Katie O'Brien  had finished her first assignment after her return to work, following her bizarre and very uncomfortable kidnapping in Central Asia.  She had been sent to cover a meeting of industrialists in a south coast resort. It was now Saturday and Katie had decided to delay her return home, booking a couple more nights at the hotel now mercifully bereft of journalists and financiers.  After all the compulsory socialising of the past few days she badly wanted time alone .

Heading out of the hotel, she decided to make for the coastal path leading up into rolling green hills.  It took her only a minute or two to realise she was overdressed, even though it was early November and the temperature was in the mid to high forties.  Back to her room and off with the heavy coat.  On with a sleeveless top which came down only to three inches above her navel, leaving a vast expanse of her trim, athlete's stomach bare to the wind. Off with her jeans and on with a tiny pair of very short shorts.  On with a stout pair of shoes.

"Gosh, that's better" She had been stifled for the past few days, stuck inside the conference room by day and forced to socialize in boozy, smoke filled bars by night, dressed in a business suit.  "Lets blow a few of those cobwebs away"

She was soon out of the town and climbing a steep flight of steps up into the country park, finding herself walking over the springy downland turf, her hair streaming behind her in the breeze and feeling all her cares and worries falling away from her.  She felt a million zlotys.   An elderly couple passed her, going the other way and turned gazing open-mouthed at this reckless young woman as she strode energetically off into the distance.

"Mad as a hatter, that one - makes you feel cold just looking at her"  The worthy old couple were not to know that this young woman had endured weeks of exposure to far worse than this and had come almost to enjoy a bit of hardship, pushing her body up to and beyond its furthest limits, testing herself almost to destruction.

Soon she came to yet more steps, which led down to a valley and up the other side was a steeper flight of steps.  She ran all the way up and arrived at the top only a little out of breath and sweating.

"This is the life", she thought and continued running along the gentle upward slope of the coastal path. Despite the autumnal mist, she could just make out the sea below.

Another steep downward slope with flights of steps cut ino the pathway and she was at another valley and saw a notice announcing the way to a beach.

"Let's have a look at this isolated beach,"

Twenty yards along the path was another notice "Nudists May be Using this Beach - Warning"

"Not at this time of year, they won't" thought Katie.  "Even I would think twice about it  - wouldn't I ???"

The path terminated at a wooden staircase leading precipitously down to the beach. It was a slightly hairy journey for the elderly and inactive, but Katie scampered light-footedly down and soon found herself on a shingle, rocky beach.  She climbed up and over a few of the rocks and found herself looking down at lovely deep water beneath her.

"No, I couldn't. I'd be mad,  I'd be stupid, It'd be suicidal - I'd freeze in seconds- stiff as aboard - and I've no towel. Don't be so f*cking stupid.  Have a bit of sense, girl - Oh  it's no good - you're not listening are you?"

Her clothes neatly folded and   lying on the rock beside her she jumped feet first into the sea.

Not even the high pressure hosing down of icy water that the nasty policewoman had directed at her were like the sensation she experienced today  as she sank under the water and surfaced, gasping with pain.  Every tormented nerve-ending on every square millimetre of skin was crying out for mercy.  But Katie was not in a merciful mood!

 She thought, "Better swim ashore before I die of cold"

So why was she swimming out to sea - daft bitch?

She paused and trod water, looking at the distant shoreline. "If I don't start back now, I'll never make it"

"So why am I swimming even further out.  Cause I'm f*cking crazy, that's why."

For twenty minutes she swam gently along parallel with the shore and at long last made for the beach using her fastest stroke and cleaving cleanly through the water.

The sharp pebbles caused her feet as much agony as the water had caused her skin, as she emerged finally and reluctantly from the icy cold water and made her way  towards the distant rock, behind which she had left her clothes.  She forced herslf to walk at her normal punishing pace, grinding her feet into the shingle and ignoring the pain.

"Why did I not swim back to the place I started?  Silly stupid question!  Because  I want to prolong this little adventure, that's why.  I don't want  to wear clothes or feel warm and cosy ever again. I want to stay here all winter, just like this and greet the nudists when they arrive in the Spring. I'll chuck my clothes into sea and let the tide take them Heaven knows where. I don't want them any more!  I hate clothes!"

By the time she reached the rock she was beginning to shiver uncontrollably and the crazy instinct which had ben driving her to her to the point of lunacy was waning fast.  She was so perished that she couldn't wait for even the minimal warmth her scant clothing would provide her.

"Just behind that rock there", she thought,shivering more and more. "Let's get dressed and back to the hotel"

End of episode

Are Katies clothes still where she left them?  Has the villainous Charlie Ford tracked our hapless heroine to this lonely spot and made away with them? Will she freeze to death on a deserted beach in the cold November? Is she doomed?

Maybe I'll let you know sometime.