Story chain

Starter paragraph: Spring, by Jimmy Richards

That year spring had been late coming, it was late April before the cherry trees blossomed. On the morning they came for him the first daffodils bloomed in her little patch of front garden. She was admiring them as the long black car rounded the sharp corner at the top of the street. When it purred to a halt outside he was already waiting at the gate. She could picture the scene still: the tall, slightly stooped man in the heavy, dark overcoat; the bright blue-metal sky above the opposite roofs; and the daffodils, yellow bursts of colour against the black earth. Though she did not love him she had cried. She had never expected to see him again.

Chain 1: Nick Fletcher

He still had rugged good looks but his face was gaunt and as white as the dying Snowdrops. The birds sang as she gazed into his eyes. 'I never meant to leave you like that. How's Jane?' She didn't know what to say or how to feel. He put his hand in his pocket and grabbed her hand. I should have given you this twenty years ago.

Chain 2: Janice Rennard

A brown crumpled envelope lay in his hand, worn from the many times it had been folded and unfolded in the passing years. She trembled slightly, her memory vividly replaying the last meeting and the yawning gap in her life since that day. Emotionally she thanked him and gazed at the once familiar face and wondered, what if fate had been kinder, would they have had better lives.

Chain 3: Helen King

"Your mother always wanted you to have this”, he said. “I’ve kept it safe all these years since she died, now it’s time for you to look after it”. She was stunned. The envelope he had handed to her contained her mother’s wedding ring. Emily and her younger sister Jane had been teenagers reeling from their mother’s death when they came for him all those years ago. They had no idea who the men he’d left with were and never found out where he had gone. They didn’t hear from him or receive any news of him in twenty years. At the beginning, the police had launched a missing person investigation, certain he had left in a state of shock after his wife’s death, and confident he would return to his daughters in time. The investigation proved inconclusive, and as time went on, the case lost it’s urgency for the police. Eventually Emily had decided that the sisters should stop trying to find him, and get on with their lives. It had been a struggle for an eighteen year old to leave college, get a job, manage the house and care for Jane, who was only thirteen when he left them. Somehow they’d coped without their parents, but with some help from the kind neighbour who’d moved into a house along their street shortly after their father left...

Chain 4: Anne Micklethwaite

There had been good times before the family had disintegrated, Emily clutched the crumpled envelope and felt tears pricking sharply as memories came in a rush. Birthdays, there had always been a surprise, one year she had wanted clowns, he had arranged a whole day of circus workshops. Other times there had just been surprises, picnics, visits to favourite places, spur of the moment shopping trips. Emily wondered if he remembered these things and if that's what had kept him going for these intervening years.

Chain 5: Hazel Stevens

They stood and stared at each other, strangers, oblivious to the springtime call of birds. Emily stared at the ring. "Why now Dad?" she asked, her voice dry. He shrugged. "It's your birthday" he said flatly, inspecting his shiny, black shoes. "No." Emily turned her head, she didn't want him to see the tears. He hadn't remembered. "How's Jane?" he asked again, seemingly ignoring Emily's distress. "You don't know?" She felt angry with him now. Angry he could breeze into her life on today of all days. "Know what?" he asked, his rugged face creased in bewilderment at her animosity. "You really don't know?" Emily asked again, staring at him and feeling a hatred for her father.

Chain 6: Anne Micklethwaite

She wanted to lash out, hurt him, make him realise the endless hurt that she felt. Instead she said, "Jane died, just before last Christmas." It didn't seem possible for his face to become paler, "My little Jane Dead?" She saw him swallow as though his throat had become too narrow. "Yes, Jane died, that leaves me, your unwanted one." Emily began to turn away, she wanted to get away from this familiar stranger. "Wait, we need to talk, everything is altered now, please, I need to tell you something important."

Chain 7: Polly Harris

"Em! Please love!" Emily started at the long forgotten affectionate term. It had been many years since anyone called her 'Em' Her father braced himself, his face lined and shadowed with grief, his voice low and Emily could sense the internal struggle as he battle to keep his voice level and calm. He cleared his throat and started. "Emily - Em...I know we cannot turn back the clock and I know..." He stretched out his hands in an appeal for understanding. Emily stood rooted to the spot, waiting. Unsure of what she was waiting for but sure it would be another thing to rock her fragile world. Her father tried a smile that flitted across his face like a grimace. "

I have married again." The words cold and stark, shook her, she felt her mouth open and close, a strangled feeling in the back of her throat grew and she felt herself choking. Her father carried on regardless. "Em...You would like her. Lara, she is about your age." On he rattled oblivious to her shocked outrage.

He was married and settled and to someone her age, his daughter's age! Whilst she a spinster, a shrivelled up spinster that had striven from girl hood to hold the family together after he 'went' the injustice and pain overwhelmed her and she started to sob, a huge gulping sound and tears that fell like a rainstorm from her eyes. He was here and he was telling her he was married. She hated him and the unseen, unmet other woman in his life.