gap year

• stare

  implies the intensity of her longing
• hardly able to believe

  she can not comprehend this big event and how she cannot believe the baby will arrive
• tight tub of stomach

  metaphor- suggests the baby is safe and contained but once he is born and grows up he can no longer be contained
• i felt you laugh

  suggests implicit closeness between her and the unborn baby
• my close stranger

  oxymoron - they are pyhsically close but they haven't met yet
• tumshie

  affectionate nickname, emphasises closeness
• away, away

  repetition - emphasises how distant they are physically and mentally and how badly the mum feels it
• baby turtles to the massive leatherbacks

  comparing her sons travels to turtles, shows how far he has come since the moses basket
• have you considered altitude sickness

  introduction to the concerned grandfather used to add humour and realism
• your face is grainy, blurry

  dosen't recognise her son anymore, suggests his travels has changed him and shows how distant they are
• now i am wearing your large black slippers

  suggests she is like a child playing dress up. her son is bigger than her now and she wants to feel closer to him
• empty bedroom

  she is feeling empty nest syndrome
• beaming

  comparison to a bright light - he is the light of her life
• i have a son out in the big wide world

  proud statement - her son has became a man
• you were dreaming

  his dreams has now became reality, she feels happy for him