Since that day he hadn’t smoked once in seventeen years, and here he was now, ash over his lap like a blanket. He tried to work out how many weeks had passed since that morning in the office, but he couldn’t. All he could remember was Anette scrambling eggs afterwards. She certainly did love eggs. He wound down the window and dropped the partly smoked cigarette on to the road. Then he picked up the packet and threw it in the same direction. Anette could say what she liked. He still knew it was his child.

PART II

The silence was worse than the darkness. She heard no wind, no rain, no birdsong. No footsteps or voices, almost as if there was no world outside. She pressed her ear to the walls and listened, but the only sound was her heartbeat. The scratches on her arms grew deeper in the dim light. Here and there were old bruises that had turned yellow and faded with time. She didn’t fight any more. She couldn’t be bothered. Her veins were swollen under her loose skin as if she had aged too early, as if the very life was seeping out of her.

The bulb hanging from the ceiling cast her shadow on the wall and she found herself waving at it from her bunk. She saw the tall, thin figure wave back, in their fight against the isolation.

The room was a perfect square. It was like being in a box. Along one wall was the bed and a side table with the untouched food: a cheese sandwich wrapped in cling film and a flask of soup. She smelled the soup when the hunger became unbearable, but retched as soon as she took a mouthful. Her body refused. It was as if her insides protested against the captivity.

On the other wall, beside the metal door, was one bucket intended for use as a toilet and another filled with water. She avoided both of them as far as possible. She ate so little she hardly even had to pee, and she didn’t have the energy to wash herself. Her hair hung in thick, matted strands over her shoulders and left greasy marks on the pillow, and she guessed she stank, even if she couldn’t smell it herself. She hoped she stank. It might keep him from touching her.