Defiance and Exasperation intermingle like waters meeting. One, a river - blue veined, cold. The other an ocean - warm, reaching across the littoral.
'This is just your way of getting back at me. Of making my life miserable.'
'Oh yeah, that'd be right. I can always count on you to sling in a bit of emotional blackmail. When you've run out of everything else. Good one.'
'I'm right though, aren't I?'
'Right? Right? Why does someone always have to be right? Why does that someone always have to be YOU? Why don't you just think whatever you need to, whatever makes you feel good. I'm leaving. Soon as Jerry gets here.'
'Then what?'
'Then...I can start a real life.'
'A 'real life'? What's a 'real life' supposed to be like?'
'One where I don't get spied on. One where I don't get told what to do. One where I'll have the freedom to...'
'Ohhhh...freedom...'
'You always interrupt. I've heard it a thousand times before: "There's no such thing as freedom, freedom doesn't exist, it's just a will-o'-the-wisp fantasy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." '
'Well, it seems something of what I've been saying has filtered into that head of yours, even if it has been distorted.'
A tall woman leans defeated against the doorjamb. Her arms hug herself in a reassuring clench. Fine lines rise from her collarbone forming a pattern as intricate and brittle as coral. Her eyes are grey and softly sad.
'What about a place to live? Have you found a place to live?'
'Yes.'
'And?'
'And it's a small flat in Granville.'
'Oh, no, Cassie. Not Granville!'
' "Oh no, Cassie. Not Granville!" Why not Granville? It's cheap. Close to the shops, close to transport...you can catch a train any time of the day or night, they run every few minutes.'
'How could you consider it? Last year a girl was dragged from that station. A girl, Cassie, not much older than you. You remember as well as I do what happened to her, they drowned her in a bathtub, held her head under, but not before they'd... It was in the papers for weeks.'
The woman shudders - the eternal Mother projecting fate onto her the precious child.
The girl gores with her eyes.
'She must have been careless. Asked for it. I don't know. Anyway, you'd better get used to it, 'cause I've already paid the bond and they don't give refunds. I'm not blowing five hundred.'
'At least tell me you didn't take a ground floor apartment.'
'Don't worry. Any rapist that comes calling will need his Spiderman outfit.'
'That isn't even remotely funny, Cassie.'
A long pause, an oily slick spreading.
'Look, I know things haven't been very...good here lately. There've been moments when I...deserved your...contempt, I suppose. I regret all that, Cassie, all I put you through, but that will change, I'll...Oh no, Cassie, you're not taking the photos?'
'Why not? They're the only things worth taking from this dump.'
'But they might get damaged. Or, or lost. When you come back, you can...'
