LIFE REVIEW A mother attempts to videophone her son: because of one half-broken button, nothing is to be seen. However – fancying she hears the whispering of companions – she tries again. All of a sudden – visions begin: in the first – the schoolboy of nine crouches in front of a stage hearth: others in the class, it seems, are chosen for drama-without-scars. Mother, like son, is the unobserved observer. In her vision of the six-year-old boy by the sea – toying with a watch that she has given him – she catches herself stealing it back; and passing it on…. recalling that north-east wind at the end of August, she learns about his sense of unreality. In a third vision – he turns into the baby in the grass: becomes the imago; the six-pointed star…. When he jumps his wordless patterns into unlimited air, she feels how he concentrates the wisdom here and there; here and there. At last, the videophone reveals him fully nineteen – rejection pressed into withdrawn pupils: beyond them – are signs of a dying star…. Finding its pulse – the mother begins to listen: to respond in time. Copyright © JENNY JOHNSON