Sophia emerges into daylight onto the surface of the water and intensely gulps a deep breath of air. She swims the hundred yards or so to the shore, catches her breath, and then runs through the woods like a special forces soldier on a training mission who is trying top keep up with the task. Everything looks, feels, and smells, real. But Sophia is not quite convinced, yet, if this is true reality, or some other kind of illusion.
These thoughts are dispelled when she reaches a main road. Sophia collapses on the grass-verge next to the tarmac. Cars and caravans and lorries speed by within a few feet of her. She stretches her arm out to try to touch them but draws it back when she realises they are as solid as the ground she is kneeling on. She pants; she laughs; she cries in relief. And then she screams at the top of her voice to release her pent-up emotion.
