Page 23 of The Examiner

Go on.

Jem Badhuri

Something strange happened this morning. Dad had a meeting, so he dropped me off early. When I tried the studio door it was unlocked. That usually means Alyson has been there overnight and is clearing up, but I didn’t hear her music. She always has her phone blasting out old tunes. I was making a cup of tea when there was a noise from the stockroom corridor. Someone moving, but secretly, like they didn’t want me to hear. It wasn’t Alyson – she always thunders out to say hello. This was someone else.

Patrick Bright

One of the technicians?

Jem Badhuri

I shouted ‘hi’ and popped my head in, but there was no one there. The room was empty. I know they didn’t come past me, so they must’ve slipped out of the rear door and escaped before I arrived.

Patrick Bright

Very strange!

Jem Badhuri

The weird thing is, Alyson breezed in half an hour later. She said she’d been talking to the department head about fitting a keypad. I said I’d heard someone else in the studio and she said it was probably her leaving for the meeting.

Patrick Bright

There you go. Mystery solved!

Jem Badhuri

No, Patrick. Mystery deepens. It wasn’t Alyson I heard. She leaves a smell of cigarettes behind her wherever she goes. The person I almost caught left behind a smell of alcohol.

Doodle message group [Private] Hannah and Jem, 31 October 2023:

Hannah O’Donnell

Hi Jem, Gela has asked me to contact you about the time you arrive at the studio now. You seem to be getting earlier and earlier? We’d rather you arrived at 9.30 a.m. with everyone else, as whichever technician is on the early rota has to work across both studios and can’t keep an eye out for you. Students shouldn’t really work alone in the media-arts building, least of all a young woman.

Jem Badhuri

My dad drops me off early if he has meetings in London. There’s no other way I can get here. Anyway I like to sort out my little corner before everyone else arrives. Alyson’s a woman and she stays in the studio all night on her own. Although she isn’t exactly young.

Hannah O’Donnell

The department feels a greater responsibility to you as you are so much younger than the rest of the group. You can wait in the Aviator café or the memorial garden?

Doodle message group MMAM(FTP), 2 November 2023:

Jonathan Danners

How is everyone dividing their time between the two assignments? When I’m trying to work on one, I find myself worrying about the other.

Jem Badhuri

I know what you mean. I wrote my personal essay first, as it has to be in first. Now I can concentrate on the multimedia campaign.

Ludya Parak

Haven’t started either.

Jem Badhuri