Two days later it was suddenly cold: Shelly woke to the sound of rain hammering down out of an ash-grey sky, and Hannah moaning and writhing next to her.

Two hours later when Hannah got up she looked terrible. "Did you have the window open last night?" she asked Shelly.

"I had to" Shelly said. "I couldn't have breathed otherwise!" The house got hot: all these old houses got hot, and Shelly hoped against hope that she and Hannah would somehow manage to find and afford a house that had air-conditioning, when they eventually found a house. Maybe it'd have to be an apartment - there were so many new apartments going up nowadays, surely some of them would be cheap?

"I think I'm sick" Hannah said. "My throat feels like it's the size of a melon." She swallowed and Shelly saw her wince; she wondered whether

Hannah was exaggerating the amount of discomfort she was in, it wouldn't be the first time Hannah had exaggerated such a thing for effect.

Hannah could be a bit of a diva.

"And you think having the window open did that?" Shelly asked.

"Yeah" Hannah said. "The change in air. The change in the temperature."

"But it was boiling inside last night" Shelly said. "It still is." She had the back door open: Hannah hadn't found that out yet, but Shelly felt a slight movement of air coming through the house from outside and she turned her face gratefully towards it. "Maybe you should go back to sleep" she said.

"It was probably the heat last night" Hannah said. She didn't want to argue with Shelly: she didn't want to talk at all. "Probably fucked me up real bad."

"Probably" Shelly said, thankful that there wasn't going to be any more disagreement. "Have some breakfast. Have some water. Do we have oranges? I'll make you some orange juice, that'll ease your throat."