5.1

She absent-mindedly flipped the dog-eared business card between her fingers. In front of her were a blank sheet of paper and a jar of sharpened pencils. What was she to write? Inspiration came slowly in this dark and dusty room. She tried to write everyday but always allowed herself to become distracted. The new laptop – her link to the outside world – was tucked away under some books. But it was calling to her. The chat rooms and virtual worlds where she lived her life were beckoning to her from within the closed fold of the computer. But she resisted, for now. She looked again at the business card between her fingers. 'Derek Stone – Sales Manager'. He had tried to get her to buy his carpet cleaning service. He was nice looking – that's why she'd let him in. She enjoyed chatting to him, playing along with his patter. After he'd left she'd thought often about ringing him up, inviting him for coffee. But he might have wanted to go out. And she couldn't do that. In her imaginings she'd got as far as asking Janine to bring her in some auburn hair dye. But there it sat still, gathering dust. She put the card away and addressed herself anew to the blank sheet of paper. What is it they say? Write about what you know? All she knew was within the walls of her tiny flat between the withered poinsettia on the window sill and the dusty radio in the kitchen. That, and the world inside her laptop, where she could be anything and anyone. She shifted the books to one side, slid the laptop in front of her and opened the lid.