Sha-leigh - one of a series of my make-believe snapshots

She became a sweet fat girl who sold cocaine.

She did not drive but Matt who had been in her class in primary one, had a bicycle.

 Dale, who was the brother of Saskia, who had been with her since primary two and who had also been in the same foster care home, had a motorbike.

Together the three young musketeers had their very own branch of 'deliver to you.'

It was mainly the young workers who wanted to try and buy. They worked hard all week as builders and nail technicians and they wanted to have a good time at weekends and on Public Holidays. 

Exmouth became The Place, in fact it had never been far away from it.

She cut her legs so that her arms did not scar. She continued to go to the gym and she pounded up and down on the treadmill and the cross-trainer with the best of them. She swam in the pool afterwards to cool herself down. She used discretion when she entered the water.

She went on her own.

All this was mainly between the end of sixth-form college and going away to uni in London for her English degree.

These days she works in Bulgaria for a British Property Development company. She is employed in their creative publicity department.

Sha-leigh is very good at her work. The company kept her on after her six months probationary period. She has been given word by her immediate superiors that promotion is in the offing.

She sells sunshine, ownership and that warm whiff of 'pie in the sky' that is always somewhere in the vicinity of her office, the office that has its twenty-four hour e-mail service.

Sha-leigh is corporate and smart.

She is paid almost what she is worth.