Searching; fifty shades of sight

May paced the stationmaster’s office, imagining what might have been.
“My god, I thought you were dead. Don’t do that to me. You can’t use the underground again that’s plain for anyone to see!”
He drew her closer; feeling her body tremble. Gently he stroked her hair as she sobbed.
“It’s okay. I’m fine. No harm done.”
“You don’t seem alright to me. Feel the mess you are in. Your clothes are torn and wet, and there’s a smell of oil and grease all round you. How can you expect to go on the underground again? Not after this!”

She didn’t see him smile but heard a deep sigh.
“What do you want me to do? Surely you can see, May, that if I stop trying or taking risks my life's done. Then where will we be? How will I get to work or visit mates? I can’t get closer to pushing up daisies. I haven’t hurt myself. Let’s go back to my digs and settle you in. It wasn’t my fault I fell. The copper said it was the surge of people pushing me over the edge – and the times I’ve used that platform before!”
May knew he was right but…

“If you had agreed to a guide dog as your Ma and Pa in Coventry wanted you to do before you came down here!”
“It wouldn't have made any difference.
“There’s one thing for certain!”
“What’s that sweetheart?”
“We shouldn’t tell anyone back home, they won’t cope, and God knows what Father might say!”
James reached out to take May's arm.
“It’s kind of you to arrange a taxi to drive us home mate”.

The gathered crowd disappeared whilst whispering amongst themselves about the near-miss. Sitting together in the taxi she couldn’t stop doubting even though she was now free.
Her ankles still aching; following the rush to escape from her own home she'd grabbed a new pair of shoes. She shouldn’t have run down her street as she had. Yet the pain she felt now was nothing in comparison to....... Whatever might the future bring?