An Elephant of One's Own

Chapter 1 In which Edmund meets the Wench in a wardrobe while trying on a sequin-studded bikini, and learns not to judge people.

 8.10 I've never woken up this late before. It took two goes to get fully awake, the first time round I slipped and was sucked back into the kind of sinister, fitful, paranoic half-sleep I seem to exist on lately. The second time I managed to drag myself upright, remembering that I had taken one of those tranquillisers at around 3 o'clock last night, and that it had done anything but tranquillise me. I wasn't late for work, just didn't have much time for the usual leisurely early-morning session of reading the newsgroups and mailing lists that normally precedes the hurried shower/scramble to find clean clothes. I had time for a quick scan of my mailbox and a shower, then realised I had no clean shirts left except "winter" ones. Being British, even after all these years in Spain I still find the concept of having "summer clothes" and "winter clothes" bizarre and mildly funny. Nevertheless, I have it on good authority that going to work in lo...