In Focus (2009) by Anna Jacobs

Look – I reckon we should meet one day, catch up properly.’
    ‘I can’t think of anything I’d like more.’
    ‘How about meeting at the little park where I used to play when I was a kid?’
    ‘They’ve turned it into a shopping centre.’
    ‘Oh. I never did go back there.’
    ‘You could – come here, to the flat.’
    ‘Um, not yet. Too many memories.’
    ‘Don’t hang up. Jo, please don’t hang up. We’ll find somewhere else to meet.’
    Jo was startled to hear her strong, efficient mother getting so emotional. She remembered the days when her mother would go wooden-faced, giving short answers, hiding her feelings behind a barrier. Guilt flooded through her. This emotional fragility was all her fault. Could she cope with that sort of emotion? She’d have to. She’d lain awake racking her brain and had found no solution to her current problems, except asking her mother for help.
    ‘How about the big park on Crayson Street, Mum? We could meet near the children’s playground.’
    ‘Fine. When.’
    ‘Can you get there about six o’clock tonight? I have to work during the day.’
    ‘Yes. Oh, Jo, you won’t change your mind, will you?’
    ‘No, Mum. I’ll be there. I promise. And if anything crops up, I’ll ring and fix a new meeting time. I’m a lot more reliable than I used to be. Give me your mobile number . . . Got it. I have to go now.’
    She caught a bus back to work. The difference between where her mum lived and where she lived had hit her in the guts. No underground parking for her, even if she’d had a car. Just a pot-holed parking area full of old cars and overflowing rubbish bins. The narrow strip of garden hadn’t been tended for years and wind-blown debris collected in the corners. She and Ghita picked it up and put it in the bins every now and then. No one else bothered.
    Let’s face it, her place was a slum. If she worked hard, if her mother helped just a little, Mikey wouldn’t have to grow up in places like these. And maybe her mother wouldn’t sound so desperate.
    Jo shook her head at her own stupidity. When she ran away from home, she’d not really thought how deeply it’d upset her mother. She hadn’t thought clearly about anything in those days, too busy rebelling against her parents and school, against the whole world in fact. And too full of raging hormones. Now that she was a mother herself, she understood a lot more about life and was learning to consider others. Well, she tried to. Didn’t always succeed.
    What if Mikey ran away when he was a teenager? How would she feel then? Upset big time, that’s how. The mere thought of it hurt.
    But could she cope with all the love she could hear in her mother’s voice these days? She smiled wryly. Not to mention all that tidiness.
    She didn’t know. But whatever she did for herself and Mikey, she had to sort out something for Ghita as well. How her family could blame Ghita for getting raped, Jo would never understand. Her friend still worried that her father or brothers might come after her. She’d grown up in such a sheltered environment she was nervous of many facets of daily life, though she tried to hide it.
    But if it wasn’t for Ghita, Jo would be dead, and you didn’t abandon someone who’d saved your life, someone you now loved dearly.
    Jo would do anything to keep her son safe and look after her friend, but she’d try not to hurt her mother again, she promised herself.
    Beth left the office early and was at the park by ten to six, terrified of being late and missing Jo. She found a bench near the children’s playground and sat down, then changed her mind and began to walk up and down, so that she could see people coming from every direction.
    Jo didn’t arrive until five past six, by which time Beth was beginning to think her daughter had changed her mind.
    Then a woman appeared in the distance, stopped at the far side of the playground, staring, before slowly making her way towards Beth. She too had