5th October

Today I went back. It felt strange to be back in the area that had caused me so much pain. And yet, as the waves brushed against my ankles I felt at peace. As if the past no longer mattered. I was in the present at last. The waves continued to crash and the wind blew my hair back. I lifted my head and screamed into the wind. Screaming the pain into the universe. Releasing what had been slowly destroying me for years. Today was the first day in a very long time when I could see life beyond ‘the incident’.

5th October

I saw Betty today. She parked her car by Shropshire Avenue and walked down onto the beach. She didn’t see me. I watched her paddle in the lazy waves. I was sat on the promenade and crouched behind the wall, watching her through a hole.

Then she did something incredible. She started yelling. Nothing specific, just her voice bursting into the atmosphere. Then she calmly walked back to shore, stepped into her car and left. Just like that. I sat there for an eternity, trying to comprehend what I’d just witnessed.

Betty returning to the Bay, three years after what our town had dubbed ‘the incident’. And yelling like that, not caring who could hear or was watching. Something tells me a change is coming.

5th October

I saw that girl today. You know, the one that killed her husband. She nonchalantly parked at the beach, screamed at nothing and left. It’s ludicrous that she isn’t in prison. Clearly she’s unhinged. I mean, who kills their husband and then returns to the scene of the crime? I know it was a few years ago now and I know that she got off using diminished responsibility - but still. The town isn’t ready to open that wound.