ABUSER RETURNS

Originally uploaded by Heidenseek

When I woke up this morning there was an atmosphere of eerie stillness; I knew that something had happened. Pulling back the curtains and peering outside, everything was coated white; it meant only one thing, Jack Frost had paid a visit.

I dressed quickly and ran outside heading for where Nellie Nuttall lived at the bottom of our garden. I was too late. She wasn’t just bruised, she was black; her crimson skirts had been discarded on the ground and she remained there, silent and solitary. She hadn’t called out in the night, she hadn’t tried to resist or even attempt to decamp to a local refuge. Not Nellie, she took the punishment Jack meted out silently; she didn’t want to be a bother to anyone.

It’s the same at the start of every winter, Jack comes back from wherever he’s been over the summer and the abuse starts. Domestic violence units or refuges were of no interest to Nellie, she was convinced Jack would get her wherever she went.

Now Nellie was only a half hardy fuchsia; imagine if she was your next door neighbour.