Trance by Adam Southward

Author:Adam Southward
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9781542093651
Published: 2019-07-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

The seat-belt sign blinked off and Alex finally saw Sophie’s hands relax. She’d been gripping the armrests of the small economy seat all the way since take-off. Taking a deep breath, she stared out of the window. Her eyes were glazed and for the second time in as many days Alex wondered if she’d taken something. If so, he couldn’t judge. His own private sourcing of benzodiazepines was hardly rare among members of his profession, and he’d been using the same source for years since they’d studied together at UCL. His friend Mikey was a pharmacist and a gambler. Good at the former but poor at the latter. He welcomed the opportunity to bring in some untraceable cash in exchange for untraceable prescription meds. It was a neat arrangement and one which meant Alex could avoid facing up to his own habit.

They’d been delayed for an hour at London Stansted Airport. They were flying budget and their promised three-hour non-stop flight was turning into something rather more tedious. While waiting in the lounge, trying to ignore the bustle of other travellers and the frequent announcements, Alex tried to get Sophie to open up a little. He worried that he still knew hardly anything about her. Robert had been next to useless on the matter.

‘Robert doesn’t know anything,’ said Sophie. ‘I’m not sure he even remembers my name half the time.’

Alex remembered Robert’s comment that had confirmed as much. ‘What brought you to the UK?’ he said.

It turned out that Sophie hadn’t been in the UK for long – only a matter of months, in fact.

‘Germany was a lovely place,’ she said, ‘but . . . I had to leave.’

She described her childhood. Born in Germany to working-class parents, her mother was a care assistant and father a plumber. Life had been unremarkable until she was fourteen, at which point her normal family life had unravelled. Her dad, a timid and otherwise kindly man, left her mother. He’d been living a double life of sorts. The separation was swift and brutal.

‘It must have been awful,’ said Alex, his face flushing, knowing the effect that it must have had on a young girl. He avoided the usual plummet into self-pity and anger. His own situation was too far gone. But he saw himself in her story.

Sophie said that her mother had coped for a short time until the cracks had widened. She had found herself pregnant, a parting gift from a deceitful spouse. It could have brought the family back from the brink, and for the next eight months it almost did, until the birth. Fate had held a further wicked surprise in store for the family, and in this case it was chromosome 18q- syndrome in the newest member, Dieter. Dieter suffered from multiple serious developmental issues, both physical and psychological, and had required intensive support from day one. Dieter had got the support he needed, but his mother hadn’t. She’d hidden it well, but her grief triggered depression and by the time anyone thought to address it she was two bottles into her stash of sleeping tablets.

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