After a few minutes the doctor finally finished explaining his findings to Emily. She sat in stunned silence, struggling to process what he had just told her. How could she have been so stupid? Falling asleep on a crowded beach, full of potential dangers around her. Looking back now, she couldn’t believe how she could have been so ignorant. She should have known what would happen…
Later, when her parents arrived, Emily recounted the doctor’s revelation. Her mother’s hand flew to her mouth, and her father blinked back tears. The three held each other tightly, overcome with emotion. ‘A severe reaction to sun exposure. An extremely dangerous sun allergy,’ her dad repeated the doctor’s words. It was as if he didn’t believe it yet and needed to say it out loud to make sense of it.