Mansel Bank

Mansel Bank is the City location where the amnesiac woman formerly known as Myfanwy Thomas tries to resume her predecessor’s life, following the instructions and keys left for her. Its lockbox room becomes the point where an attempted escape turns into a new decision: after an attack at the bank, she opens box 1011-B and finds materials in Myfanwy Thomas’s handwriting.

Location and Purpose

The bank stands on Bassingthwaighte Street in the City. It holds two lockboxes prepared for the woman who has inherited Myfanwy Thomas’s body and circumstances. The keys offer sharply different futures: box 1011-A contains materials for leaving the country and constructing a new identity, while 1011-B puts her back into Thomas’s life. The bank is thus not merely a repository but the physical setting for a choice between flight and investigation.

Arrival and Attempted Escape

After travelling into the City in a waiting car, the woman arrives at the bank intent on living independently of Thomas’s past. She has checked her card balances at a hotel ATM and found enough money to imagine a comfortable life. Still wary that someone might be watching, she surveys the street before entering. She considers using the name Jeanne, but postpones a decision until she knows what Thomas has left for her.

Following signs to the lockbox area, she gives the receptionist her driver’s license under the name Anne Ryan. The receptionist is wearing latex gloves. Without warning, the woman punches her in the face before the visitor can say another word. The attack shatters the expectation that the bank offers a quiet, controlled route out of danger.

The Lockboxes and Their Contents

After the assault, the woman searches the receptionist’s pockets and finds nothing. At the desk she locates a drawer of numbered keys, each in its own compartment, and takes the keys corresponding to the ones she brought. In the room beyond, she discovers another woman unconscious, wearing an identification badge that also identifies her as the receptionist. The apparent duplication, together with the unexplained attack, deepens her uncertainty about who has reached the bank and how quickly they were positioned there.

She scans the enormous drawers for the numbered boxes and briefly considers changing her mind. The bodies on the floor settle the choice: she opens 1011-B. One suitcase holds objects wrapped in bubble wrap; the other contains stacks of envelopes numbered in the unmistakable handwriting of Myfanwy Thomas. The contents reconnect the visitor to the life she had meant to escape.

Narrative Significance

The bank scene turns the options laid out in Thomas’s letter into immediate stakes. The promise of money and a new identity has made departure seem possible, but the attack demonstrates that danger follows her even into a place chosen as a means of escape. Rather than opening 1011-A, she chooses the box that returns her to Thomas’s affairs. Mansel Bank therefore marks the shift from cautious withdrawal to a resolve to discover what has happened and why she is being targeted.