Gehna wandered the entire crescent of Miramar beach, starting at the north end, busy with shack restaurants and day trippers, to the south where she had only the squalling gulls for company. In her cotton sarong and toothpaste-white bikini top, she could feel eyes on her everywhere she went. It was a feeling you learnt to live with if you were female in India. Censorious eyes, envious eyes, lustful eyes, but, perhaps for the first time in her life, Gehna didn’t care. She felt safe and wondered if it had something to do with the baby. She stuck her belly out as far as it would go, carrying it in front of her like the vanguard of an advancing army. Older women sometimes looked more closely at her when they saw she was pregnant but, by and large, the gaze of girls and men slid quickly off her shiny, smooth baby bump. It made people uncomfortable to realize that they were staring at a mom-to-be, and that was fine by Gehna.

She bought a pint of King’s beer at a shack and walked down to the waterline. After taking a sip, she poured the rest to froth and hiss into the warm sands. The only reason she had bought the beer was because of the bottle; it was a fatty, twice the circumference of a regular pint, with jovial curves that she liked.

At the far end of Miramar, where most tourists couldn’t be bothered to go, Gehna settled down to wait for the sunset. She wanted to quiet her mind and not think of how mean Eram had been to her, but, of course, as soon as she tried not to, that was all she could think about.

Why do I feel so sick? I mean, it’s not like he cheated on me or anything. Even though maybe he did in a way? If you have big feelings for someone and you think they feel the same, but then you find out they don’t, it feels like you were cheated out of something. I think I’m going to throw up. Wait, why are there ducks here?

A mixed flock of mallards and mandarins had gathered near the pitted rocks that marked the end of the beach. Gehna had never heard of ducks on a beach before. It flustered her. To calm down, she took out from her tote bag a brioche she had picked up at the hotel. A large aggressive-looking drake immediately waddled up closer than the others to cock his head at her. Gehna bit a chunk out of her bread and tried to ignore him. The drake shook his feathers at her in a menacing way. Gehna, recognizing that this was an old-fashioned mugging, stood up.

‘Shoo. Get away, bastard duck.’

The duck honked. He had definite designs and clearly wasn’t leaving until he got what he felt was coming to him. Pretending that the drake was Eram, Gehna took careful aim with the brioche and flung it, hard. The bread caught the bird on the side of the neck, and he retreated.