When I came, my cheeks pressed to the spermicidal pillow, Carmen nodded matter-of-factly. She took her breasts from me and disengaged her vulva from my penis, a technician turning off a life-support system. Her body shining with my sweat, she stepped from the bed and opened the door into the next room, where Dick and Fortunata were playfully throwing the plastic mementoes at each other. Dick, I noticed, had not undressed.

Carmen watched them bleakly and closed the door. She plucked a tissue from the carton on the dressing table. With a jerk of her thumb, she confided: “He no fuck.”

Deftly she scooped my semen from her vulva, wiped a streak from the inside of her thigh, then crushed the tissue and threw it carefully onto the floor below the camera, a small offering to this one-eyed inquisitor.

*   *   *

Later that evening, I saw Carmen under the lens of a very different camera. As promised, the festival limousine arrived at the Luxor to take us to Pereira’s party at Ipanema. Another guest, a Dutch film distributor, shared the car with us. He and Dick kept up an animated commentary as we drove down Copacabana Avenue, pointing to the movie theatres besieged by the eager crowds, the gangs of whores and pimps striding arm in arm through the flashing strobes, and the passing tourists stunned by the sight of the Rio police holding up six lanes of traffic while they knocked about some pickpocket or parking offender.

Throughout dinner Dick had been in unflagging good humour, while I felt vaguely depressed. Missing the children, I telephoned Cleo Churchill, who had volunteered to look after them while we were away. I spoke to each of them in turn, thrilled to hear their voices telling me of the day’s triumphs and excitements, a model aircraft lost in the river and a tame squirrel in the garden. Listening to them, I wanted to put the receiver down and head for the airport. Cleo spoke last, reassuring me that all was well and that the children scarcely remembered me.

“Don’t hurry back—they’re having the time of their lives. I hope you and Dick are thoroughly misbehaving yourselves.”

“I am, but Dick’s been too busy giving TV interviews. Everyone agrees he’s the sexiest psychologist in Rio.”

“And in London—bring him back in one piece.”