Ida hugs Rose as she cries after being abused by Mark. Shot directed by Rosie Murray - anthony minott

Wednesday Reed, STAR Writer

Rose finds comfort in Ida's arms. It is the first time in years that she has cried in front of her mother

Rose stood and stared at herself in the mirror. The red scarf around her neck seemed to be a red slash bleeding against the stark white purity of her suit.

For about the fifth time that morning, she tied it and untied it again, to make sure that it covered the marks left on her throat. She gathered her hand bag from the bed and went to her mother's room. Rose tapped softly on her mother's door.

"Mama," she called.

"Come in Rose."

"I was just letting you know that I'm leaving Mama."

"I said to come inside chile."

Sighing deeply, Rose pushed the door to her mother's room. She didn't have the strength for another confrontation, not after last night.

No hiding from mama

Her eyes were tired and her lids seemed to weigh a tonne from her bout of crying. So this morning, in a desperate attempt to put her best face forward, she had put on her best suit instead. It was the closest she could come. And while she was sure that she could hide her shame from those at work she wasn't sure she could hide it from her mother. That woman could eat through her like chi-chi through wood. There would be no hiding from her.

"What is it Mama?" Rose asked remained in the shadows of the doorway avoiding the bright light of morning and its revelatory power. Her mother sat at the edge of the bed facing the window on the far side of the room, her black large print bible on her lap. Her head was also uncovered.

Unheeded tears

"Yuh look tired," Ida told her.

The words seemed to remove the cork that held in the tears Rose had been trying to bottle up all morning. They came unheeded and would not stop. She leaned against the wall, her hand still on the door knob and let them flow. She hated crying before her mother, who never seemed to sympathise with such weakness.

"You goin to let them kill you Rose?"

Rose did not hear when her mother got up from the bed. She simply felt when the older but smaller woman held her close.

Rose towered over her mother as she as so since she was about 16 years old. but when her mother held her she felt like a child again and for the first time in years longer than she could remember she felt it was all right to cry before her mother, that for once the two of them were standing on the same side of the swinging bridge which hung precariously between them.

This one moment of closeness would not erase all the years of misunderstanding that lay between them, carefully built by careless words and carefully placed jabs delivered in supposed self-defence.

"Put down the bag Rose."

Next Mark and Dennis size up each other. It is a confrontation that Dennis has longed for. But, will he be able to come out on top. Tell us what you think about the story so far by sending a text message to 467-2165 or an email to star@gleanerjm.com.