A TANGLE OF LIGHT 

By Tessa Harvey


       The time flew by for Adrienne. Later she realised how much she had missed talking to her mother.
    It had been different once when she was a child. The three of them had such fun together going to shining beaches,  climbing local rugged hills, getting deeply involved in local sport. She missed the voices of the children racing round the grassy games areas, floodlights bathing them all in light as darkness fell  and the sea glinted in the distance, reflecting the setting sun.
    "What happened?" Elsie's voice broke into Adrienne's thoughts and she jumped a little, almost knocking over a half-filled water beaker.
    "I...er," a cheerful rattle of trolley wheels, a knock and a friendly voice was offering them a choice of beverages, clinking the white cups and saucers, handing out biscuits and other delicious-looking snacks.
    Both women drank their tea in companiable silence. Adrienne was hungry, grateful  for the snacks.
    "Look," she said, putting down her cup and grabbing a tissue from her backpack. "I really would like to go and get you anything you need. Sorry, I should have offered earlier."
"No worries," Elsie replied. "I am only here another day. They need the beds, you see."
"But your face is all bruised - and what about your ribs?" "There's been worse....I can manage."
    There was an evasiveness in the older woman's worn face. The young girl hesitated. "Have you any home to go to - now I mean? That man - you can't go back."
"But I have to. There's nowhere else."
"No," blurted Adrienne, "I heard that man. He said it was finished. There's no way - he was leaving town!"

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