‘Take it easy. Looking a bit green around the gills.’

Why has she put the colour green and a fish in the same sentence? She’s talking gibberish and my head hurts.

‘Put your head down between your knees,’ she says. ‘You’ve a cracker on the side of your head.’

Listening to Sammy, it’s as if I’ve tuned in to a new TV station and the rhythms and meaning have seeped into me, like when Maria and I watched the American programmes in her home, in secret. Somehow we knew what was being said, like now – with this girl everything is so visual, it’s as if her words are projected on a screen in dizzying, bright colours.

I have only been in this house three days and three nights and already it seems as if three lifetimes have passed. I pinch myself to try to scatter the ghosts, but all I can think of is the old man pinching me hard last night. I did not wake from the shadows then – they crept right inside me.

Sammy pushes my hand away. ‘Look,’ she says, pulling the curtains back fully. ‘Full-on sunshine. Drink that in, Roomie. Not many days like that in the dark winter to come.’

I try to focus on the blue sky but my eyes are finding it hard to see.

‘You ok? Looking a bit woozy.’

I like that word. It sounds exactly as I feel.

‘I’ll go get you a juice. Get some sugar into the bloodstream. Or even better – some booze. I wonder where Irina keeps her stash.’

‘No thank you. Juice is good.’

She makes a croaking sound like a frog. ‘Ok, Sandra Dee.’

All these name she calls me.

‘You look like a movie star,’ she says, ‘even with a big bruiser on your cheek.’

I put my hand to the side of my head, which is hot and swollen.

‘I’ll get you some ice too,’ she says, as she walks through the door.

I stay sitting on the side of the bed, holding tightly to the sheets. A knock on the door sounds, and then it opens a crack. A male voice says, ‘Hope I’m not disturbing you,’ and then a body appears in the doorway. I think it’s the same dark man who lifted Sammy last night. ‘I’m a doctor and I’d like to take a look at you.’