And she makes the spiked ball slowly disappear beneath her body, but at that moment . . .

“Jesus Christ!” Julian shouts.

42

A female cry interrupts the music and everything else.

Fred Ballinger switches on the light on the bedside table, looking worried.

Lena wakes with a start covered in sweat. She is struggling for air, still in the grip of a nightmare.

“Lena, what’s come over you?”

She is breathing hard, slowly coming back to reality and regaining her normal breathing. She reassures her father: “It’s nothing. Nothing. I was having a dream.”

“More like a nightmare?”

“Let’s say something between the two. It’s over now.”

Fred switches off the light. In the darkness, Lena turns over to sleep, but remains awake. Their backs are turned to one another.

After some time, she asks a question. “As a man, what do you think of Miss Universe?”

“Complete disappointment.”

Lena is cheered by her father’s statement. After a pause she adds, “Pa, I have to tell you something . . . something personal.”

“What’s that, Lena?”

“Julian’s a prick, because I’m very good in bed.”

“I know.”

“What? You know . . .?”

“You’re my daughter. And I myself, modestly speaking, was a little marvel between the sheets.”

Gradually, each one in their own corner of the bed, father and daughter put their embarrassment to one side and burst into sniggers in the dark.

43

Fred wanders around a shop filled with souvenirs and bits of local artisan woodwork, shooting the odd disinterested glance at the shelves.

Jimmy Tree goes up to an assistant behind the counter and places a briarwood walking stick on it, proud of having found one similar to the South American’s. The assistant starts to gift-wrap it.

While Jimmy is waiting, the pale thirteen-year-old girl from the hotel appears at his side. She is pink around the eyes, which makes her look more upset than disturbing.

She bites her nails nervously while staring at the actor, who notices her and turns around. She studies him quite openly in a manner forthright enough – and for long enough – to make Jimmy feel a little uncomfortable. Then, sure of herself, she starts to speak. “I’ve seen you in a film.”

“You liked ‘Mr Q’, did you? Everyone does.”

“No, I saw you in a film where you play a young father who’s never met his son and comes upon him for the first time in a motorway services when the boy’s already fourteen.”

Jimmy feels like he has turned to stone. He mutters, “No-one’s ever seen that film.”

“I liked the conversation when your son says, ‘Why didn’t you want to be a father?’ and you say, ‘I didn’t think I was up to it.’ It was then I understood something very important.”

“What was that?”

“No-one in the world thinks they’re up to it. And so there’s no need to worry. See you back at the hotel. Ciao.” The girl saunters off as naturally as she came.