Page 35 of The Reservoir Tapes
They were embarrassed, honestly. Ashamed.
They didn’t like the thought of what people would say.
They felt rejected.
They were worried that people would think they must
have been terrible parents,
for their daughter to just
leave, like that.
So they didn’t tell anyone.
They said she’d gone to London, to work.
They said she was staying with a cousin of Jacek’s.
They changed the subject when it came up.
It seems ludicrous, now. But
they thought she’d be back.
People must have known
something wasn’t right.
But people don’t pry.
The letters kept coming, and the photographs. Always with different postmarks.
Later, when they thought about moving house, they didn’t dare.
She wouldn’t know
where to send the letters,
they thought.
There hasn’t been a new picture for six years now,
but there will be. Laura won’t let her down.
She has her own life. Ginny can be happy for her.
She probably has children, now.
A child.
It’s impossible to know, but it seems likely.
She wonders, sometimes, whether having a child
would make Laura want to come back.
She has pictured it,
