“What time is it?” asked Alicia.

“Early. Are you all right?”

Alicia nodded with half-closed eyes and staggered back to the sofa. Fernandito closed the door and, before she fell on the way, held her upright and helped her land safely on the sofa.

“What is this stuff you take?” he wanted to know, examining the bottle of pills.

“Aspirin.”

“They must be for horses.”

“What are you doing here so early?”

“I was in El Pinar last night. I have plenty to tell you.”

Alicia felt the table in search of cigarettes. Fernandito pushed them aside without her noticing.

“I’m all ears.”

“It doesn’t look like it. Why don’t you take a shower while I make some coffee?”

“Do I smell bad?”

“No. But I think it will do you good. Come on, I’ll help you.”

Before Alicia could protest, Fernandito helped her up from the sofa and led her to the bathroom, where he sat her on the edge of the bath and let the water run, testing the temperature with one hand and making sure she wasn’t going to keel over with the other.

“I’m not a baby,” Alicia complained.

“Sometimes you act like one. Come on, into the water. Are you going to undress, or shall I do it?”

“In your dreams.”

Alicia pushed him out of the bathroom and closed the door. She dropped her clothes on the floor, a garment at a time, as if she were shedding dead scales, and looked at herself in the mirror.

“Good God,” she murmured.

A few seconds later the shock of cold water biting her skin returned her unceremoniously to the world of the living. Fernandito, who was preparing a pot of strong coffee in the kitchen, couldn’t hold back a smile when he heard the shout from the bathroom.

* * *

A quarter of an hour later, buried in a bathrobe that was too large for her, her hair wrapped in a towel, Alicia heard the story of the night’s events. While Fernandito talked, she sipped at the coffee in the large cup she held in both hands. When the boy had concluded his report, she downed the remaining coffee and looked him in the eyes.

“You shouldn’t have put yourself in that dangerous situation, Fernandito.”

“That’s the least of it. That guy, Hendaya, hasn’t the foggiest who I am. But I’m sure he knows who you are, Alicia. You’re the one in danger.”

“Where have you been since you managed to shake off the two policemen?”

“I found a sort of flophouse behind the Boquería market where I was able to wait.”

“A sort of flophouse?”

“The lurid details for another day. What are we going to do now?”

Alicia sat up. “You’re doing nothing. You’ve done enough already.”

“What do you mean, nothing? After what happened?”

She drew closer to him. There was something different about him, in the way he looked at her and behaved. She decided not to pull at that thread. She’d wait for a more suitable moment.