Emily put her head in her hands and—Lucky could not tell if she sobbed. He could see plainly enough that she had been given what she’d wanted and he didn’t think it decent to watch another person engulfed by the completion of a long passion. He went to the bathroom and washed his hands. At the fridge he checked on some food he prepared that morning and, while fixing a bowl of olives, his intercom buzzed and he rushed over to the console near the door and let in the visitors downstairs.

‘Another prize from Wheel of Fortune?’ asked Emily.

‘Do you need to be anywhere this afternoon?’ asked Lucky.

Emily spotted Louis II among the curtains near the television.

2.

She’d already seen her future, or glimpses anyway. New settings, new questions. By the end of that year, Emily would move to Sydney and apply for dual citizenship, being eligible for an Australian passport on account of her mother. She would work at a bookstore and, nights and weekends, write a book about the aftermath of the Third of April. All the families spoke to her. She earned their trust, she made a practice of showing them passages of the manuscript, ensuring she had their consent to tell the story. In the brief afterword she mentioned her father’s gift to Lucky, and the fact that her understanding of trauma and unrecoverable loss began with bearing witness to Ian Asquith’s death.

3.

Jamie entered the apartment ahead of his mother, scanning the white tiles for the snake, finding Louis in a belt of sunlight behind the television set. Lucky had filled his bath with wood shavings, expecting the tub to serve as a lair, but Louis twisted his way around the bath, poked around the tap, and slithered out for some place better. Maybe that room was the wrong temperature. Not enough sunlight. Snakes, suddenly the most important animals to Lucky, were organically strange and discerning. Probably they required an elaborate terrarium. Lucky needed to go back to the pet store. Jamie could be of assistance. That was something they could do. For his guests Lucky set down a plate of savoro—fish cooked in vinegar and currants.

‘This was my mother’s favourite dish,’ Sophia told Emily,

‘It’s Greek but h-h-has traces of Roman cuisine,’ said Jamie. ‘Ancient Romans liked to a-a-add currants and vinegar to f-food. Sorry.’

‘It’s okay,’ Emily said. ‘Good fact.’

‘Don’t ever apologise for your speech,’ said Sophia. ‘It’s this drama with Louis. It’s stressed you out. It brought back the stammer.’

‘Is L-Louis eating?’ asked Jamie.

‘He loves the fuzzy,’ said Lucky.