‘I’m sorry …’
Alicia nodded in response. Shortly afterwards, the ambulance arrived and stopped outside the house and the doctor came out to meet it. It only took a few minutes for the two ambulance men to go inside and then emerge, carrying Irina wrapped in a blanket on a stretcher. Max caught a glimpse of his little sister’s face, which was as white as a sheet, and felt his stomach churn. Andrea Carver, her face tense and her eyes red and swollen, got into the ambulance and peered out despairingly at Alicia and Max. The ambulance crew rushed to their seats. Maximilian Carver walked over to his two children.
‘I don’t like leaving you on your own. There’s a small hotel in the town. Perhaps …’
‘We’ll be fine, Dad. Don’t worry about that now,’ Alicia replied.
‘I’ll call from the hospital and give you the number. I don’t know how long we’ll be there, I don’t know whether there’s anything—’
‘Just go, Dad.’ Alicia hugged her father. ‘Everything will be all right.’
Trying to hold back his tears, Maximilian Carver climbed into the ambulance. The three friends stood quietly, watching the vehicle’s lights disappearing into the distance as the last rays of sun lingered in the violet dusk.
‘Everything will be all right,’ Alicia repeated to herself.
*
Once they’d found some dry clothes (Alicia lent Roland a pair of old trousers and a shirt belonging to her father), the wait for news seemed endless. The smiling moons on Max’s watch showed it was a few minutes to eleven o’clock when the phone finally rang. Alicia, who was sitting between Roland and Max on the porch steps, jumped up and ran into the house. Before the phone had rung a second time she had picked up the receiver.
‘All right,’ she said, nodding at Max and Roland. ‘How’s Mum?’
Max could hear the rumble of his father’s voice down the line.
‘Don’t worry,’ said Alicia. ‘No. There’s no need. Yes, we’ll be fine. Call again tomorrow.’ Alicia paused. ‘I will,’ she assured him. ‘Me too. Goodnight, Dad.’
She hung up and looked at her brother.
‘Irina is being kept under observation,’ she explained. ‘The doctors say she has concussion. She’s still in a coma but they say she’ll recover.’
‘Are you sure that’s what they said?’ Max replied. ‘What about Mum?’
‘You can imagine. They’re going to spend the night there because Mum doesn’t want to go to a hotel. They’ll call us again tomorrow at ten.’
‘What will we do now?’ Roland asked timidly.
Alicia shrugged her shoulders.
‘Is anyone hungry?’ she asked the two boys.
Max felt surprisingly hungry. Alicia stifled a yawn – she looked exhausted.
‘I think it would do us all good to have some dinner,’ she concluded. ‘Anyone disagree?’
It took Max a few minutes to prepare some sandwiches while Alicia made lemonade. They had dinner on the porch, sitting on the bench under the faint glow of the lamp that swayed in the night breeze, wrapped in a dancing cloud of moths. The full moon rose high above the sea transforming the water’s surface into a lake of luminous metal that stretched towards infinity. They ate in silence, gazing at the ocean and listening to the soft swell of the waves.
‘I don’t think I’ll sleep a wink tonight,’ said Alicia, sitting up and scanning the horizon.
‘I don’t think any of us will,’ Max agreed.
‘I have an idea,’ said Roland, a conspiratorial smile on his lips. ‘Have you ever swum at night?’
‘Are you joking?’ Max retorted.
Without saying a word, Alicia gave the two boys a look, her eyes shining and mysterious, then got up and walked off calmly towards the beach. Max watched in astonishment as his sister crossed the sand and, without turning round, slipped off her white cotton dress. She stood at the water’s edge for a moment, her pale skin gleaming under the bluish light of the moon, and then, slowly, she submerged her body into the immense pool of light.
‘Aren’t you coming, Max?’ said Roland, following Alicia’s footsteps on the sand.
Max didn’t reply, but he shook his head and watched as his friend dived in. He could hear his sister’s laughter amid the whispering sounds of the sea.