Her name was Pilar and she had been on since seven in the morning and she is the reason I got through that day, and I have written to her twice and she has never replied, which I think is probably policy.

She was leaning over me with one hand on my shoulder and the other one on the rail of the bed, and she had got her face into my eyeline on purpose, and she said it twice because I did not react the first time.

Two girls.

Both fine.

The first thing I was aware of was my own mouth, which was unusable.

The second was a weight across my middle that was not pain yet but was clearly going to be.