"...Hey. Lena, why don't you have a dad?" and then tried to cover up the question with a nervous cough...
Lena said she didn't know. He'd run off before she was born.
"Can't you hear?" Lena looked at me, irritated. Then she burst out, "What use are they, anyway?"
I didn't really know what to answer. Do they need a use?
"They build things," I suggested. "Walls and so on."
Lena had a wall.
"And they can...um..."
I'd never thought properly about what use my dad was. To get ideas, I stretched up onto my toes and peeked over the hedge. Dad was standing there muttering about his summer project, red in the face. It wasn't too easy to come up with exactly what use he was.
"They eat boiled cabbage," I said in the end.
Neither Lena nor I like boiled cabbage. It tastes like slime. Unfortunately we have a whole field of cabbages in Mathildewick Cove. Both my mom and Lena's mom say that cabbage is something we should eat, for our own good. But Dad doesn't say so. He eats my cabbage. I just heave the green glob over onto his plate when Mom's looking the other way.
I could see that Lena didn't think that was such a silly suggestion. She had a good view of Dad and his summer project from up there on the wall. She stood on one foot for a long while, studying him thoroughly.
"Hm," she said eventually, jumping down.
Adventures with Waffles by Maria Parr
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