I've never been hit before in my life, except by a netball in PE once, so it takes me a while to realize that my head hasn't just rocketed off the top of my spine but is in fact still attached to the rest of me and that the ringing noise is just the repercussion of the blow sounding in my ears and not an orchestral score blasting from the stereo.

A plant grows with vigour.

Although we took our eight bogies along to Whitstable at 60 m.p.h., and made a clean start from there, after Herne Bay the engine primed badly on Blacksole Bank and nearly stopped before we got over the top. Then we ran like the wind across the marshes with half-regulator, 30 per cent cut-off, and the engine blowing off.

Suddenly, she turned around and walked to the sofa across the room. The warm afternoon sunlight poured through the lounge window, its beams resting on the tan sheen of her nyloned legs.