“Well you must be much poorer than I ever imagined, Irina.”
“I don’t know what you imagined, Seth. Almost everyone in the world is poorer than the Belascos.”
She helped him remove his shoes and pushed him down onto the mattress on the floor that she used as a bed. Like everything else in the room, the sheets were clean, because her grandparents had taught Irina that poverty is no excuse for grime.
“What’s that?” asked Seth, pointing to a small bell on the wall attached to a cord that went through the wall to the next room.
“Nothing, don’t worry about it.”
“What do you mean, nothing? Who lives on the other side?”
“Tim, my friend from the café, the one who washes dogs with me. I sometimes have nightmares, and if I start crying out, he pulls the cord, the bell rings, and I wake up. It’s an arrangement we’ve made.”
“Do you suffer from nightmares, Irina?”
“Of course. Don’t you?”
“No, but I do have erotic dreams. Would you like me to tell you one?”
“Go to sleep, Seth.”
In less than two minutes, Seth had obeyed her. Irina gave Neko his medicine, washed up with the pitcher of water and basin she kept in a corner of the room, took off her jeans and blouse, put on a worn T-shirt, and curled up by the wall, with the cat between her and Seth. It took her a long while to get to sleep, as she was too aware of the man’s presence, the noises in the rest of the house, and the stink of cauliflower. The one tiny window onto the outside world was so high up that all that could be seen through it was a small rectangle of sky. Sometimes the moon would give a brief greeting as it crossed the sky, but this was not one of those blessed nights.
The faint light of day seeping into her room woke Irina the next morning. She discovered Seth was no longer there. It was nine o’clock and she ought to have left for work an hour and a half earlier. Her head and all her bones were aching, as if she were suffering from the sake hangover by osmosis.
THE CONFESSION
Alma had not yet returned to Lark House, nor had she called to ask how Neko was. The cat had not eaten in three days and was barely able to swallow the water Irina squirted into his mouth with a syringe. Since the medicine had not had any effect, she was about to ask Lenny to take her to the vet, when Seth turned up. He looked refreshed, and was wearing clean clothes and a contrite expression, evidently ashamed of his conduct the previous night.
“I’ve just found out that sake is seventeen percent alcohol,” he said.
“Have you got your motorbike?” Irina interrupted him.
“Yes, I found it untouched where we left it in Berkeley.”
“Well then, take me to the vet.”