[Hand written some time around 1997, on one sheet of A4, the first side of which is marked '2', and the second of which may not end with a complete sentence]

James ran. It would make no difference, but he ran nonetheless. In any case, he had no choice, as the crowd of people pulled him on. He stumbled on a stone and cuaght himself before falling under people's feet. In the far distance the crowd saw the faint but unmistakable form of a mushroom cloud rising into the sky. There was a sudden silence and the crowd stopped running. James suddenly wondered where Melanie was right now and if she was safe. Then he began to panic; who was Melanie ? He shook his head to try to clear it of this thought.

James lay on the operating table. Startled, he began to get up, but straps prevented him. A face looked down at him. This, he knew, was Melanie. But why did he know and who was she ? The face moved away for a moment and James felt a tingling in his arm. He looked left and right to see what was happening, but the straps prevented him. Sloly his eyes closed and the world became a dull purple.

His legs ached. Has arms ached. Parts of him he'd never known could ache proved him wrong and ached as hard as they could. The world should not be purple, James decided, and opened his eyes. The world became black instead. Painfully he shut his eyes again and tried to touch what covered his face. At first he decided that a bandage covered his face. After he'd touched it he revised this to a bandage covering his very tender face. He must have been burnt in the fire, he decided. He knew there had been a fire, but nothing more. Where lots of detail should have surrounded the word 'fire' there was nothing. The only thing he could connect to it was the thought of a crowded city street.

But where did that thought come from ? Jame spun, realising that not only could he see but that he was in a fairground. Why was he here? Almost as soon as he had thought that, the answer presented itself. Melanie emerged from the fortune teller's tent with a wide grin. She beckoned for him to follow and so he walked inside the tent.

The walls were dark and only the sound of gunfire broke the silence. As his eyes became acustomed to the dark, a number of figures became visible, seated around a dark lamp. Two men, beside him, pushed him forwards and one of the seated men shouted at him in a foreign language. James looked back blankly. This was no tent and he was certain these were not here to tell fortunes. He was unsure for a moment why he thought that this should be a tent. Obviously a bang on the head during landing. After a few moments of blank stare, the guards bustled him along a dark corridor to a door.

The door opened and before him was a vast auditorium. James took a seat by the door and thought. The auditorium was empty and he sat and tried to decide what to do. On the one hand Melanie had wonderful prospects abroads. On the other, this project was almost complete. A hand touched his shoulder. James looked around. A man in a white coat stood behind him and said a single word; "awake".

James opened his eyes. Melanie and Willie's concerned faces looked down at him. James smiled back.