THE CLIFF OF HOPE

THE RESTLESS SHADOW  By Tessa Harvey     Jackson Keneally was on duty when he got a call asking him to drive by a certain address. The caller had sounded uncertain, but worried about his family.     The police sergeant headed that way and cruised by the residence. Lights were still on in the lounge, but the blinds were open and he could see someone watching outside not far from the window. It looked like the outline of a male, but the light was uncertain.     Parking across the entrance to the drive, Jackson quietly exited his vehicle and clicked the door closed after turning off the headlights. He waited.     A vehicle was parked near the front door, but the police officer was not sure if it belonged to the family.     Then he was really puzzled. The waning moon had poked out from some clouds and there was a restless shadow cast on the building wall. The man was moving up and down. Was he crazy? Then the police officer saw what he ...

THE RESTLESS SHADOW  By Tessa Harvey     Clarence snarled as he drove past the modest dwelling. Weak-looking man and winy brats. The woman would have done better with him. She was attractive and with his guidance, could have dressed well and been a useful asset in time. He caught sight of his reflection in the rearview mirror and quickly rearranged his features.     He was on his way to pick up Cynthia. Perhaps she would do. But it rankled that a woman had chosen to walk away from him....     Wendy was finally settling her sons for bed. The evening had not been easy. At last Chris spoke. "Will you leave us?" he stammered, "please don't mummy. We n-need you."     "Yes, mum, please," begged Izak, "don't go with the green car man." He was unaware his father was standing in the doorway. "What's this?" he asked, trying not to let his anger show. He felt ashamed, seeing the boys almost frozen with fear.     "He works where I ...

THE RESTLESS S H A D O W   By Tessa Harvey     The men parted amiably, shaking hands. James smiled. His face ached, as he realised he rarely smiled. He needed to change. Walking to the office, he asked for the times and dates of parent/teacher interviews. The receptionist took details, noting them on her computer and printed a list for the term. She was pleasant, and James decided to wait for his sons near the classrooms.     Other parents were also waiting and he chatted to a few. For the first time in his life, he wondered what his parents thought of him! They had both died a few years ago in a car pile-up due to fog on a busy motorway. He had missed them, largely because his own sons would never remember them.     Surprised to see him, Izak and Chris were mainly silent. Chris was struggling a little with words still. Then he began humming. Izak nudged him to stop, wary of his father's annoyance, but James encouraged them to sing the tune. It was abo...

 THE RESTLESS SHADOW By Tessa Harvey     James had decided to take a much more serious interest in his wife, Wendy and his two young sons, Chris and Izak. As a result, he had been pleasantly surprised to find them cautiously responsive. Desperate, he found himself praying to a god he was really not sure about - to help him, especially with his temper.     Most of his childhood, he remembered he had felt angry. His parents seemed so slow, dull and old. Other dads zipped along in smarter cars or utes. His parents seemed to drive very slowly, very cautiously. He recalled gripping his finger tips tightly under the car seat in sheer frustration.     As a teen he had rebelled, staying out at night, later and later. He managed to save up his meagre wages as an errand boy for the butcher and bought a second-hand motorbike. James loved that bike more than anything else in the world, carefully dismantling and cleaning every treasured piece of machinery and repla...

THE CLIFF OF HOPE   By Tessa Harvey     Wendy drove without paying heed to the fact that she had motored off the road and was driving over a fairly level field she had known since a small girl. The sense of urgency was too strong to ignore. She felt as though she had been caught in a pit of self-centredness. Now all that mattered was her family. Finally, she came to a gate, parked the car carefully on a solid patch of hard ground where the boys from school had once played cricket.     Thankful her shoes were sensible, she went over the gate and heard her husband calling their two boys, pleading for them to answer.     Wendy had never climbed the rugged escarpment herself, finding after a few minutes she definitely had no head for heights and wisely and carefully retreated.      Her husband was holding a torch and she picked her way over the now uneven ground, putting a hand on his arm. He jumped in shock. "Quiet a minute," she whispered,...

THE CLIFF OF HOPE  By Tessa Harvey     Wendy was not enjoying herself. It was a nice restaurant, the waiters were obliging, the food quite good, though all the French words puzzled her.     She thought of James, of her sons, Izak and Chris,....of the house she had worked so hard to make a home. "Why did I quarrel so much?" she thought, sadly. The man she was with was so arrogant and overbearing. How silly she was being. But the man kept showing her photos of himself - in the city with his firm, outside stood on one rugged hill top or another, posing, always posing. There were no other people, just this man smiling at the camera.     "Have another drink." He poured more. "I want to go home," Wendy said, scraping back her chair.     The man clamped a strong arm on hers, hard enough to bruise. He kept squeezing. Tears filled her eyes. "You owe me," he hissed, angrily. The woman struggled to free herself. She flung money on the messy table. "Not...