The smell of hospitals. Farts and urine and disinfectant and stale clothes and something that might be blood. And the sound of machines. Who knows what the machines are for? And I always have the feeling that under the whole thing there are dead people. Like, where do they put the corpses? It has to be in the cellar or basement. I don’t like being near dead people unless I know them personally and even then I’d prefer them to be alive. And where do they put the people with infectious diseases? What if there is an Ebola patient only they don’t know it’s Ebola yet? The first signs are the same as the flu.

Oh she’s waking up now, the nurse said. She pointed at the big window in front of her desk. You can go in if you like.

Serena was as pale as ash. Her eyes had red rims around them. Her hair was stuck to her head. When she looked at me I couldn’t bear to look her back.

Hi, guys, she said. She did not smile.

I sat at one side of the bed and Holly sat at the other. We didn’t know what to say. After a bit I saw Holly take Serena’s hand. Serena let her. They held hands all the time after that except when they took her blood pressure. Eventually I said, Leary nearly had a heart attack today.

Holly said, You’re lucky he’s not in the next bed. You’d get the Weimar Republic all over again.

Leary was big on the Weimar Republic. There was a question on every test. Origins and growth of the fascist regimes in Europe; the Nazi state in peace and war. He thinks the Nazis are coming again.

I said: There was a rat got into the photocopy room and he needed to do like thirty copies of thirty pages or something, you know the way, like he’s Mr Handout, and everybody knows he’s terrified of small animals. Remember that weird sort of diary to camera item he did once? Girls, we all have our hangups. I’d say the rat was terrified too. Locked up with Leary. Everybody’s nightmare. It was probably a girl rat.

Holly said, You could have had Leary and the rat in here.

That got a half-smile from Serena. She squeezed Holly’s hand. A nurse came and did the things they do, temperature, blood pressure, pulse. It’s weird. They put a clothes peg on your finger and a pump-up sleeve on your arm and they swipe something across your forehead and touch your ear. It’s like the Last Rites or something religious. Everything OK, pet? Yes, nurse. Be sure and call if you need anything. Yes, nurse. All your signs are fine anyway.