Her body shook, her legs trembled, her nerves were precious plates in unsteady hands about to fall to the floor. She must somehow keep a lid on it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A medic in a white coat came out. The crowd waiting in A & E became alert. \u2018Angela Phillips?\u2019 the white coat said. \u2018That\u2019s me,\u2019 she mumbled and they all stared at her, a sick, grey-haired woman<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018This way,\u2019 she was told. Fifty pairs of eyes followed her out of the cramped room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018You records say your liver\u2019s failing.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018The GP said that perhaps\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018For years you\u2019ve been told to give up alcohol.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Said that perhaps if I had\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Are you still drinking?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018I\u2019m trying not to.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Your body is damaged. Badly.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Said that if I had an organ transplant, then\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Can be I clear? You\u2019re still<\/em> drinking?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018It helps me.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n A sigh from across the table. Angela sensed her story must seem squalid and familiar to the registrar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018I\u2019m giving you these tablets for the pain. You ought to have them on your prescription.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018I\u2019ve run out.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Are you selling them?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Angela became distressed. Did she really look so unsavoury? She drank<\/em>; she didn\u2019t commit crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Try and drink a little less each day, maybe?\u2019 the woman said, her finger jabbing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018I want to get better. I\u2019m off work. I\u2019m going to lose my job if I don\u2019t get better. I really want to.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n The registrar tapped something into the computer, then nodded in a way that said: we\u2019re done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \/<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back in her flat, the tablets having dulled the ache, Angela sipped the cheap sherry. She loved its sweetness, she loved the buzz. Soon she\u2019d be happy, the world would stop holding her by the collar, pushing her to the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Frankie Morris? Was he in the room with her? Banging her head on the floor, his hand over her mouth? Don\u2019t scream or you\u2019ll regret it!<\/em> Morris had raped her and broken her collar bone. That memory, like being in a prison cell day after day. It was years ago but it still kept turning up, an unwanted visitor. Sip some more sherry. Take yourself away to somewhere better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \/<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018We\u2019ve got to let you go. I\u2019m sorry.\u2019 The manager had been understanding with her till now. His face was hard, as if angry with her for making him do this. \u2018The absences are way too many.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n If she\u2019d been in the manger\u2019s place, she\u2019d have done the same. She was a waste of space. She looked at the long line of supermarket tills where she\u2019d worked. If she ever came back here, if she wasn\u2019t ashamed, it would now only be to buy alcohol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back home she considered putting her head in the oven and turning the gas taps on. No! Cling on. You want to see your granddaughter grow. The sherry was soothing, she wasn\u2019t totally useless, was she? She\u2019d get through today anyhow. God, the sherry was good. So good. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Her body shook, her legs trembled, her nerves were precious plates in unsteady hands about to fall to the floor. She must somehow keep a lid on it all. A medic in a white coat came out. The crowd waiting in A & E became alert. \u2018Angela Phillips?\u2019 the white coat said. \u2018That\u2019s me,\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[{"account":"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211","service":"facebook","timestamp":1755765227,"status":"success"},{"account":"twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305","service":"twitter","timestamp":1755765228,"status":"error"}],"rop_publish_now_status":"done","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1490,1681],"tags":[1692,851,1696,1695,1693,7,156,63,1056,128,9,14,1694,1041,72],"class_list":["post-2484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1490","category-august-2025-persuasion","tag-angela","tag-body","tag-coat","tag-drink","tag-floor","tag-her","tag-less","tag-little","tag-must","tag-out","tag-said","tag-she","tag-try","tag-white","tag-your"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-E4","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2484"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2485,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484\/revisions\/2485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}