THE CHASM

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...