‘You will have to get out of here,’ he was whispering to me, with bomb-disposal urgency. ‘Quite soon. We both have to get out of here.’
‘Why?’
He ate another crisp. ‘Just trust me.’
‘The last time I trusted you I nearly drowned.’
‘You didn’t nearly drown. Even the doctor said it. There was no water damage on your lungs. Something happened to you, but it wasn’t that.’
‘I nearly died. Just like Christina died. And for all I know, that was your fault too.’
He scratched his beard. Agitated. Nervous. ‘She knew what was going to happen to her. Everything that happened to her was her own choice.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘Listen, I am sorry. Sinceramente. I tried to be as clear as possible. I said that if you want to know what happened to your old friend, then you should come with me…’
‘I still don’t know what happened to Christina.’
Again he ignored me and carried on talking. ‘Mierda. I didn’t know that you would end up in hospital. That hasn’t happened before, I promise. It must have liked you more than most. Or it must have had more…work to do.’
I humoured him. ‘What did?’
‘La Presencia.’
‘What?’
‘That’s what we call it.’
‘It?’
‘The Presence, in English. But La Presencia is better.’
‘Please.’
‘The light you saw.’
‘It was an aura. That’s what the doctor said. You can get them with migraines or before seizures.’
‘You didn’t have a seizure. I was there. But I wasn’t going to tell them that. It’s best they don’t know the details. And have you ever heard of two people seeing the same aura at the same time? No, of course not. That doesn’t mean everyone can see it. It hides very easily. It is only seen by those who need to see it.’
‘Jesus,’ I said.
‘No. Not Jesus.’
‘I meant Jesus,’ I unleashed. ‘As in, the thing you say when an odd man in a wetsuit sits next to you and starts saying utterly ridiculous things.’
Alberto exhaled a little whistle. He spoke suddenly in the exaggerated tone of a tour guide. ‘There is a village in Ibiza called Jesús. But we say it as hey-zeus.’
The smart old man stared at us. I smiled again. This time it wasn’t reciprocated. We were clearly in danger of causing a commotion.
‘You are a difficult person,’ Alberto said. ‘Has anyone ever told you that?’
Yes, I didn’t tell him. Many times.
‘I tend to avoid conversations as much as possible,’ I said instead. ‘And you are reminding me why.’
He offered me a crisp. I shook my head, even though I was hungry. Stubborn as the wind, Mum used to say.
Alberto shrugged and spoke with his mouth full. ‘They’re paprika. They are very good. You don’t like to take pleasure when it is offered, do you?’
A minute of silence. Then he couldn’t resist. ‘This is normal. This is the denial phase. This happened to Christina too. Something remarkable happens when it reaches you and you put it down to a dream, because why wouldn’t you? Even as a part of you knows that it wasn’t. Normally, by the way, you don’t need to be carried out of the water. Normally it happens very quickly. It happens in a moment. But you had a stronger interaction. That’s why you need to leave here and go home. Because if you have a brain scan, they will find something abnormal.’
‘That is the point of having a brain scan.’
‘I am talking about something perhaps never seen before. It is more thorough than the last test. And it will show something that will surprise them. And who knows, they might take you away somewhere.’
I gave him a look. I thought of the extinct flower that was blooming through a crack in the dry path outside my door. I thought of the jar of seawater that had filled itself back up. I thought of all the illogical things I didn’t know what to do with. And somehow, all I could think to say was: ‘Don’t you have a snake to see to?’
Lucky Guess
‘Listen, there is currently another force on the island,’ Alberto said. ‘Not La Presencia but something we don’t understand yet. Something Christina only caught glimpses of. Someone or something with powers working against us.’ Alberto spotted someone walking down the corridor. A doctor. A tall woman with a serious, harassed face and strands of loose hair untethered from a butterfly grip. Alberto seemed distracted suddenly. ‘We have to leave here now.’ It was a mistake to draw such attention to ourselves. It is always a mistake. This should be secret…’
‘I don’t believe in fairy tales.’
‘We need to go. Now.’ Alberto had his head down. He watched the doctor’s feet as she passed.
‘No.’
