Three Hours(86)
She tries to wash the blood off her skin, splashing water all over the place. In the mirror above the basin, she sees her pale body reflected back at her; her breasts look so naked, vulnerable and ugly with dried specks of blood. She wishes that she and Rafi had made love. He’d been the one who’d wanted to wait.
‘Jesus, Rafi, you mean till we’re married?’
‘I don’t want you to think you’ve made a mistake. I want you to be sure first.’
She should have just taken his clothes off and made love to him then and there. But she’d worried that it was Rafi who’d later think it was a mistake; that she was. And then he’d left the beach and come back for her. And she’d known that he would never think she was a mistake.
The specks of dried blood won’t wash off; she tries to pick at them with her nail, the shock of it all hitting her now as she scrapes them off.
She’s the reason he and Basi are in danger, because he loves her, and if he dies, if Basi does, it would be better if he’d never loved her, never even met her.
Antonella comes in. ‘Hannah? Are you okay?’ She sees the bloody bra at her feet, the red water in the basin. ‘Jesus, you’re hurt.’
‘No. I’m fine.’
‘Mr Marr?’
‘Yes.’
‘But Frank said he’d be okay.’
‘He will.’
Colluding in the lie that they’re all telling, till this is over.
‘Frank said you used up all the charge on your phone calling the ambulance?’
‘Yup.’
‘Do you want to borrow mine?’
Hannah takes her iPhone, startled by the generosity.
‘We have chargers, it’s no big deal,’ Antonella says.
‘Thank you.’
‘You won’t get reception in here, only on the stage or right at the back of the auditorium. They’re going to carry on with Macbeth in a minute.’
Hannah feels something like a laugh in her chest, really inappropriate but there it is, rising up.
‘You’re fucking joking?’
‘Fucking not.’
Why did she never really like this girl before? She has a girl crush on her now, because of her lending her mobile and because she hasn’t commented on her standing there with nothing on her top and because she said, ‘Fucking not.’
‘Hannah …?’ Antonella asks.
‘I’ll be there in a minute,’ she says, because she is shaking now, uncontrollably, and can’t even get the teacher’s cardigan back on again. ‘It’ll stop in a minute,’ she says.
‘It’s okay,’ Antonella says. ‘Got nowhere I need to be for a while.’
*
Rafi is trying to run, the wind driving snow against him and into the abrasions on his face; he has to find Basi before the terrorist, but he doesn’t know where to go.
The lights of Abu Qir harbour at night; in the darkness dogs are barking and men are shouting and they have to leave the beach and get to the boat again.
He knows now how deep the sea is, that Basi will be out of his depth and that he’s not strong enough to carry him. He gives money to a man on the beach next to them, who’s told him that he’s an engineer like Baba; a strong, kind-looking man. The man promises he’ll carry Basi through the water to the boat. Rafi splashes through the waves, having to swim by the time he reaches the boat. He hauls himself up and looks for Basi. The engineer is getting into the boat without Basi, and he sees that the man has dumped Basi in the water near the beach. Out of his depth, Basi is trying to swim to the boat but he can only do doggy-paddle. The people smugglers start the boat’s engine, and Rafi is yelling at them to wait, yelling and yelling, but they don’t turn off the engine. His phone is vibrating but it’s part of the boat’s engine, the whole boat vibrating, and they’re going to leave Basi behind.
*
Hannah has joined her friends on the stage because it has reception and she’s phoning Rafi but he doesn’t pick up. Maybe he doesn’t know it’s her phoning because she’s using Antonella’s phone so she texts him.
It’s Hannah using Antonella’s phone
She sends the text, then rings him. His phone rings five times and each time her heart beats faster, please let him be safe. He answers and she thinks he says something but can’t be sure because all she can hear is the violent wind.
‘Rafi? It’s me. Can you hear me?’
*
Rafi is sitting on the snow, his hoody soaked through, his leg bleeding, pressing his phone against his ear.
‘Are you okay?’ Hannah asks.
Her voice is a pure warm thing among the wind and pain and isolation of the snow.
‘Yes.’ But she can’t hear him so he raises his voice, ‘Yes!’
Pressing his phone against his ear, holding her against him.
‘Where are you?’ he asks, having to shout above the wind.
Because surely she’s at home with her father by now.
‘I’m safe. Is Basi all right?’
‘I’m going to find him.’
He’s having to shout so Hannah can hear him and he had to shout when he spoke to Rose Polstein too, to be heard above the wind, but Basi had used his usual little voice when they spoke. It had been hard for Rafi to hear him but that was the wind where Rafi was, not Basi, because where Basi was it was quiet. He’s inside. That’s what he knew when he first talked to Basi, but didn’t register it, not properly, just thought he must be inside Junior School. So, he must be inside somewhere near to Junior School and he will find him.