As we walk through the sliding glass doors into white light and grey drizzle, Luca is standing there, leaning lazily against a car door, his tongue poking out through his teeth. He gestures at me to follow him. Igor is smoking a cigarette and talking on the phone in the same devil’s language they spoke in that dark place. When I hear it my whole body starts to shake.

I whisper to Magda, ‘My brother has come to rescue us. Come with me.’

‘How would your brother know where we are?’

As she says it, I see that the man I thought was Luca is putting his arms around three little children. He walks away, one of them wrapped around him like a baby monkey and the other two holding a hand each. One, two, three, wheeee.

An invisible hand in the sky pushes its way down my throat, gagging me and squeezing my heart.

‘Are you ok?’ Magda says as she takes off her cream jacket and puts it around my shoulders. The shaking is deep inside and won’t stop.

Igor turns to Magda. ‘What’s wrong with the girl? I heard a rumour … does she have a disease? We won’t get paid if she’s sick.’

Magda pulls me to her. ‘She’s frightened.’

‘Of what? The Bogey Man? Boo-hoo.’ Igor finds himself hilarious and doubles over he’s laughing so much.

Again, she touches head, heart, side to side, in miniature, so no one but me would notice.

‘Can we go for a walk?’ I ask.

A black shiny car pulls up, a man rolls down the window and pokes his head through. ‘Igor Alexandrescu?’

Igor nods, opens the boot, throws our cases in and roughly pushes Magda and me into the back seat.

‘Not in public, remember? People might notice and call the police.’

Igor is back to the way he was before he walked into the airport; his shoulders have settled back into the sharp, straight lines of before, making him seem so much bigger.

‘We’re not in public now,’ he says, as the car door bangs shut, and he presses a button that makes the now-familiar harsh, banging type of music flood the car. The sound of it hits against the inside of the doors. I close my eyes. I’m on top of the tree and the only sound is the wind in the leaves.

Igor and the man are smoking, the windows are tight shut and I feel as if I might get sick. Magda notices, and rolls down a window in the back.

‘Did I say you could do that?’ Igor asks. He is sore from having to follow her in the airport.

‘If you want her vomiting all over the car, then fine, I will roll the window back up.’