Marriage Impossible

AWAKENING in the first light, Tanya heard the familiar sound of a rain shower pattering dully on the patched-up roof above her head and the restless roar of the nearby sea as the huge combers broke ferociously over the reef.
It couldn't be more restless than herself, she decided wearily, thinking longingly of nights in the past when she had slept soundly until long after dawn had filtered through the cracks in the splintered cabin walls, removing the last traces of drowsiness from her eyes and filling her with the joyful promise of a new day. She never slept late, but never before had she known such a surge of relief to throw off the mosquito net and creep, ghost-like through the drooping door to watch the grey world change into gold as the rain stopped and the sun rose over the hazy blue horizon.