THE SENTINEL

AWAY WITH WORDS 

By Tessa Harvey

    Hazel Dempsey felt her heart go out to the younger woman sat before her. She was so beautiful. How could her husband have treated her so badly?
    "Did you never suspect?" she asked, quietly. "Yes," replied Eliza, "but I was a Jew and he pretended he was a noble German. I had no rights, no money of my own and there always, always other women - so many." Her voice broke. She reached out with a shaky hand, but her cup trembled, sloshing milk into the saucer. Cleaning the cup and saucer and trying unsuccessfully to hide her own tears, the school matron poured out a fresh mug, easier to hold of sweetened tea for e
Eliza.
    Then she asked softly, "did you ever receive any of the mail I sent you or the emails? I tried so hard to find you....
    "Once I received a photograph...." Her voice trailed away, remembering. Eliza said brokenly "he seemed so kind at first, saying he would treat Sylvia as his own." With a voice filled with wonder, she added "he never once broke character - always with the German accent."

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