Bette woke with the late morning sun pouring in through the French windows. Another hot day with blue skies.  Morning always seemed more hopeful when the sun was blazing down. And she was lucky enough to live in a place where the sun almost shone 356 days of the year. So why was she finding it a struggle to open her eyes and fight the feeling of there being a weight lying on her chest, and the powerful need to go back to sleep and return to oblivion?

She wished she could be more certain of the world she awoke to just as much as she knew the sun would be shining even before she had opened her eyes.

She got out of bed and pulled her robe around her, made for the bathroom, had a pee, brushed her teeth and splashed cold water on her face. She then collected the LA Daily News from where it had been pushed halfway through the letterbox.

The air felt hot and humid around her legs as she placed the kettle on the stove and waited for it to boil. She gazed through the open window watching how the suns rays were bouncing off the water from the pool, and was lost for a moment in the peace and solitude that surrounded her.

After pouring herself a mug of tea she sat down at the table, straightening out the paper she scanned the front page.

Nothing new same old stories, except there had been a small earthquake sometime in the early hours of last night. She sipped her tea and thought of Alice. Alice worried about earthquakes. She could just imagine her, shoulders shaking, thrilling with fear, wide eyed mouthing, Noooo  . . . .an earthquake! HELP!

Bette laughed out loud at the image and turned over the page.

She placed her cup on the table slowly, almost in slow motion, and blinked at the picture at the bottom of the page.

The woman in the picture was instantly recognisable as Tina. Her immediate reaction was of pleasure at seeing her face again. Before she read the next paragraph she had time to imagine how many thousands even millions of people would be getting pleasure just from looking at Tinas beautiful face. Her smile remained fixed on her own face until she read the headline: