Page 97 of Sunrise By the Sea

‘Alexei!’

He grinned. ‘Family is very important,’ he said. ‘If she haff not approve . . .’

Marisa hit him with a cushion.

He looked at her, and gently ran his huge hand down her face. She shivered. Then he took it away.

‘I look smart?’

She laughed. ‘No,’ she said truthfully. His jumper had holes; his hair was dishevelled and needed cutting again. But she liked the way he looked. His solidity; his unmoving strength; the directness in him.

The Skype number rang on.

‘She is sleeping; I am hanging up,’ said Marisa. ‘It’s nearly midnight there.’

Normally this was nothing to hernonna, who ate at nine p.m., but Marisa had generally gone to bed long before now, and she didn’t want to startle her.

But no: the screen blinked and winked in. Alexei quickly ran his thick fingers through his tangled hair and rubbed his beard as if suddenly regretting having one but realising it was too late to change now.

Marisa suddenly panicked. This was ridiculous. It wasn’t like she was going to sleep with him. But her grandmother would think that she was! All she wanted to do was . . . well. She wanted to kiss him. And as a joke it had got completely out of hand and now she desperately didn’t want to . . . she made a decision.

‘I’m going to hang up.’

‘Why?’ said Alexei.

She turned to him in a sudden flash.

‘Because,’ she said, smiling at him, ‘maybe I want to do something with you I wouldn’t want to do in front of my grandmother . . .’

‘Pronto?’

The voice was crackling and weak coming through the computer and they both jumped apart, even though they had barely been touching. Marisa closed her eyes.

‘Nonna?’

Her grandmother wasn’t her normal tidy self. Her hair was out of its tight braid and loose around her face and she was unfocused and confused.

‘Nonna, did I wake you?’

But her grandmother was in her day clothes, not her nightwear. The lights were on in the kitchen. She just looked bemused and dazed.

‘Who is that?’

‘Nonna, it’s Marisa, it’s me.’

Alexei frowned. ‘She is okay?’

‘Are you all right?’

Marisa leaned forward to the screen. ‘I didn’t mean to bother you so late, I’m so sorry.’

Her grandmother shook her head. ‘Is it late? I don’t know. I think . . .’ She looked confused. ‘I think I fell?’

‘Oh my God,’ said Marisa. ‘Are you all right?’

‘I was on the ground and then . . . then I heard ringing . . .’

She turned around confusedly, as if looking to see where she was in the room, and to her absolute horror Marisa saw a dark patch covering the back of her grandmother’s hair, which if you looked closely enough through the small screen was sticky with blood.

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