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EXCERPT FROM "WHO IS FAYE?" BY FRAN O'BRIEN
The horses gathered speed and their hooves battered the ground, the rumble growing in intensity as they came upon them. so loud that Jenny stepped back nervously. Suddenly remembering another time when noise frightened. A time when she didn't know where she was. Who she was. All memory expunged in a distorted dream world of non-existence.
In this place she stared at a dark square. A strange face looked back at her. She reached forward and put out a trembling hand and the person did the same. But the fingers which touched hers were icy cold. She drew back in fear, repelled, unable to articulate or communicate her feelings in any way to those around her.
In the large room, the once white walls, stained with greenish patches of dampness, reared high above her. Sunshine poured through the top section of the window, the bright blue sky honeycombed by black bars which threw a trellis of shadow across the wooden floor. Everything frightened her, particularly the other women. Some spent their time staring at an old flickering television set in the corner of the room. Others swayed back and forwards unaware of where they were, many stared unseeing, almost comatose. All the time the clamour of voices rose and fell, rose and fell, and the noise deafened.
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