The hour between 12.30 and 1.30 a.m. passes in a blur. One moment Nevis is standing on the bridge, the next she is slumped beside a retaining wall, with a stranger’s hand in hers. Her whole body is shaking. A police car arrives, its siren silenced, then another. The police close the bridge and station uniformed officers at either end to divert traffic, though it’s so late that there isn’t much. A few moments later someone lays a space blanket over her shoulders. She is aware of a policewoman imploring her to speak but the words have flown away. She watches Sondra talking to the policewoman but she cannot hear what is being said. Something has gone wrong with her brain. At that moment an ambulance arrives and two paramedics hurry along the bridge. One of them is a young woman not far off Nevis’s age. There are blinking lights and flashing torches everywhere and a rank smell which could be fox, but is actually, Nevis realises only after the fact, the stench of human fear. The scene is so upsetting and so chaotic that one minute Nevis feels as if her head is exploding and then, moments later, as if it’s happening to someone else far away. The female paramedic rests a hand on her arm. Nevis hears herself say, ‘I want to travel with Satnam’ and with a hand around her shoulders the paramedic leads her to the ambulance.

As they make their way through the city in a tunnel of blue light, the paramedic keeps up a flow of chatter. All Nevis’s focus is on why this has happened but she still can’t make head or tail of it. Satnam is her best friend. Shouldn’t she know? Is this because her head’s not quite right, or different anyway? Wouldn’t a real friend have guessed? Shouldn’t she at least have had a clue?

At the hospital she doesn’t want to leave Satnam but they don’t give her a choice. A nurse leads her away to a waiting area in A&E and fires questions. How is she feeling? Does she think she might faint? Would she like a cup of tea? A sandwich? No, no and no. Does she have any idea why this happened? Another no. Did anything happen leading up to this? No, yes, Nevis isn’t sure. The questions fade into the background and a voice that Nevis knows is hers even though it seems to be coming from outside is asking over and over, ‘Is she going to be all right?’