While for some people digibucks may be beer money, it just so happens to be paying for my education. Slowly, but surely, I'm earning myself a forth year (the last year in a Bachelor of Journalism) at university which I can't afford otherwise. I'm hoping to get a student loan, in which case my digibucks will be the first few installments of that in case I don't, as is the story with many BJourn's, walk straight into a job.

Why don't I get a real job? Well because if I study hard enough I might earn enough marks to get a bursary. If I get a job my work would suffer unbelievably and I probably wouldn't even be eligible for a student loan.
Not that it matters, but that's the terribly selfish reason that I value every 10c that comes my way through MyDl.

Which is only one of the reasons that I agree with salambander... I don't want to give my digirands to Wikipedia.

Continued from Chapter 12:

...“Technically dead.” Hannah said....

---

Ray sat and stared at Hannah, unable to respond to what he’d just heard. Erin wasn’t dead… he had seen her.

“you mean like she’s a ghost or something?” the words were out of his mouth before he’d thought them through and he was shocked to hear them.

Hannah wasn’t looking at him, she was putting the printouts away. “I don’t know. I thought it was just the machine malfunctioning. But if the machine was malfunctioning then surely it would have shown nothing… not just a brain with no activity.”

He stood up from his chair, suddenly coming to a decision. “I have something to show you too.”

She looked at him, wide-eyed, worried. She must have sensed something in his voice.

Continued from Chapter 11:

..." He got to his hands and knees and crawled over to her, “Hey. It’s ok. We’re safe”
Another sob. Then, “Dammit Ray.”
She hastily brushed the tears from her eyes. “Damn you. What the fuck was that? Damn you.”
He did the only thing he could do. He reached out to her and held her. "...

---

It didn’t take long for the security guards to notice them sitting there and one of them strode over to investigate. Ray spun them a story about a gang of men wanting to hijack them down in the garage. (This was a psychiatric hospital after all and Ray didn’t want the guard to start thinking they were escaped patients… which telling the truth would have accomplished quite effortlessly.) The guard called for backup on his walkie talky and offered to go down and get the car for them. Ray gave him the keys. By the time the guard came up with the car, Hannah had composed herself. The guard said that there was no sign of anyone down in the parking lot, but they should fill in a report. Ray told him he would at the police station in town, something the guard seemed to take mild offense to but didn’t comment on.

Continued from Chapter 10:

..."Her blue eyes looked at him, wide and frightened, "In the last universe... Ray... you ended up in a coma. If I hadn't jumped... they would have killed you."...

---

“So what if it is a tumour? Can they remove it?”

Ray was sitting in Hannah’s office at the psychiatric hospital as she paged through papers. She didn’t answer. It wasn’t technically her office, but her superviser was out so Hannah was behind the desk.

“And how will you tell if it is? You use a scanner of some kind right? Will she have to go for a cat scan? That will freak her out.”

Hannah didn’t look up. She was busy reading a report. Rain splattered on the windows. It had been raining almost constantly for the past few days, which was incredibly strange for this time of year.

“An EEG” said Hannah. “We do an EEG which will show up any inconsistencies in her brain.” She put down the pile of papers, “Why do you care so much?”

“You keep asking me that.”

“You keep avoiding answering. Why do you feel responsible for her?”

His first instinct was usually to react defensively to such questions, but today he was too confused to worry about what Hannah thought. He considered her question.

“I don’t know. I guess because I’m the only one who can be responsible for her. Someone has to be right?”

He gave a wan smile. Hannah seemed surprised at his honest response, but she tried to cover this by swinging her chair around to the window. “She’s lucky that she ended up here. This is one of the best funded facilities in the country.”

Ray understood that that was Hannah’s way of reassuring him. And yet he was still uneasy. Yes, he was worried about Erin’s welfare… but he was also worried about what she had said. It would have been easier to dismiss her as crazy if he hadn’t seen the creature the previous night… if he hadn’t witnessed the strange shadow crossing his wall.

Don't worry I have not abandoned Erin... but for reasons soon to follow will only be able to start working on her again after the weekend ;)

---

Another Thursday night. Another essay. Another blog while I procrastinate.

Except this Thursday is different. Instead of one essay I have 2 - possibly the most scary of the year (and it has been one scary year) and my radio exam in the morning (by exam I mean going live on air and hosting my own show... and I"m not talking about Tally's Word... I'm talking about a show with guests and interviews and producers and everything!!! *panic*)

This is an occasion for Tally's little helpers.

There seems to be some confusion caused by salambander saying something I had said inspired her post yesterday and it upsets me. It upsets me that bad timing had my first "Tally's World" (erm... I called it in the "In the Bloglight" so dunno where that came from) being released today. What it looks like is exactly what OS says... that I"m now on some high horse about who's allowed to write what.

THAT'S NOT IT AT ALL!!!!

Please wipe that idea from your minds. You're allowed to write whatever they hell you want to write!

So, as has a funny way of happening in this country, apparently someone bribed the South African Bureau of Standards to pass some condoms through quality control without being controlled.

In other words there are a few batches of rampant condoms around that aren't going to protect you from anything. Joy.

It is true when they say there is nothing like sport to bring people together. I'm sitting in my res room after getting back from the match and I can hear the partying in the street.

Continued from Chapter 9:

..."Ray would have been glad of this, relieved even... it it hadn't been for the words she said next. As her eyes began to close, Erin made a last attempt to get her point across in the quiet voice of one falling asleep: “You will regret this Ray… they’re going to get you… don’t let them…get… you.” He tried not to feel disturbed as he helped the security guard carry her towards the hospital."...

---

He gazed at her through the glass in the door. Wires ran in criss-cross patterns on the other side. The door was metal. She was being treated like a criminal. She was a criminal… wasn’t she?

Continued from Chapter 8 :

..."For a second Hannah stood staring at him, looking pale and vulnerable… and then she regained control of herself and walked up to him, snatching the car keys, “Fine. But I’m driving.”...

---

It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was a plan: Drive around town until they found her (how far could she have gotten without any money?) and then tranquilise her and take her to the psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of town.

The counselling centre – despite what regulations dictated – kept a few pharmaceuticals on site for emergencies. Hannah had been entrusted with the keys to the supply room when she’d gone to counsel the people affected by the explosion. Now she sat in the car, outside the back entrance of the centre, psyching herself up. It was probably the only illegal thing she’d ever done and Ray felt bad making her do it.