Tomorrow is Another Day

Dusk settled across the river Thames. Alice emerges from the narrowboat holding a mug of hot chocolate in her pink mittens, which clashes with her green woolly hat. A thick grey scarf her mother gave to her last Christmas is wrapped tightly around her neck to keep the cold out, but her feet are bare. Alice has never felt the cold on her feet. She takes in the quiet evening, the receding sound of the birdsong and the stillness of the water. Behind her there is a limestone bridge – her old existence.

Alice takes a deep breath. The cool evening air fills her with hope. Hope that tomorrow will be another day - a new day – the first day of the rest of her life. The violence of the past is behind her now. No longer will she feel the pain of a fist against an already bruised cheek, the sound of her own bones cracking under her soft pulpy flesh.

“Ally” she hears her name being called from the cabin. Softly she pads back into the warmth of the narrowboat, putting down her mug settling down next to her lover, with her head buried into his chest. A position they are both becoming accustomed to. “So do we stop here? Or do you want to keep on moving?” he asks her gently.

Alice looks through the window beyond the starboard towards the rolling hills of Oxfordshire. “Lets stay here a while,” she answers; a smile forming on her lips, “Lets call this home.”

The sole art that suits me is that which, rising from unrest, tends toward serenity.
~ Andre Gide

About the photo: This photo was taken on a very chilly evening in November 2010 at Port Meadow, Oxford. The colours in the sky and the stillness of the water made it a very idylllic scene.