Chapter 15
Dorothy woke gradually as the rumble of a lawnmower entered her dream: she was searching for Susan in the ruins of the blitz. Picking her way through rubble, she discovered a burning crater, and was staggering back from the heat. As she surfaced, the rasp of the mower sounded like the wheeze of Susan’s mucous-filled chest. For a minute she thought she was back in a London destroyed by war, was waking from the nightmare there.
Switching the bedside light on, she looked at her watch. She had been asleep for three hours. It was late afternoon now, but still the air was as sticky as it had been that morning when she had taken to her bed. No cooling down, no release. Shaking a pillow, then giving it a punch, she sat back, resting her head on the soft down. In that position, the fan
