Good evening. Welcome to the Just Sleep podcast. I'm Tasia, your host.

Every week, I will read you an old story to help you relax, put the stressful day behind you, and drift off to sleep.

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Tonight, I continue the story, The Lady Vanishes.

So lie down, close your eyes, and let me read you a story.

Chapter 6. The Waiting Room

When Iris became conscious, her sight returned at first in patches.

She saw sections of faces floating in the air.

It seemed the same face, sallow skinned with black eyes and bad teeth. Gradually, she realized that she was lying on a bench in a dark kind of shed while a ring of women surrounded her. They stared down at her with indifferent apathy as though she were some street spectacle.

There was no trace of compassion in their blank faces, no glint of curiosity in their dull gaze.

In their complete detachment, they seemed devoid of the instincts of human humanity.

"'Where am I? she asked wildly.

A woman in a black overall suddenly broke into guttural speech, which conveyed no iota of meaning to Iris.

She listened with the same helpless panic which had shaken her yesterday in the gorge.

Actually, the woman's face was so close that she could see the pits in her

skin and the hairs sprouting inside her nostrils. Yet their fundamental cleavage was so complete

that they might have been standing on different planets. She wanted someone to light in her darkness,

to raise the veil which baffled and blinded her.

Something had happened to her, of which she had no knowledge. Her need was beyond the scope of

...