THE CHASM

THE LONELY DESERT PART 2 - THE BROKEN WOMAN   By Tessa Harvey But Shayla had stopped her small vehicle, now glistening in the rain, threatening all day, now tumbled down. She thought for a few minutes.     To be honest, she didn't really see how racing after that old woman and Ariella would help. Turning around and no longer following was a huge step for her, but all she longed for now was her dear beautiful baby Alfie and her mother figure of Auntie Ruth.      She drove back through the dashing rain and calmly walked up to the front door of her recent work place. It was still hanging open. Aware of twitching lace curtains and blinds, Shayla glanced up at the door, miming horror she had left it open and calmly hurried to shut it, but first she glanced inside for anything else useful. She made a show of searching her black and silver carry bag as though she had forgotten something, then went inside.     Well, the absence of the patient could not be...

THE LONELY DESERT PART TWO - THE BROKEN WOMAN By Tessa Harvey "What about my wages?" argued Shayla, a little ashamed, but determined to be heard. "I have a baby to look after, Mrs....whatever is old anyway.  What's wrong with euthanasia?" No-one answered. The old lady and young Ari were already stumbling down the few steps. This lady knows about Duffer's dad and his mean ancestors. Act first, work it out later, she thought. No wonder that Duffer Dylan is an idiot - which was very unfair, but the old woman smelt badly and had bed sores,  her clothes were quite obviously dirty and food was not on a firm foundation as a necessity in her life. Shayla looked at the messy bed, the crumpled bed clothes and wondered why she hadn't noticed, but I am so tired,  she thought. Glancing around, she saw the locked drawer where Adolf rather stupidly kept money for wages. Taking up the smelly bedpan, checking it was empty (yuk?) she smashed it against the flimsy lock. In...

THE LONELY DESERT PART TWO - THE BROKEN WOMAN By Tessa Harvey     There was a knock at the elderly patient's front door. As it was a very old house, the narrow door opened straight from the lounge to the street outside.     Shayla leapt up in horror, trying to reach the medication tray. "Wait," whispered the now alert lady, "Stoneface never knocks.  Barges straight in. Open It." Ariella stood at the top of the three worn steps, smiling. "Come in, oh come in," cried Shayla, desperate for a friend. They hugged briefly. "I've been trying to find you for days. It was awful finding your car abandoned in the desert, but then....." Ariella broke off, staring at the medicine tray and the now smiling patient. "Renate!" Ari exclaimed, "what's going on?"  "Get me out of here," ordered that lady. "I need to go straight to your boyfriend's father, the lawyer," she said, impatiently, weak but fully alert....

 THE LONELY DESERT PART TWO- THE BROKEN WOMAN By Tessa Harvey         "'Ere" old Coriander had said, "you is joking, ain't yer?" Aunt Ruth and Shayla had looked at each other sadly and then back at tiny, helpless Alfie fast asleep, sucking a small clenched fist. The elderly lady's cantankerous habitual look had faded. Her mouth was open, she looked close to tears.     "Berbaric!" she mumbled and looked out of the door letting in more frigid air. This time the baby, snuggled tight and warm, hunger temporarily assuaged, had not stirred. In a soft whisper, the woman inside heard "I'll not tell," a statement of such fierce vehemence no-one could doubt the sincerity - but Shayla was wool-gathering. She shook off the last traces of sleep and now stared at her patient who was trying to move herself upright. "Please," the voice sounded rusty and disused, "please, no more drugs." "Please!" she pleaded again, ...

THE LONELY DESERT PART TWO - THE BROKEN WOMAN   By Tessa Harvey     Renate Jaeger stirred restlessly. It was always so very dark - all the time. She tried to remember why this was so. Her mind cleared a little for the first time in a very long while. Opening her eyes, the old lady tried to focus. At first everything was still a muddle and a blur then slowly she could make out a very young woman asleep in a chair near the bed. For a while, she drifted, dreaming of wandering the bluebell woods as a child in Europe. How lovely they were, swathes of glorious blue, the trees just foaming into blossom, leaves still new-green, almost glowing in the sunlight dappling the stillness.     She sensed movement and suddenly horror gripped her. She had to get away. She moved leaden limbs. They must have drugged her again. The girl in the chair - perhaps she would help....     Shayla Wilson woke up suddenly, alarmed. It had been a long night, yet another boring shift,...

THE LONELY DESERT  By Tessa Harvey     Ariella, Shayla's friend swooped down the hill and  unknowingly flung out her darker hair and let it blow freely just as Shayla had done days earlier, almost in the same place.      Though she left on Shayla's trail, Ariella was determined also to enjoy her week's break from school. The children who lived some distance away had twittered like noisy sparrows as they filed boisterously onto their bus. It was holiday-time, but snow was threatening to close the high pass on the way home and they were leaving early, excited. Ariella laughed as she remembered. Here it was warm!     Part of her wondered if Shayla might resent being followed like an errant child, but lately an unease had deepened. Few prayed to God, the God of the Bible in the person of Jesus Christ, but Ariella knew this feeling of unease was not something weird of psychic. It was God's  Presence in her life! Dylan Dufaye aka Duffer was in...

THE LONELY DESERT  By Tessa Harvey     A terrible noise grated through Shayla's musings. No, not more problems. This was her special week's holiday. It was meant to be perfect. She thumped the steering wheel as the car ground to a halt. Then she bent over the wheel, her head on her arms and cried. Being nineteen and alone, doing boring terrible drudgery jobs at the clinic just to make ends meet. Men were getting fed up with her. She knew they were, but they would not take responsibility. Shayla just needed company. The irony was she desperately avoided having a baby - and now was in trouble because of a baby! It wasn't fair.     She turned on the car radio. An incredibly huge object was hurtling through space at unimaginable speeds. Suddenly she realised she had company.      It was the people she had met before. They heard the news story as they approached. "Hell," muttered the man nearest Shayla's vehicle, "could be the end of everything. No-one...

THE LONELY DESERT  By Tessa Harvey     Ruth acted immediately and hastily pulled Shayla and the precious wailing child into the hallway and into the back kitchen, shutting all doors firmly with one hand, waving Shayla to be quiet with the other. The child insisted on being heard. It was cold, it was miserable, it was hungry.           Auntie Ruth was old, at least to her niece, but even Shayla was stunned to silence as her aunt quickly boiled a kettle, rocking the child with one arm. Relieved, the younger woman had opened the lounge door, managing to close it and disappeared. She trusted Auntie Ruth.     Ruth had a tiny dropper and syringe. Waiting for the water to cool, she then looked at the baby for the first time. He was looking at her, very dark eyes scarcely blinking. An old soul, she thought, though she no longer believed such things.     The dropper was carefully washed in very hot water. It was old and Ruth sighed...

THE LONELY DESERT  By Tessa Harvey     At the door of her family home,   misgivings overtook her. Mum and dad supported her fully, aware of her work. It was hard to get a job. There were always problems, even in the world of nursing. Awkward relationships were a given in every sphere - and an abortion clinic was not a place where you could work from home!           The baby stirred. It would be hungry and soon cry. She supposed babies could cry a lot. Her brothers and sisters were either adolescent teens or older children. She did not know any babies.      Auntie Ruth! - the definition of a wonderful person! Shayla drove the dingy back streets of her town and knocked on Ruth's door. It was midnight.     Ruth Morgan was buried under a heap of bedclothes, dreaming of absolutely nothing as usual, but then she heard faint knocking. Damn, of damn, she thought, the neighbours. They were the proverbial neighbours from h...

THE LONELY DESERT   By Tessa Harvey     Phillip and Joan sauntered over to the increasingly rowdy group of locals and bought drinks for all, smiling graciously at the silly hicks. Step one had gone amazingly well.     But one quiet patron wondered. As someone, probably anonymous had said, "You can fool some of the people some of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."     Phillip looked tired, slightly dishevelled, grey and balding. "Will she help us?" he quietly asked his sister Joan. Once again she had reverted to the rather sharp middle aged woman Shayla had glimpsed at the last bed and breakfast. She looked thoughtful. "Apart from that kid, Shayla, Wilson is totally alone - family annoyed boyfriend left in a sulk. A kid that could be trouble is a great arm-twister. But we will stay with softly, softly for now."     Shayla lay in the narrow hostel bed in the grim no-frills ro...

THE LONELY DESERT   By Tessa Harvey     Phil and Joan asked about her life, her family, her friends. They were marvellous listeners. Few people really listened, just tuning out or thinking about the next thing they could say, creating pauses, whether the speaker was ready or not. And they smiled delightedly when she described her large and funny family. Finally Shayla told them why she had left this large and funny family. A baby had been left to die following a full-term abortion at the hospital where she worked. They looked suitably sad and, no matter his private views, Phil waited. Then Joan said very quietly and softly "Oh my poor dear, how distressing. What happened?!" She reached out her own soft bejewelled hand and patted Shayla's worn small one. It was the last straw. Shayla began to cry and missed the quick victory glance of Adolf and Hitler.     The baby had looked so beautiful - warm brown skin, rapidly turning blue and cold. He looked puzzled, as tho...

THE LONELY DESERT   By Tessa Harvey     A pleasant older man entered, looked around the small dining area of the hotel. He seemed very pleased to see the lady from the black SUV. They greeted each other warmly, looked around and saw Shayla was alone and wandered casually over.     The woman, who had seemed so unpleasant in the small bed and breakfast was now all smiles. They introduced themselves as dear friends, Philip and Joan. Later Shayla would call them Adolf and Hitler, not realising both names applied to the same man. History was not a strong point. History, of course was mainly totally disregarded by modern forward-thinking youth. And often by others - history, as they say, doomed to repeat itself. But Phillip and Joan were warm, friendly, generous with their time and money, and Shayla used to a large family, was now lonely.

THE LONELY DESERT  By Tessa Harvey     Shayla felt far from any danger. How lovely these people were!     After a long journey alone, she had reached a small town. To her huge relief, there was a pub and a small hotel. She had expected there to be not much in the way of comfort - and there wasn't, but it would suffice. Basically she needed somewhere to shower, wash her clothes and most importantly feed the car and herself.     The food was good. The people in the pub were talkative or quiet, but not intrusive Well, not very. Then the vehicle she had seen before a few times pulled into the front car park, and the occupant wandered in. The locals were very pleased. Most were young, waiting to leave town for a bright city - or older, and settled. The people on the big cattle stations came in periodically, but had recently left.

THE LONELY DESERT  By Tessa Harvey Ariella looked up from grading her students' work. Her favourite pupils were the firt years, aged eleven.      She taught English mainly. The class had seventeen students. At the last lesson each Friday the children brought their chairs up on the teacher platform and listened while she read to them from an interesting and exciting children's book. Of course her older students mattered also. She glanced around the classroom, though barely noticing the artwork on the walls, the stunning posters... Her thoughts were with her friend far away in a red-dust desert.     The photo of the black SUV had obviously disturbed Shayla for some reason, but then there was the beautiful and riveting shot of the sunset fading around a giant baobab tree outside a roadhouse. Then nothing.     Perhaps Shayla was just out of range now.     Putting aside her school papers, Ariella moved to pack her bag and return home.   ...

THE LONELY DESERT By Tessa Harvey     Evening was closing in a crimson fanfare of cloud and sky, the earlier presagers of storm vanquished entirely.     Drowsily, Shayla signed in at the small Bottletree Bed and Breakfast. Out in front was an enormous baobab tree, squat and serene in the now lambent light of evening.     She signed in at the polished desk and a small-built tidy man showed her to her room. The door was ajar which discomforted the manager as he scanned the door number and matching key. An older woman was perched on the bed, calmly filing her nails. "Excuse me, do you have the wrong key?" inquired the hotel owner. He looked puzzled. The other woman held up an identical key, smiling somewhat nastily.     He turned away and beckoned, leading Shayla to another room, then went to get the appropriate key, aplogising. "Sometimes keys go missing."     Shrugging away the incident, Shayla dumped the backpack and immediately found wh...

THE LONELY DESERT By Tessa Harvey     Shayla smiled, overjoyed. Freedom! Her car flew along the desert road, the red dust finding all the cracks and crevices in the vehicle and sifting inside. Unperturbed, she lowered her window and her hair flew free, streaming red-gold around her face. More dust flew in joyously and Shayla lowered her speed as an incline drew closer. She moved over to the left, allowing a wide safety margin for any speeding road train.     For a long while, the road had been following a flat landscape. The young woman decided to pull up and take a look at the view afforded by this elevation. Several hundred metres away a black vehicle was parked and Shayla felt a frisson of inexplicable unease.     Shayla got out of her car. It was really an off-road vehicle but not too high off the ground for her to struggle. Reaching for her phone, the woman took some photos of the surrounding rocks and stunted trees and bushes. Pressing for a close-up...