In the story "Night Calls" by Lisa Fugard, how does the relationship between Marlene and her father change throughout the story?

In the story "Night Calls" by Lisa Fugard, the relationship between the narrator and her father is inverted from the usual parent-child relationship. In a typical parent-child relationship, parent and child begin as one and grow slowly apart, becoming two entities who sometimes feel as though they are strangers. In "Night Calls," father and daughter start out almost strangers. Marlene was 8 when her mother died and she was sent to boarding school, returning home...

In the story "Night Calls" by Lisa Fugard, the relationship between the narrator and her father is inverted from the usual parent-child relationship. In a typical parent-child relationship, parent and child begin as one and grow slowly apart, becoming two entities who sometimes feel as though they are strangers. In "Night Calls," father and daughter start out almost strangers. Marlene was 8 when her mother died and she was sent to boarding school, returning home only for school vacations. When Marlene returns at 13, she receives a handshake rather than an embrace, and is uncomfortable with the intimacy of sitting near her father in his truck. "Filled with his secrets, I felt like a thief and moved a little closer to the window." Over time, Marlene and her father get to know each other. As she watches him, she begins to understand him in a way that is unseen and wordless. Marlene's heart agrees with her father's lie about the hyena break-in though she knows the story is not true, and notes, "I have his eyes." She and her father now see as one, and they are, for the first time, a parent and a child. The connection becomes complete when they rely on one another. Marlene's father, lonely for the lost heron, is rejuvenated by Marlene's bird call. Marlene finally has a purpose for her uncanny gift of birdsong.