‘No,’ Clare choked, through a sob. ‘Won’t you turn that thing off … ’
‘I’m trying,’ Iris replied, and felt rather than saw the clouds of ice that left her as she spoke. ‘Where did you leave it?’
‘By my case … ’
‘Where’s your case?’
‘On the floor.’
‘I’m on the floor. I can’t see anything.’
‘Where’s the light switch?’
‘By the door.’
‘Hang on. I’ll get it … ’
But before Clare had the chance to, the door flew open, and a woman in a quilted dressing gown appeared, torch in hand, her bottle-blonde hair curled in rags. Wordlessly, she combed the room with her torch’s beam, locating the alarmnotby Clare’s case, but hopping frantically atop a pile of woollens at the foot of Clare’s bed. The woman swooped, silencing the bell, then turned to Clare and Iris, daggering them with her stare.
‘Did we wake you up?’ Clare asked her, meekly.
‘I’ve been on duty all night,’ the woman replied, coldly. ‘I only just got to sleep.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Clare said.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Iris echoed. And then (because how could she leave it unsaid?), ‘DidMabel’s Furycome back?’
‘Yes,’ the woman hissed.
Iris drew a sharp breath of relief.
‘Anything else you want to keep me here talking about?’ the woman asked.
Mutely, Iris shook her head.
‘Excellent.’
Tossing the alarm on Clare’s bed, the woman turned on her heel and left, slamming the door behind her, plunging Iris and Clare back into blackness.
‘You see,’ came Clare’s voice, after a short pause, ‘I told you they’d be fine.’
Iris nodded, but didn’t reply, still too overcome to speak.
Mabel’s Furywas back.
Hewas back.
He washere.
It was him who she’d been dreaming about just now. She’d been dreaming of him all night: such strange, compelling dreams in which, over and again, she’d seen herself living their reunion scores of different ways: all over the house, and down at the base; inside the breakroom of a control tower she hadn’t yet seen. In every one of those dreams, when Robbie had caught sight of her, and their eyes had locked, he’d grinned.
Without exception, when he’d opened his mouth to speak, he’d said the same thing, and it had made her balloon with happiness.
It had all felt so real to her, it was almost like it had already happened.
But it hadn’t happened.
Of course it hadn’t.
