Andrew's decision -1970

Edit :
More editing in progress. It's such a big job and I only had short whisps of time to do it in. That's why I only work on one bit at a time and in no particular order.

In his sweaty afternoon sleep, Andrew dreams of lush green English fields, spread out before him as he takes in the scent of fresh rain on leaves of tall oaks. When he was nineteen, he discovered a longing to go on a path of his own, back to Jenny, back to Australia. A foreign place from these deep greens and yellows. Foreign tracks leading to the dry heat of outback summer in Wagga. He searches his memory for her again, each month fading into feelings he had for her rather than her eighteen-year old face in the photos he held close to his heart. In his half-sleep, Andrew is standing at a cross-road. He concentrates especially on his mother’s need to have him close as his father is dying. These thoughts are interrupted by the memory of the other path, the one from where he stands now and the long journey back to resettling in Australia. At the end of it was Jenny. Both of them working together for their future; for themselves and for their own family. The sky in his dream was a deep and troubled grey, a single ray of sunshine splitting the clouds for a short time but the clouds hung sullenly all around him. He turned toward the ray of sunshine and started running towards it, through puddles which became deep and cumbersome. Thunder mumbles softly at first, but intensity builds as he ventures out of one puddle and into the next. Suddenly it became too hard for him to continue his journey. Beaten, he looks behind him and sees his mother in the distance on the other road and, as much as he longs to be with Jenny, he knows it is easier to stay in England. This feeling of belonging is strong. He allows it to happen, but not without doubts. The walk back to the cross-roads is easy, like slipping down a slippery-dip . The first drop falls heavily onto his upturned eye and stings. He wipes his face and says to himself, ‘Just until my mother can manage without me.’ The clouds plunged into sleeting rain, covering his tears and the single ray of sunshine on the other path becomes obscured.