And I said it, for the first time ever, without thinking – I said my brand-new name. The name I was going to have for the rest of my life.

All the way back to the Hacienda, the sky darkening, I chitter-chattered like an excited baby bird. Tenoch, one meaty hand on the steering wheel, one slinged-up arm leaning out of the window, kept his eyes on the road.

‘You seem happier now, gatita.’

‘Yeah, I am,’ I said, dabbing some of the cool calamine lotion on my bites with small pinches of cotton wool.

‘Good.’ He smiled at me – a dad smile.

‘And I thought of a new name.’ I told him what it was. His face bore no expression. ‘Well? What do you think? Is it white-bread enough?’

‘Yeah. It’s a good name. A pretty name.’

‘I went to this little art gallery and I met the lady who runs it.’ I screwed the lid back on the calamine. ‘And I said it when she asked me… that feels better already,’ I said, looking at all the chalky discs of lotion all over my legs. ‘Dad used to put calamine lotion on my chickenpox when I was little.’

‘You had chickenpox?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, when I was about nine. Why?’

He looked at me before placing a tender hand to my chin and turning it from one side to the other. ‘These scars, they chickenpox?’ He was referring to the one below my right ear and next to my nose.

‘Yeah. And a couple on my tummy.’

‘You can add those to your list,’ he said.

‘What list?’

‘For your surgery. Ask them to graft them for you. I had it done myself, it doesn’t take long. Or they might use lasers now, I don’t know.’

My heart dive-bombed. ‘Do I have to have surgery?’

‘Of course. You have paid for it.’

‘But what if I… stayed here, out of the way?’ I asked. ‘Would I still need it?’

‘You need to be gone from here by April. That’s what you’ve paid for.’

‘But if I stayed and kept you company? I can be useful to you.’

Tenoch didn’t say no right away. He put his hand down into the bakery bag and plucked out a macaron. ‘How can you be useful to me?’

‘I can help you around your house. Keep the house clean.’

‘I have Celestina for that.’

‘Well, I can do other things, I don’t know. I buried the bodies. I can bury as many bodies as you need. I’ll do whatever. You know you can trust me.’