Jess is finally going! That New Zealand holiday is at its dawn, and all she can think of is landscapes, walks and adventures. But what she does not expect to find, is what is waiting around the corner - someone.
Someone who will turn her holiday up...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Well!"
It was just one syllable - one that packed way too much meaning. Anger? Oh, that was just the tip of it.
Edna spread her hands out in front of her as if to say, 'picture this'. "I wake up and, to my surprise, guess who decides to walk through the door?"
Jess had had only a moment to compose herself - one that was not nearly long enough. In it, her mother had stared at her with anger and something else more subtle, that appeared to make her eyes widen and frown sadly at the same time. Jess had stared back; waiting.
Then her mother's voice had flung itself at her, shattering the silence but freezing the next breath, and her body, in an eon of panicked terror.
In that moment, Jess felt the tiniest bit of hope flee. Had she not sensed it leave, she would never have known she'd had any left at all, and the thought dazed her almost as much as her mother's words.
"So you took your chance?"
Jess blinked, her limbs now going cold. She didn't think she was capable of speaking, but then again, perhaps this was a good thing. That was probably not the moment to make a reply.
"And then you want me to trust you!"
Jess suddenly realised she was hardly breathing. Her mother's reaction was worse than she'd expected; she could barely keep up a steady flow of words - something she had never had remotely any trouble with.
And as her mother stood before her, glaring and bristling but unable to make it past a single sentence at a time, it hit Jess that she did not look like she had just woken up from a nap. Surely she had been up for a while already; had had time to comb her hair and wash the sleep from her face. How long had Jess been away...? She did not dare check the clock.
"Jess," Edna was looking a mite more composed, "I never thought you'd do this. You- I- told you clearly. You were not to go for these walks anymore and you deliberately disobeyed me. You deceived me! Did exactly what I said not to..." The fury in her mother's voice seemed to be ebbing slowly upward, and Jess did not want to think about where it would end up.
She watched as her mother's face tensed, her hand clenched and then released, clenched then released. Her eyes roved from Jess's panic-stricken face to the door, into space, back to Jess's face...
That dangerous vein was bulging in the side of her face, made seemingly closer to popping by her incredibly taut jaw. It resulted in an expression that never failed to make Jess feel sick. Wondering apprehensively what was coming next, she had the impression that her mother was willing the words to break through her tongue-tying fury.
"I am going to have to seriously rethink the freedom I give you. I wanted to give you another chance but there is no way now that I'd-" she flung her hands up into the air, venting her anger; or maybe attempting to throw her troublesome child's issues up to the universe. "The more freedom I give you, the more you take it for granted. I've tried to layan (a malay word, roughly translates to: accommodate - because you want someone to be happy) you, but you're just showing me that you are not ready for it."
