THE JOURNEY 

By Tessa Harvey

    Alice's heart beat strangely. It was like a dream. "Where is your mother?" she asked. Even her voice felt funny. "Her drownded." The little boy stepped forward, remembering.
    Josie wondered why Alice did not have more sensitivity. Then the girl came and held her brother's hand. "The teacher said she went to heaven, but she didn't - just down, down in the sea."
    "Wait," commanded Alice, glancing round. "Here is a bench. Sit down, I will come back. You can listen to the birds here. No fighting or bangs.
    She went back through the hospital doors, amazed. There must be a God, she thought. Those two children, so dark, so like her new friend who talked endlessly of the lost husband and children and who stared, sadly out of the window, remembering.
    Inside the hospital, Anemone suddenly saw the two small children dancing in among the trees, spinning around in the sunshine. 
    "Come," called Alice in the doorway. "Come and see." But the young woman was already running, bandaged leg forgotten. She ran outside into sunshine. "God's Love and Light and happiness and the children flew into her arms like birds swooping home. "Mama, mama!"

THE END

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