Shona resolved to see Dermot the next day, and tell him everything. She realized how much she needed Dermot now, as she needed someone to whom she could tell the truth, someone who could hold every secret about her. She needed to know that if she was struck down like her father had been, or knocked over by a bus in the morning, the truth wouldn’t die with her - she needed to know that at least one person in the world knew who she really was.

Sharif Khan Meets an Angel in Tennis Shoes

SHARIF FIRST SAW her across a crowded, scruffy hospital corridor, walking so lightly it was as though the bottoms of her feet didn’t quite touch the sticky, laminate floor. She was dressed like no other girl he knew, in a flowing silver skirt that swept voluminously in glistening ripples around her legs, with white tennis shoes and a snug, shining white T-shirt that moulded to her slim waist. She looked like an angel, so clean and fresh that she glowed in the unflattering hospital lighting. The other girls he knew seemed like grubby, painted hussies by comparison, with their tight skirts and tight jeans and low-cut tops.

She stopped at the drinks machine, and Sharif stopped and stared. She was soon stabbing buttons in annoyance, rejecting each murky cup of liquid as it appeared. Sharif watched her, fascinated, until she became aware of his gaze, and turned to look at him. She had a heart-shaped face, with creamy pale skin that didn’t have a trace of pink, and thick, dark hair. It was the sort of fresh, sweet face that he might have imagined his mother having when she was young. A song started in Sharif’s heart instinctively, and he almost said the words out loud, as they were beating so strongly in his head:

And you saw the girl who’d make your dreams come true She looked like no other, she looked straight back at you.

‘I’m sorry, can I help you?’ asked the Amazing Girl. Her voice was pure Home Counties, Sharif realized. She certainly wasn’t from Tooting. He dropped his usual working-class hero accent and spoke with the voice he used at home.

‘It’s just that I needed to use the drinks machine, but I’ll wait. My mum wants a cup of tea,’ he said charmingly.

Tunny,’ she said, ‘I’m trying to get a drink for my mummy, too. She only drinks black coffee, and this bloody stupid machine is putting out white coffee no matter which button I press.’ She tried again, and the machine produced yet another cup of milky sludge. ‘See what I mean? Maybe you should go ahead of me, I might try to find another machine.’