“Do you – really think – Mama can – see me?” Odela asked.
“Of course she can see you,” Nanny replied, “and if you asks me, she’s ashamed of you when you should be helpin’ your poor father!”
Nanny had spoken in a scolding voice, but Odela felt that she had brought a light into the darkness that surrounded her.
She had stopped crying.
When her father came home, looking far older than he actually was, she had done everything she could to interest and amuse him.
In some respects she had succeeded.
It gave her a warm feeling in her heart to think that her mother was pleased with her.
She was sure that Nanny was right in saying that her mother could see and hear the people she most loved – her husband and her daughter.
‘I will – not cry,’ Odela vowed to herself, ‘but I miss Mama more tha
