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Back The Wilderness Between Us Save as PDF
Chapters (39)
  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Author’s Note
  4. Glossary
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-One
  26. Twenty-Two
  27. Twenty-Three
  28. Twenty-Four
  29. Twenty-Five
  30. Twenty-Six
  31. Twenty-Seven
  32. Twenty-Eight
  33. Twenty-Nine
  34. Thirty
  35. Thirty-One
  36. Thirty-Two
  37. Thirty-Three
  38. Thirty-Four
  39. Acknowledgments

The room was exactly as she’d left it earlier. The beds were bare, the bags lined up in the centre of the room adjacent to the food supplies that she’d brought in after the visit by the baboons.

The light came from one of the cooler boxes, the flashy one with the battery, digital panel and inside light, which Michelle had bought and sent with Geoffrey and Clare. Somehow, the lid had popped open and the light had come on. Faye chuckled, her legs wobbly with relief, as she recalled the young baboon running her tongue across the lid with its buttons and knobs.

Thirty-Three

Thirty-Three

The sun’s rays were touching the tops of the trees when Faye woke up the next morning. It had occurred to her as, washed and fed, she’d dragged a mattress onto the lawn the night before, that she’d wake up much later. Exhaustion had imbued every cell of her body and she’d slept deeply, dreamlessly. Even so, the lightening sky, cloudless today, and the calls of the birds roused her. She was, she thought, in tune with her surroundings and even some of the creatures she now knew existed there.

The short time she’d either been alone or with Clare in the wilderness had taught her that it was possible to unlock a part of herself and let the world in. The unlocking had also set some things free, and it was good. It was possible, she thought, that the nature within her was as beautiful as the nature around her.

Being with Clare had also shown her how pointless it was to compare herself to others. She wasn’t Michelle or anyone else. She was Faye and the only person she should compare herself to was who she was before and how she might have changed since then. She’d taken so long to learn that. But still, it wasn’t too late. Wiser Faye would be kind to herself, do her best and know that was enough. She knew life could be hard, but also that what she perceived it to be wasn’t always the same as what it really was. She’d find a way to accept that the past was heavy, but that she didn’t have to carry it with her for the rest of her life. She’d put it down and try to forgive herself for lugging it for so long.

She gazed at the cloudless sky and the trees, which today were motionless. The red breasted birds she’d spotted the morning she and Clare walked to the stream hopped about on the lawn. The hadedas were back too, but the baboons were nowhere to be seen or heard. Faye wondered if it would be possible to find somewhere to live beyond suburbia so she could wake to similar peace and see the world afresh every morning.