One morning I felt for the first time that I was really waking up and that I wasn’t stuck somewhere on the brink of unconsciousness. Over by the window a man was standing, looking out. I could only see his silhouette against the brightness of the sky. When he turned and I saw that it was Silvio, I was so surprised it made me feel dizzy and tired.

“It’s an amazing view.”

“What are you doing here?” I said.

He walked over to the bed. “I brought you flowers but they didn’t let me bring them in. They think they’re some kind of risk. I don’t know whether it’s because they spread disease or the nurses don’t want them around. Or maybe they just want to take them home themselves.”

“Thanks for the thought.”

“I gave them away and then I went around the corner and bought some blueberries and strawberries. I don’t know if you like that sort of thing.”

“I do.”

“I’ll put them on something.” He lifted the cover off a plate on the table by my bed. “What’s this?”

“I think it’s my lunch.”

“Gray sludge.”

“There’s some fish under it.”

I felt the weight of him on the bed as he sat on the edge and offered me the blueberries. I took a couple, put them into my mouth and chewed, feeling them burst against my tongue. “Lovely,” I said.

“Healthy,” said Silvio. “Someone told me that if you have a handful of them every day, you’ll never get cancer. Or anything else.”

“Can you give me some water?” I said. “There’s a jug over there.”

He poured it into a plastic cup. I took a couple of sips. It was warm and tasted stale. I drank it all anyway and handed the cup back to Silvio.

“Do you know everything?” said Silvio.

“I don’t know anything.”

“But you know about the guy in the car with you?”

“He died.”

“The police said you were lucky to survive. It was in the papers. I saw a photo of the car. I don’t know how you walked out of that one.”

“I didn’t walk out of it. How did you find out where I was?”

“I just did what you’ve been doing,” said Silvio. “Detective work.”

“I didn’t do any detective work,” I said. “Mainly I found out things by mistake.”

“You’re like one of those women scientists.”

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I’ve been studying history of science at school. There are these women scientists, they do all the research and the important experiments and at the end the guys come in and make the final discovery and get all the credit.”

“What discovery?”

“You’ve been going around stirring everything up, causing trouble.”

“You could say that. What about you?”

“Me?”

“Are you all right?”