Certainly a massive traumatic situation does wonders for brain focus and gyroscopic balancing. Survival becomes different, it means different things. It’s not about being happy or sad, it’s about survival. It’s how he supposed you would feel in a war zone. You know you’re not happy, so you go beyond that, to just surviving; there are no demands on the brain other than to stay clear enough to fend off the beast. To live. He thought they should call Manita again or go and wait in the lobby. Lomita suggested the latter, give it five, and go down. The phone rang it was Manita.

Lomita answered and ended the brief call.

‘Five minutes according to the GPS.’

She said, followed by,

‘Please would you hold me tight, my sweet. Please.’

She didn’t need the second please, he was on his feet and swept her out of the chair and held her for all he was worth. At that moment she did receive all the love he had left in the world. He wanted it to flood into her body so that she would know.

He also carried all the guilt in the world; that he wasn’t sure if she should know. They broke apart and without words to speak they went downstairs: he carried her weight down the stairs and in perfect timing, they arrived at the lobby; through the multi-coloured hanging trails of beading the black mass of the Suburban pulled up outside the Isis Adelphia Hotel.

‘Back after we’ve had something to eat.’

Said Ever to the Chinese lady, with an impressive throwaway casualness.

‘Yes OK. And then you sign register, we forget to do the signing.’

‘Of course, that won’t be a problem.’

The beads parted for the last time.

And rippled back into place. As he hit the sidewalk he could see some wafts of smoke across the street behind the warehouse wall, and he smelt for a second, either from memory or from the now, the smell of the powerful dark of the smoke from fire.

*

Manita, as was expected, asked no questions.

Other than to express concern over the welfare of Lomita. Lomita was eased into the back seat by Ever and she immediately asked for the flecainade and a beta blocker: Ever, unusually for him, had no knowledge of this medication, but responding to Lomita’s desperation, gave her the tablets with some water; she would now wait for her heart to see sense and get back into a sinus rhythm.

It was an unnerving feeling, atrial fibrillation, delivering intense anxiety, disorientation, a suspension of confidence in the continuation of your life. Ever sat in the back of the black mass and nestled her in his arms.