The Daddy Whose Face Changed At Breakfast.
When Jeremy got out of bed in the morning, he usually felt so tired he sometimes did not open his eyes until he was at the breakfast table, and then he would wake up! I bet you do too sometimes don’t you?
And the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was his bowl of cornflakes. After seeing his cornflakes were alright he would then look at his glass of milk and then he would lifts his eyes up and look at his daddy who was always sitting opposite him, he would then say good morning to his daddy and start crunching his cornflakes.//
But this morning when he looked at his daddy, something was different, his daddies face had changed.
Now Jeremy was a very polite little boy so he did not say anything.
And he he did not say anything the next time, when his fathers face had changed again or the next day when it had changed even more.
And on the fourth day Jeremy realised what was happening to his fathers face.
Parts of it were missing//
When his daddy had gone to work Jeremy asked his mother why were parts of his fathers face missing?//
That is the sound his mother laughing.
His face is not missing, she said//
His mother is laughing again/
Your father is growing a beard.//
She cannot stop ;laughing can she?
What’s a beard asked Jeremy?
A beard said his mother is when the hair on the top of your head grows down on your face as well.
Jeremy did not like the idea at all of hair growing on his face.
Feeling quite frightened, he asked - will I grow a beard?
No said his mother You can only grow a beard when you get old.
But you, Mummy he said, are you going to grow a beard?//
She is laughing again.
No said his mummy girls don’t grow beards.
Why not asked Jeremy?
Because girls have prettier faces than boys so their hair stays at the top of their heads. Otherwise the boys couldn’t see their pretty faces!
Over the next few week Jeremy watched as his father’s beard got longer and longer
Every time his father ate a biscuit crumbs would fall into the beard. And his father would have to shake them out.
Whan his father drank his tea little droplets of tea would fall in the beard which would leave drips as he went to the kitchen.
And when Jeremy looked into the bedroom when his father was sleeping, the beard would be flapping// until his mother reached out and grabbed it to keep it quiet.
Can you stop your beard growing Jeremy asked his father.
I can said his father but I am not going to. You see I’m growing a beard because it is winter time and the beard keeps my face warm.
Now, I am not talking to you about a little short beard here. The sort of short pointed little beard that makes a man look like a pixie. Because, as the winter went on Jeremy’s father’s beard got longer and longer, until he it was so long he had to hold it up in front of him in case he trod on it.
And at night before he went to sleep he would curl it upon the floor beside the bed in case it got tangled up with Jeremy’s mother, and on the bus going to work he had to pay for two seats. One for himself and one for his beard.
Jeremy forgot what his father looked like because each morning, when he looked across table all he saw were two eyes a nose and a mouth and a big black forest of hair that his father had wound around his neck otherwise he couldn’t see his breakfast.
And as the weeks went by the beard got longer and longer and Jeremy got more and more fed up.
When he played football with his father the beard would often wrap around his legs making him fall over, and they could not go out for walks together anymore on a windy day because the wind would blow the beard about and it would wrap around a lamppost. And worst of all, during Jeremy’s birthday party when Jeremey blew out the candles on his birthday cake his fathers beard caught fire and they had to waste a whole bottle of lemonade pouring it over his father to but the beard out!
And then one morning //
Jeremy shouted
He had had a shock when he looked up from his cornflakes
He shouted again.
His mother ran in from the kitchen.
Jeremy what has happened?
Him Jeremy pointed.
There’s a strange man looking at me. He cried
//
And that’s Jeremy’s mother laughing.
That’s not a strange man that’s your father. She said.
It’s not Jeremy pushed away his cornflakes.
It is, now that was his fathers voice.
The man with the white face sitting opposite was his father but his face had come back together again.
You father has shaved off his beard.//
His mother was laughing again.
I don’t need it anymore, said his father - its summer now, my face is lovely and warm.
//
Jeremy started to eat his cornflakes again,//
Then stopped. He liked his fathers face much better without the beard. He looked much happier and a lot cleaner. But an unhappy thought suddenly came into his head.
Will you grow another beard next winter daddy?
Ah said his daddy we will have to wait and see.
But, for the moment Jeremy was happy and his father was happy and his mother was happy because//
She was laughing again.