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events.
    “You know Mother?” Maria asked, surprised.
    “She was my best friend,” I announced, dreamily.
    “ You best friend?” Maria asked, sceptically. “Me no believe. You lie !”
    “I loved her more than anything in the world,” I declared in a husky voice.
    “ Prove !” she challenged. “She tell me of special person. Like daughter, she say. Blonde hair, like you. Rescue from bad man.”
    “That was me !” I exclaimed.
    “She tell everything what happen,” Maria went on, still doubtful. “Give special name to person. What is?”
    My mind drifted back to Moonbeam, sitting on her bed, saying that she had to pick a secret name for me. “Something special for a special person,” she said with a grin. She chose the name ‘Moonshine’, since I was ‘as fragile and delicate as night light and drove the darkness away.’ Then she grinned even wider. “And because I become drunk with love when I’m beside you…….”
    “Moonshine,” I whispered, my voice thick with emotion. “She called me Moonshine .”
    Maria gaped at me. “ Is you!” she breathed. “All the time talk of you. Miss you bad. Always have tears when mention name. Love you heaps .”
    “And I loved her ,” I murmured, moisture springing into my eyes without warning.
    “Ah, now me believe,” Maria said. “You cry for her. Case proven. No more fight. You friend.”
    I released her arms and got to my feet, offering my hand to help her up. She grasped it and levered herself erect. “Good fight,” she approved. “Too good for me.”
    “Maria,” I asked, “do you know the whereabouts of your mother? I went back to find her but no one could tell me where she went.”
    Maria’s eyes clouded over. “She gone ,” she said sadly. “Die years ago in hospital. Me there. Cry for days .”
    I put my hand over my mouth. “Oh, no ,” I whispered in anguish. My gentle, loving Moonbeam…….. Grief at her passing forced my tear ducts into overdrive. I sank down on a nearby chair and held my face in my hands as the tears leaked though my closed fingers. Maria knelt beside me and took me in her arms. “She no sad at end,” Maria murmured. “She say she go to explore other worlds; find new people. Say she meet you there. She say if me find you tell you this. She love you much.”
    I turned to Maria and clutched her as a drowning man grasps at a floating log. She gently brushed at my hair and rocked me tenderly as I wept out my memories of the wonderful, beautiful woman who had saved me from a lifetime of misery.
     

Chapter 14.
     
    Finally, I restored enough self control to sit by myself without Maria’s help. I dried my eyes on my sleeve and sighed. Poor Moonbeam. If only I’d been able to see her one more time before the end. I looked across at Maria. But she was here in her child. Smiling timorously, I reached out and softly stroked Maud’s face with my fingertips. Oh, sweetie , I thought, wherever you are, happy voyaging. I promise to look after your daughter for you. I love you .
    Maria smiled with pleasure and held my fingers to her face. “You wonderful person. Anything you want, just ask.”
    I focused my attention on the task at hand and took my hand away from Maria’s face.
    “Very well,” I announced. “Let’s go back to my original question then. Where were you?”
    “No more fibs,” she told me, looking into my eyes. “Me go see Chief of Police. Report every week. See if any change. Nothing so far.”
    “So you really are a policewoman,” I stated. “Is that where you learned to fight?”
    “Train for two years,” she replied. “They say best in class. No boast.”
    I smiled. “Yes, you are very good,” I conceded. “Very fast and light on your feet. What did your mother think of you joining the police force?”
    Maria smiled – a crooked little smile so much like Moonbeam’s that I inhaled sharply. “She say law and order good in violent world. She say me make peace. She want all world to have