I’d got into a good little routine – Jane would come to my house as soon as I returned from my morning walk and I’d carry on taking notes from where we’d left off the previous day. She was usually upbeat and eager to tell her story. She had even started walking to my house, after not previously going out much and therefore finding it difficult to walk even short distances. However, yesterday she was depressed; her partner was not happy with what she was doing, after initially being pleased that her life story was going to be written down.

I had one of those uneasy feelings that perhaps all was not well at home. I decided not to ask why her partner wasn’t happy, and just carried on taking notes. Jane wasn’t her usual self and was rather distracted.

I passed Jane’s house this morning and she was not sitting on the doorstep as she usually does. When I came home from my walk I found I’d received a text from Jane to say that she could not make the meeting, and in fact had decided to shelve our project for good. To be honest the message didn’t surprise me; something had been amiss the previous day and she had mentioned in passing that her partner had a rather nasty temper and could ‘smash up the place’ if the fancy took him. Hmm…

Who knows what goes on behind closed doors? What I do know is that poor Jane has had a terrible life, and to tell her story was giving her some kind of therapy. I have a nasty feeling she is still having a less than pleasant existence. However, I don’t really want to investigate further and get a brick through my window or worse.

Stevie’s winter WIP has crashed and burned…