Why did Rhiannon leave her successful musician boyfriend Stuart, change her name to Beth, and move to a town near where she grew up, only to arrive on the doorstep of Allan, her former best friend who was beginning to develop a crush on her when she

  1. She realized she didn’t love Stuart anymore. (She was never any good at conflict and decided that running away and changing her name without explanation was the easiest way to deal with things.) 2. She slept with somebody else (a friend of Stuart/band member/family member) and the relationship collapsed. 7. Stuart slept with somebody else (a friend of hers/band member/family member) and the relationship collapsed. 8. Stuart didn’t sleep with somebody else, but she thought he had, realized she didn’t trust him and therefore didn’t truly love him, and the relationship collapsed. 12. She woke up one day, realized she was bored and directionless, and ran away. 15. She thought Stuart was too controlling and trying to change her too much, so she escaped… 21. While trying to track down old friends, she obtained the phone number of Allan’s apartment. Her call was answered by his roommate, and a relationship developed, resulting in her running away to be with him. 26. She discovered Stuart was her long-lost secret brother. 31. She was abducted by aliens, and had her mind altered. 32. She was abducted by aliens and replaced with a clone/replica. 34. It isn’t Rhiannon, it is genuinely someone called Beth who looks very similar. 37. She witnessed a crime and was placed under witness protection. Encountering Allan was an unfortunate coincidence, as she is not allowed to contact anyone from her old life. 47. She is taking part in a new reality TV show called “New Start,” which involves leaving all your friends behind and spending three months being somebody else. She isn’t allowed to tell anyone she’s taking part. 48. She was a serial killer and hoped that moving away and assuming a new identity would put the police off her trail. 52. She was visited by an assassin (hired by Stuart?) who took pity on her and allowed her to escape (perhaps she had to pay him for this). She, naturally, had to abandon her life completely. 55. She visited a psychic/fortune teller who told her that her future was with Allan and something terrible would happen if she stayed with Stuart or continued her life on its current course. 56. She received a visit from her future self who told her that her future was with Allan, etc. 58. Allan and Rhiannon were part of a gang who were (directly or indirectly) responsible for the death of a girl. Beth is this girl's sister, who has had plastic surgery in order to look like Rhiannon. She has murdered Rhiannon and moved back to the area in order to take revenge on the other members of the gang. Unfortunately, while looking for accommodation under a false name, she answered an ad that Allan’s landlord had placed, which has complicated the matter. 59. Allan and Rhiannon were part of a gang who refused to let another girl join in their games, and perhaps bullied her on occasion. Beth is this girl, who has had plastic surgery in order to look like Rhiannon. She has murdered Rhiannon and moved back to the area in order to take revenge, etc. 60. Aged 12/13, she slept with Allan's brother and became pregnant. This is why her family moved away. Her name was changed to avoid any scandal, and the child was brought up as her brother/sister. For some reason now she feels the need to make contact with the child’s father, and uses Allan to this end. Allan assumes it is all about him, when actually he is peripheral to the real story. 64. She is working for the government. Allan is unwittingly involved in something that threatens national security. Beth is an alias. She didn’t realize she was investigating someone she knew. 66. Rhiannon died aged 13. Allan witnessed/caused her death and had a breakdown. This is all happening in his head. 70. Rhiannon doesn’t exist. Beth is a woman who happens to have answered an ad Allan’s landlord placed for a room to let, and Allan has formulated a set of false childhood memories of her, under the name Rhiannon. She tries to correct him at first then plays along because she is worried he might be dangerous. 71. Beth doesn’t exist. Allan is hallucinating her due to his unrequited childhood love for Rhiannon. He has created a grown-up version of Rhiannon, but due to his feelings of inadequacy has turned her into a mystery, so that when he finally “solves” her, he will feel like he truly deserves her. 72. Neither Beth nor Rhiannon exists. Rhiannon was an imaginary friend, and Beth is a hallucination. 73. Allan doesn’t exist. He is a cypher created to allow the author to write about female characters from a male perspective, turning them into mysterious and incomprehensible figures defined entirely by their relationship (or lack thereof) to a male character, rather than three-dimensional characters in their own right. 74. None of them exist. Allan is the procrastinating author, while Beth and Rhiannon are arbitrary names onto which the author can project clichés of femininity: Rhiannon is the helpless child, who in most of the above scenarios needs to be protected, and Beth is a woman who initially appears strong, but quickly unravels and is shown to be both irrational and untrustworthy. Which makes you wonder whether the author has deep-rooted issues with women, or whether his refusal to write the story shows a rejection of those clichés. 75. The author doesn’t exist. He is an arbitrary name onto which the reader can project their own opinions and/or biases. The story is merely a collection of sentences from which the reader is free to infer any meaning or judgement that they wish.