Dexter Mayhew was sitting in his flat in Belsize Park. It was 10am and Dexter was very drunk. He had been drinking all night with some new friends.
Now that he worked in television, lots of people wanted to know Dexter. They all wanted to hear his stories about the famous people that he interviewed. They all wanted to drink with him. So he was often drunk these days. Usually, being drunk in the mornings didn’t matter. Dexter worked in the afternoons and evenings and he was always sober by then. But this morning, the morning of 15‘h July, it mattered very much. Today he had to go to his parents’ house in the country, in Oxfordshire. He was already late. He knew, in part of his mind, that he wanted to be late. In fact, in that part of his mind, he didn't want to go at all. Because today, thinking about his parents made him want to scream.