Page 198 of The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels
Amanda Bailey
That comment beneath your story, about Gabriel’s wounds magically healing. You couldn’t find it, because I made it up.
Oliver Menzies
Why would you even bother to do all that?
Amanda Bailey
Remember that night before our appraisals at The Informer? Drinks at a place in town. You told me the wrong venue.
Oliver Menzies
Vaguely. What about it?
Amanda Bailey
I ended up on the other side of London. Alone.
Oliver Menzies
So? It was a joke.
Amanda Bailey
I was eighteen. It was dark. I was in a pub on an estate in North London. When I left, someone followed me and punched me in the head. It detached my retina. When I came to, I realised they’d stolen my bag. I had no money, no phone, no travel pass and a two-hour walk home.
Oliver Menzies
It was 20 years ago, get over it.
Amanda Bailey
You damaged my sight FFS!
Oliver Menzies
No way! I didn’t mug you, did I?
Amanda Bailey
The following day we had to submit a portfolio of work and a feature about our year on the scheme. The disk I had all those documents on had been in my bag. It was gone.
Oliver Menzies
You were the golden girl. You could’ve handed in a shopping list and passed the course.
Amanda Bailey
I was traumatised. I knew something was wrong with my eye, but didn’t want to admit I’d been mugged. Didn’t tell anyone. Didn’t report it. I was so used to hiding my emotions I didn’t know how to feel. That’s why I never went back to The Informer. Didn’t graduate from the course. Everything I’d worked so hard to achieve was lost.
Amanda Bailey
All these years later you have no idea what you did to me that night. You’re not even listening now.
Oliver Menzies
I’m listening.
