Dear Mummy,

The most amazing thing happened today. I had a visitor. Saturday is grocery day here and Weasel Face had taken me into town to go to the supermarket. When we got back Zoe came to the door and said there was someone here to see me. My first thought was that it was you, that you’d come to get me, but when I went into the living room I saw a woman with blonde hair sitting on the sofa. She jumped to her feet when she saw me and said I looked so much like my daddy. I just stood and stared at her for a moment. She was really beautiful. She was wearing a long pale-pink coat and a cream polo-neck jumper and her eyes, when she looked up at me, were the strangest colour – a mix of green and gold, like autumn leaves. She told me to sit down then she said that she had come to see if I was okay. She said she was a friend of Daddy’s and that he had sent her with some presents for me. Then she reached down into her bag and handed me a parcel. The wrapping paper was covered in Disney characters. Inside there was a pack of coloured pencils, a Barbie doll and a bag of sweets. I said thank you and she smiled. Then I asked her why my daddy hadn’t come and she said he wanted to but it was complicated and that he’d sent her instead. I asked if she knew you and she went all funny, like she’d caught a bad smell. I asked if you were coming to get me and she said she didn’t know. When she said that I started crying and she put her hand on my shoulder and said she was sorry, she hadn’t wanted to upset me. Then Zoe came in with cups of tea but the woman said she couldn’t stay, that she had to get back. I asked her where she lived and she said it was a ‘long long way away’ and by the sea. When she stood up to go I told her to tell Daddy to come and get me. She said she would try her best. Then she told me to be a good girl and that she’d come back and see me again soon. As she went to leave I realized I hadn’t asked her name. She looked a bit flustered, when I said that, like she couldn’t remember it or something. But then she shook my hand and said, ‘Just call me Freya.’

When she left I sat on the sofa and shared my sweets with Zoe. I told her about Freya and how she knew my daddy and that it meant he must be coming for me soon but Zoe just rolled her eyes and said that she’s seen hundreds of visitors like her, that they’re just do-gooders who get their kicks from bringing presents to kids like us, that she probably doesn’t even know my dad. I got sad then and couldn’t finish my sweets.

I hope she’s wrong, Mummy.

I love you.

Your lovely daughter xxx