pain, but also of joy from seeing her daughter for the first time. She sat on the ground and hugged her knees wishing she was allowed to touch her, to breathe her and observe her features. Her chances of getting to know her seemed slim, but she knew one way or another she'd have her way.
How quick was that update? I wanted to write this chapter since forever. Since last year! Thanks for reviewing. R & R!
