HOPE

By Tessa Harvey

CHAPTER SIX

(Continued)

Tom thumped to school, kicking grass, stones, flowers. He was sorry his mum got hurt, but they didn't need this lady. He could have managed.

Then he saw a couple of his mates kicking a ball along. At once all thoughts fled. He joined in exuberantly, running and calling. From a window, Leaf and Ayleen watched, relieved. Then they turned to sit down with a coffee each. Leaf picked up her cup, grimacing at the taste. She had made it too strong. Looking at Ayleen here words were calm and measured.

"Please, Ayleen, explain to me why you left your daughter with such a scoundrel of a father?" 

Ayleen had had a powerful dream the night before. She had felt herself falling from a terrible cliff into some sort of abyss. Screams had been torn from her, but nothing, no-one heard. She kept falling past granite sharp rocks; her terror was absolute...Finally she somehow slowed and stopped.

Perched on a slab of bare rock, Ayleen glanced around. The darkness seemed to be brownish in colour, so some details of her surroundings were visible. Total desolation reached as far as she could see. The silence was absolute. Sheer and broken cliffs surrounded her, without even a blade of grass. No life could be discerned. Ayleen cried out: "Oh God, get me out of here, please!" Her voice fell flat. There wasn't even an echo.

But then, instantaneously it seemed, she was in a different place, full of trees, grasses, flowers, flowing brooks, the silvery glint of water. Bright light surrounded her. She saw no-one, but knew others were nearby. Then she felt a Presence amid the birdsong, and heard words deep in her heart: "Ayleen, come to Me. I love you."

That was all, she told Leaf who was staring at her, incredulous that God could love even this awful woman who had abandoned one child and deeply, perhaps permanently, wounded the other child as well.

She swallowed hard. "Ayleen, God has spoken to you. So you have a choice. Do what He says, always. Accept Jesus as your Saviour. There is no other - and find out if you can not only reconcile with your children, but also with their father."

"I...I fell in love with another man. When he found out I was pregnant, he said he was going home to his wife. In another country. Steve must have changed his name as I have done. I thought the Reilly's would look after Hope."

Leaf could not even begin to comprehend this. She was still too angry, despite the amazing dream. She did not doubt that God had spoken to this woman. Leaf wanted to go home.

"Listen," she offered, "I have a great friend here, Jean Lewis, who is older and far more understanding and loving to others than I am. I need to listen more, so God can help me love more. Jean has suffered, and can help. I will stay to introduce her, if you agree."