What is real and what is not?

She continues slowly, all the way down the next flight of stairs to the hall. Her body is trembling, her skin slick with sweat. A few more steps. Tensing her muscles, she forces her legs forward and knocks on the door.

The woman answers quickly. Zoe. She is wearing her black coat and fingerless gloves and has a long, black scarf wound like a python around her neck.

She stares at Eva. ‘Are you all right?’

Eva smiles back weakly.

‘Please. Come in.’

‘But you’re going out.’

‘It’s not important. Come in. You look terrible.’ She takes her arm and Eva allows herself to be led.

Eva has never been inside the flat before, but she guesses Zoe is responsible for the vibrant colours and textures.

‘Would you like to sit down?’

‘Thank you.’ Eva walks unsteadily across the floor and takes a seat.

Zoe perches on a chair and unwinds her scarf. Her dark eyes are large with concern. She offers a drink: tea, coffee, water.

Eva declines. She has a headache and pushes her fingers against the hammering pain.

‘Are you sure you’re all right?’

Eva blinks and concentrates on Zoe’s hair – the way it falls forward, curtaining her face. She closes her eyes, but when she opens them again, the floor is still tilting. Her mind is still sliding.

Zoe leaps from her seat. ‘What’s wrong?’ she says.

‘It’s nothing.’ Eva tries to focus. ‘I just feel . . .’ She slumps in her chair.

‘What do you feel?’ The voice is gentle.

‘It’s nothing really,’ she murmurs. ‘It’s happened before.’

Zoe kneels at Eva’s feet and takes her hand. ‘Tell me.’

‘I can’t explain.’

‘Try; it might help, you know, to confide in a stranger.’

Eva nods slowly and when she speaks again the tension starts to drain. She talks about when she was a child and lost whole chunks of time; how she refused to leave the house. She recounts her mother making appointments for her to see doctors and psychologists.

‘They said I was having blackouts, brought on by the trauma of witnessing my father’s death and my mother’s miscarriage. I can’t remember either of those events, but I suppose that’s the point.’

‘And this is one of those episodes?’

‘Yes.’

‘What happens exactly?’

‘The world goes black. Everything around me disappears. Then a flash of memory comes. It’s like a white light splitting the darkness. I see myself as a child standing somewhere high up and I have a sensation of falling, like vertigo. I’m watching something that makes me feel awful.’

‘What is it?’

‘I don’t know. Faces. Figures. But they’re blurry.’

‘What else?’