24
The following five days continued with no more major dramas; meals were eaten, movies were watched, and Jerome ventured into the inspection shaft to face his fears. He was making good progress – the tremors, sweating and racing heartbeat were still there, but he’d gradually increased the length of time that he could bear to be in the tube. Each day he set a new endurance record; the previous day he’d stayed in there for just over an hour. The symptoms of his panic attacks were decreasing in intensity too. On the sixth day, over lunch – Spaghetti Bolognese – he made an announcement.
“Wren, I’ve made a decision. I want to move on to stage three.”
“Which is?”
“I want to sit next to the open outer-hatch and look outside. I want to see with my own eyes the prize. I think it’ll be good mo
