Carol awoke with a jolting start and not the usual rise from the depths of slumber that she was used to. Her head pounded rhythmically as if a lone monkey were pedalling a bass drum over and over behind her eyes. Blinking in the bright sunlight of a new day she realised with some confusion that she was in the lounge on the mezzanine level, half sat, and half slumped on the grey velour sofa, and not in bed in the Altar Room on the ground floor where the heavy drapes kept the morning at bay. Her neck creaked and protested with all the stiffness of an old unoiled gate hinge as she sat herself up. Rob was in the matching recliner next to her; the footrest was up, and his head tilted back to an angle that opened his jaw as if he were a carnivorous plant waiting for a juicy fly. She had no recol
