I don’t know how long I slept that night; I’d made no reference to the time before my head hit the pillow and the sleeping tablets took over, sending me into that long, dreamless sleep. I know that I looked at the clock when I woke, and it was seven a.m. give or take a minute. My first sensation on waking was that my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth, which itself felt as dry as the Sahara Desert. My head ached, and I felt a degree of disorientation akin to that accompanying a severe hangover, though I swear that not a drop of alcohol had touched my lips the previous night. It was the sleeping tablets of course. They’d been prescribed for Sarah some time ago after she’d suffered from severe back pain caused by an injury received playing squash with her best friend Chris, and our GP
