When Rav got home the first thing I did was tell him about the flash of white I saw streaking through the trees. I had spent the afternoon feeling unsettled and when Mina had asked to go outside, I had refused, locking the back door and making her cry. I had tried to tell myself that it was nothing, just someone out for a walk, but there was something sinister about it that left behind a rattling sense of dread. I can’t put my finger on whatever it is, but I still feel it now, a pregnant cloud of unease hanging over me.

‘It was probably just … a seagull or something.’ Rav stifles a yawn, before lowering his hand to cup the baby’s head. ‘And the wind. They’re saying there’s going to be a storm tonight.’

‘It wasn’t a seagull, Rav. It was too big to be a bird. I don’t know what it was, but it scared me.’ I press my fingers against my temples, where a headache thuds, dull and heavy. I don’t know if it’s from frustration at Rav or the thick, stormy air.

Rav reaches out awkwardly, careful not to wake the baby and entwines his fingers with mine. ‘I just think you’re overreacting a bit, Al. I can take a look out there if you want?’

I sigh. ‘No, it’s OK. Don’t worry. Whatever it was will be long gone by now.’ I hope. ‘Maybe you’re right. Maybe it was just my imagination playing tricks on me. I’m sure it’s probably nothing.’ I’m not, not entirely, but I don’t want to talk about it anymore, don’t want to keep thinking about it. ‘Do you mind if I go up?’

‘No, of course not. You go, I’ll bring him up when he wakes.’

A loud rumbling yanks me from sleep, my heart crashing in my chest as I wonder what it is that has woken me so abruptly, before realizing it is thunder. The bedroom fills with a flash of bright white as lightning streaks across the sky, and I glance towards the cot where the baby is starting to stir. Rav mumbles next to me, reaching out in his sleep to brush his hand over my hip and I feel horrid for being so snappy and irritable with him earlier. His dark hair is mussed up where he has tossed and turned, and I can see Mina in his sleeping face. The baby lets out a short cry, and I slide from the bed, leaning over the cot to pick him up.