Free Daisy Madigan's Paradise by Suzy Turner Page B

croaked.
    'I'm really
going to miss you, Jack.'
    'I'm really
going to miss you too. I'll never forget you,' he whispered as he
leaned forward and gently placed a kiss on her cheek. A kiss that
she could have swore she actually felt.
    'I promise
never to forget you too, Jack.'
    'Daisy?' he
asked.
    'Yes?'
    'I... I love
you,' he whispered before he stood up and began to walk away.
    'I love you
too, Jack,' she said to him quietly. He turned to look at her with
a smile and then before she knew it, he was gone.
    Her stomach
twisted and knotted and tears began to pour down her cheeks. But
then she suddenly had the most overwhelming desire to sing, so she
opened her mouth and very quietly began singing the song that had
brought her and Jack together:
    'When she was
just a girl
She expected the world
But it flew away from her reach so
She ran away in her sleep
And dreamed of
Para-para-paradise, Para-para-paradise, Para-para-paradise
Every time she closed her eyes...'

CHAPTER
19
     
    Beau Madigan
awoke with such intense aches and pains that he couldn't bear it.
His body shook with such a desperation and need for alcohol that he
clambered out of the place Daisy called home and, without even
telling her, he left Abney Park.
    Daisy was busy
elsewhere at the time, trying to convince a man in Highgate that
his great, great, great, great grandfather was trying to
communicate with him. The man was having none of it, until Daisy's
ghost mentioned he had buried treasure in the family garden,
twenty-five yards due east from the ancient oak tree.
    Then he had no
trouble believing what she had to say. In fact, she went along with
him, across the grounds of the grand old house and watched as he
used an old spade to dig deep into the earth. When he hit upon
something solid, the ghost smiled at her and drifted away,
immediately crossing through the bright light and over to the other
side.
    Daisy
congratulated the man on his find and decided to leave.
    She was
worried about her dad and knew she needed to get back to check on
him.
    On her way
back, she stopped in to see Balvinder and Shariq to ask their
opinions on alcohol addiction. They both said her father should
seek medical help and so that's what she decided to do.
    But on finding
him gone on her return, Daisy sighed heavily and busied herself
with helping another ghost to cross over.
    She knew he'd
come back, she didn't know how she knew, she just did.
    Late that
night, sure enough she found him wandering around the gravestones
of the cemetery, completely drunk with another bottle of vodka in
his hands.
    'Dad... again?
You need to stop this. I wish you would just stop it... for me.
There's so much we need to talk about. I need you to tell me about
the tattoo and why I'm so strong and fast and... different. Please,
Dad.'
    Beau looked at
her and dropped the bottle. It smashed against a gravestone just
before he collapsed in a heap on the ground.
    Daisy took a
deep breath and sighed when a sudden noise in the darkness startled
her. Worried it was that scary gang, her initial instinct was to
disappear up a tree, leaving her father behind on the ground. She
cursed to herself as she sat, watching her comatose father below.
But it was too late to go and get him as a guy suddenly emerged
through the trees.
    She shivered,
hoping it wasn't one of the members of that terrifying gang. He
disappeared as quickly as he'd appeared so Daisy climbed back down
to her father and scooped him up as fast as she could. She hid
behind a huge tree for a moment and waited to see if the guy would
return. Soon, him and eleven other teenagers re-appeared. One of
them even began to clear up the broken glass her father had
broken.
    Content that
they were just regular teenagers, she stealthily disappeared again
to another of her favourite spots: one of the largest headless
angels in the park. Sitting down beneath it with her father by her
side, Daisy thought of Jack. She smiled, remembering the times they
had spent together. I