‘We don’t normally let visitors in in the morning,’ the nurse told them. She was petite and pretty, a black fringe curling out from the front of her white cap, but her manner was chilly and suspicious. ‘Are you friends of his?’

‘I’m his mother,’ Olivia snapped.

The nurse looked startled. She’d probably expected a timid Asian woman with limited English. ‘His . . .? I see. I’m sorry. I suppose as you’re here . . . Would you follow me?’

Her feet clip-clipped on the polished floor. She led them to a little room aside from the main ward.

‘We put him in here out of the way.’ Her tone was ambiguous. Anna and Jake exchanged glances. Overdose: a nuisance taking up a bed. ‘I’ll tell him you’re here.’

Olivia stood between Anna and Jake, watching the nurse give the door a shove. She looked very small in the yawning hospital corridor. Anna had wanted to take her arm, but sensed that she did not want to be touched.

The nurse went over to the bed by the far wall. Peering through the small, reinforced window, Anna could just see Krish’s dark hair and the shape of his body under the bedclothes. He was turned away from them, facing the wall. Anna saw the nurse bend over and speak to him. Krish’s body moved, curling almost convulsively so that his head disappeared underneath the bedclothes. The nurse tried again, then gave a light shrug and came back to the door.

‘I’m sorry. He doesn’t want to see anyone at the moment, I’m afraid.’

‘But I have to see him.’ Olivia’s voice was high, the desperation barely controlled.

‘He’s rather distressed.’ The nurse’s voice was gentler now, taking on a tone of one addressing a patient instead of a visitor. ‘You have to understand, he’s not long come round and he won’t be feeling very well for a while. Give him a bit more time.’

Olivia broke away from them and ran towards the door of the side room. ‘Krishna, Krishna!’ She had it half open, and they all had to restrain her, pull her away. Jake took her by the shoulders, led her off as her sobs filled the echoing space.

Anna stood with the nurse. ‘Is he going to be all right?’ she asked.

‘He should be,’ the nurse said. She looked at Anna curiously. ‘Are you a relative?’

‘No.’

The nurse nodded her head in the direction in which Olivia and Jake had disappeared. ‘He was pretty adamant about not seeing her.’

Anna didn’t feel confident in speaking to this young woman. ‘Their relationship is complicated,’ she said.

‘I don’t know, though.’ The nurse’s tone of disapproval returned. ‘He may look all of a heap now, but soon after he surfaced this morning he opened his eyes, looked at me and said, “Titty.” Can you believe it?’

‘Don’t worry,’ Anna said, despising her petty outrage. ‘He wasn’t after you. Actually Titty is a person.’

When they went back that afternoon, Olivia had dressed in her bright blue sari and plaited her hair.