Even when still at school, I had made my ‘hobby’, radio and electronics, serve also to augment my weekly ‘pocket-money’. This was known quite widely by other folks living in our block of flats. The mother of two girls I was friendly with, had informed me that one of her friends had a radiogram that was faulty.

The woman had a shop on Gateshead High St., selling second-hand sewing machines. My first encounter with her, in her shop, gave me the creeps. I felt distinctly uncomfortable at her intense survey of me from head to toe.

A very large part of this tale is true, though the very last section was a reflection on what I had imagined regarding the woman.

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