Bound by the Scars We Share
Page 14
* * *
The train journey to another part of the country made Grace, who was travelling alone, feel as though she was leaving herself behind and moving through the motion of the train into someone else’s life. She watched the landscape fly past her with visions of her memories flashing before her eyes. She saw her father and mother sternly looking back at her through the windowpane and images of Peter’s fierce face rose up slowly from the hard, metal railway tracks. Grace could see her own children running in the meadow, happy and carefree. She imagined Larry looking at her closely from the empty seat opposite her, with his handsome, charming smile. His smile had betrayed her. She had loved him deeply and nearly ended her life because of him, as she remembered the moon which seemed to have left her too on that fateful night – a memory that would haunt her forever. Grace saw Alison smiling at her through the glass window of the train and she gazed up from her drawings with a reassuring look, Grace was propelled back to reality. She was shocked and surprised that during this journey, the past had taken her over completely, leaving no room for the present. Excitement replaced these sojourns into days gone by, as she prepared to arrive at Liverpool’s Lime Street Station.
* * *
“Hurry up, Babella or you will be late to collect your friend,” Zoshia called to her daughter urgently. She could see that Victoria was very excited.
There was something strange about her enthusiasm as she chattered. “I can’t wait for you to meet her, Mushki.” Zoshia didn’t really understand her daughter’s elation but was happy for her. “I’m off to collect her now and will bring her here,” Victoria called, as she ran out to the car. Zoshia watched her six-year-old child waving to her as she ran along the path under the pastel, rose covered arch framing the gateway. Her adult daughter turned to wave to her mother, which brought Zoshia’s mind back to the present. As Victoria drove off, Zoshia stood in the porch and saw her two young sons playing at being cowboys behind the bushes. She could hear little Victoria’s cries as she shouted at the boys for drawing on her beloved doll’s head.
Those moments have gone, Zoshia thought to herself. They have been replaced… She saw the German soldiers running across the rooftops and could hear the sound of their jackboots as they marched determinedly past her gate. The children with yellow stars beckoned to her, as they were thrown violently into the van… Oh why did these visions have to plague her at the very moment when she should be happy? She braced herself. Knowing her own real strength, Zoshia closed the front door. Thinking about her daughter’s happiness, she went into the kitchen to put the kettle on and set the table. The cake she had made (her mother’s recipe) looked very inviting.
* * *
Grace’s dear friend was at the station to welcome her. How good it felt to see her again; someone she trusted completely and who she could rely on. The age difference had never mattered in their relationship. Their friendship was real and honest. It was love. “I’m so glad you’re here, Grace,” Victoria uttered in an excited voice.
“I don’t know what to say, except that I wish you every happiness,” Grace mumbled sincerely, but with difficulty.
“Come on, my car isn’t too far away,” her friend said pulling her along and laughing gaily. Victoria knew how difficult it was for dear Grace to make this journey. As they drove to Victoria’s family home, Grace became filled with excitement and expectation. She had never seen Victoria look so happy. This abated her earlier feeling of doubt and, as Grace looked at her, she could see someone who had been reborn through finding sincere and honest love.
As they arrived at Zoshia’s house, a strange sense of something known, of something shared, enveloped Grace’s being. Walking up the path tentatively, she felt an odd familiarity which she could not comprehend. Zoshia peered nervously through the curtains and watched Grace arrive. A peculiar form of consciousness inexplicably pervaded her being. Looking curiously at her daughter’s friend she could see…
Zoshia opened the door and the two women just gazed at each other in simple silence. In each other’s eyes they saw their own plight, their own grief and their own suffering. They were strangers, yes, but in that moment, they experienced an affinity between them. Instinctively they both moved to each other and embraced. They wept as if they would never stop. Grace and Zoshia clung to each other, bound by the scars they shared, each knowing and recognising the other’s pain. In unison, the two women turned to Victoria and looked at her with hope as she stood on the threshold of married life. They then stared back at each other. Their tears had gone.