Banishing the Shadows

 

Fili, heroine of my novel The Case Against Fili Du Bois, was adopted as a baby after being abandoned by her mother in the grounds of a church. While her adoptive parents, Martin and Ray Du Bois, treat her as their daughter, Fili is haunted by the memory of the mother who left her behind. 

Yet there is also a strange element of gratitude: Fili's unknown mother chose to leave her at a church, presumably because she felt that the community would rally around the child and ensure that she was adopted into a loving home. And this does, indeed, happen. 

Seventeen years later, Fili asks her father to take her to the church where she was left. And it is there, in the grounds, that she finds the exact spot: a ditch running along the boundary. Fili lies down on the ground, closes her eyes, and waits for the sensation of the sunlight on her face that she remembers - and that returns to her so often as a yellow nightmare. 

Then, from around the side of the church comes a shout. It is the Minister. When Martin Du Bois explains who they are, he is astonished and delighted because it was he who found Fili all those years before, and made sure that she was cared for in the orphanage before she was adopted.  

As they leave, with the Minister's blessings, Fili realises she has made a new memory. A memory that will hopefully banish the nightmares and the shadow of abandonment that has followed her, and allow her to move on...