Cuddled in a ball, sitting up on a hard-padded cot, a young girl was waiting. She didn't know exactly what for, yet, but she knew she was waiting. For the tides to turn, or at least slow down. For the sun to shine, or at least come out for a while, any type of improvement on her life as it was at the moment would suffice. Although, improving on the current situation wouldn't be too hard.Her father had died. Her only friend, the only person she truly loved, gone.It was such a sudden death and a sudden change of life for Carlie Walker..."Two plus two is what class?" Ms. Patterson challenged the class. The entire room echoed in unison with the word 'four', and Ms. Patterson went on with her multiplication queries.Ms. Patterson was a young teacher; Bright, cunning and beautiful. Every student she taught felt very thankful to be educated by such a magnificent woman. The bell rang, loud and clear. The students were dismissed to recess.During this time, Ms. Patterson had parent conferences to discuss how they're child was progressing in her year four class. Today a tall dark and lean man walked in and introduced himself. "What a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Walker. Carlie writes all about you in her stories. Every time I get the class to paint a picture or write a story, you are in it every time! It's quite amazing. You must be quite the father, I suppose," Ms. Patterson said."Well I spend a lot of time with my dear Carlie, especially since her mother died. She died in child birth, so Carlie never knew her," he trailed off with memories of Julie. "How beautiful she was, so perfect." "Oh, I'm so sorry. It must have been a terrible loss for you," she sympathized. "As you can imagine. I'm all Carlie has. Her and I, I and her. She means the world to mean and I mean the same to her That's the way it's always been. We've been through some rough times but we somehow made it through every one of them. Thank God," he said.The meeting went on for the remainder of the students' recess time. Mr. Walker asked Ms. Patterson if he could take Carlie home early so they could go get ready to watch a charity football match that was starting in the afternoon. He was granted permission and off they went, driving down the road in his white 1984 Holden Ute."Are we gonna watch the Tigers play, daddy?" Carlie asked. "Well of course we are, honey. Who else would we barrack for? The Dragons... unlikely!" and they both laughed. All along the way to the stadium, they chatted and giggled, teased and tormented, having fun even before they got to the game.They bought the tickets and sat down...
