Free The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig

fuzzing like a ghost.
    He opened the door and he looked down at me with his long old face and twinkleless eyes and in a sad voice he said If it isnt little Philip?
    I said Hello is Leah there please?
    And he said Yes she is come in.
    I went in and it was a weird house a very weird house with pictures of Jesus looking at me and prayers and crosses on the wall and the house smelt like what Mr Davidson the Religion Teacher at school smells of and what the church smells of. It smelt of God which is the smell of old paper.
    And we went into the TV room but it was weird because there was no TV and Mr Fairview raised his old hand to an old green Grandad chair and I sat in it and I thought it must be weird for Leah having a dad who is like a grandad and Mr Fairview said to the stairs Lambkin your friends here.
    I looked round the room and I looked for clues of Mr Fairviews money which is the only reason Uncle Alan likes him but there were no expensive things. I looked at Mr Fairviews brown trousers and his white shirt which I didnt think you could buy anywhere in town and Mr Fairview said Do you follow the good shepherd Philip?
    I said Whos the good shepherd?
    Mr Fairview said The great comforter Philip. The great consoler. He who knows and shares our suffering.
    I still didnt know the answer so Mr Fairview said The Lord Jesus Christ.
    I said Oh.
    Mr Fairview said The good shepherd who gave his life for his sheep.
    Mr Fairviews face changed into a sheeps face for a second and he said Baaa Baaa and I closed my eyes hard and opened them again and he was back to normal and he said to the stairs Lambkin your friends here.
    And this time Leah heard because she said Coming.
    Mr Fairview looked at the ceiling as if there were words written on it that only he could see and he read the invisible words and said Jesus said no man comes unto the Father but by me.
    And Leah started coming down the stairs in a horse gallop like she was a Knight rescuing me.
    Mr Fairview kept looking up and said I am the light of the world he that follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of Baaa Baaa.
    Then all the crosses started to smoke and fire in my mind like the cross that Emperor Constantine saw in the sky before he won a War and made the world go Christian.
    Then Leah came into the room and made everything back to normal and she said Dad were going to go upstairs and do some homework now OK?
    Her voice was softer and sadder than I had ever heard it and I thought it was funny because Leah pretends to be a hard girl but she is a soft girl really and she even lets her Dad call her Lambkin.
    And Mr Fairview said looking into my eyes not the ceiling Yes yes dont let me stop you.
    Then he said Better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king.
    We went upstairs to Leahs bedroom which had posters up and wasnt like the rest of the house. I didnt know where Danes bedroom was.
    Leah said Sorry about my dad.
    I said Hes nice.
    She closed the door and closed the smell of God and said He didnt used to be like this.
    I said Didnt he used to believe in God?
    She said Not like he does now. Not when Mum was still here.
    And I didnt say anything because I didnt think she wanted to talk about it but she kept on talking anyway.
    She said Mum died of Cancer she was ill for ages really ill and when she died Dad got drunk all the time and thought me and Dane couldnt tell he used to walk into things and thought we didnt notice but one day he just stopped drinking and got God instead.
    I said Does he make you go to church?
    She said He used to. Until Dane got picked on at school about it. He doesnt make us go now. He lets us do what we want really.
    I said Dane got picked on?
    She said When he was in Year Nine yeah but after a bit he got into fights with anyone who said he was a Bible Basher and they stopped calling him that.
    I said Oh.
    She said I hate God.
    I said What?
    She said I hate God.
    I said Why?
    She said Because he says you cant do