At our Writers’ Circus group we were given the topic for January 2019 of “a new beginning”.

As often happens, after a period of cogitation, with time pressing, I began to type with no clear idea of where I was heading.

This story came almost completely as a block of words, as if it had been lurking in my mind for years. And no, it is not autobiographical.

In its first version as submitted to the group, it was clunky and one-sided, written dispassionately, as if the narrator and observer were two different people. Then Kareth my inspirational, long-suffering editor and friend, encouraged me to ‘go for it!’, supplying insights and corrections from a female perspective.

I hope you will not find it too explicit.