Melissa

A big woman. ties up her hair in a plastic bag at night (tights underneath if she can get them)
A big black hand loomed down from the top bunk, tough and gnarled like a bear paw. It waved for attention then pointed at a folded magazine lying on top of a basket beside the bed. Helen picked it up and passed it up to the hand.
Chapter 11
This just left Melissa, but when questioned, like now as she hammered in a fence post with mighty blows of the sledgehammer, she only said, ‘well, I’m a grown woman, I was married. But I don’t think about me old life now. I been slave since de start. They took me one month after de reditus. Been in camps ever since. Forgot me old life. Not important now.’
Melissa gets an admirer at the Shielings Farm.
She likes reading Horse and Hounds: Melissa was sat up the back of the room, reading a copy of Horse and Hounds from a stack next to a table lamp.
Daniel
It wasn’t just Melissa that Helen was worried about. This boy Daniel could be in danger too. Melissa was all demure sweetness and submission around him because she was a slave and she knew what was good for her, but two years of being constantly around violence and death had tempered her into being utterly ruthless. Helen had once seen Melissa break another woman’s arm with her bare hands and was in no doubt she was capable of worse. (Chapter 11)
Category:Paradise
Category:Paradise Characters
Category:Helen
Category:Slaves