Cleopatra's Sister by Penelope Lively

Author:Penelope Lively [Lively, Penelope]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241960264
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2011-11-09T05:00:00+00:00

3

At some point in the small hours Howard plunged briefly into a black pit of sleep, and awoke to an instant of wild confusion. He sat up, saw huddled figures around him, shadowed in the light of a single naked bulb slung from the ceiling. He saw the closed door, a standing man who held a gun. The room rustled and murmured. It was both cold and stuffy; there was a disagreeable smell. The whole scene was nightmarish and yet eerily significant. And then he turned his head, saw Lucy, and was instantly slotted back into a sequence. He knew where he was, and why.

She was asleep, facing him, hunched into a foetal shape. Her mouth was slightly open, with a thread of saliva at one corner, and there was a smudge of dirt on her cheek. He gazed at her, and then felt intrusive. Her position suggested that she might be cold; cautiously, he laid his anorak over her. He was stiff and numb from lying on the concrete floor. Taking care not to disturb Lucy, he inched himself to his feet and moved towards the window, where he could see James Barrow leaning against the wall.

They conversed in whispers.

‘That fellow must have given you a bit of a bruise.’

‘I haven’t had a chance to inspect,’ said Barrow. ‘But I’ve spent the night working out exactly what I’d do to the bastard given half a chance.’

It was beginning to get light outside. Above the dark line of the perimeter fence the sky was streaked with grey and lemon. The compound within was lit by sodium lamps and bare except for a line of parked lorries and stacks of oil drums and petrol cans.

‘What I want to know,’ said Barrow, ‘is where the hell is our embassy in all this?’

‘Maybe they’re not aware we’re here.’

‘They have to be. A plane full of people doesn’t just vanish into thin air.’

The door opened. A soldier entered and held a brief muttered exchange with the one already present, who departed.

‘The changing of the guard,’ said Barrow.

Howard saw that Lucy had woken, and was sitting up. He moved back to his blanket and sat down beside her.

‘You managed to sleep a bit?’

‘Yes. I seem to have got your anorak on me.’

‘I put it there. I thought you looked cold.’

‘That was nice of you,’ said Lucy. She smiled, and Howard was suffused with pleasure. He sat there on the dirty blanket, in this squalid room, and wondered if he were becoming slightly unhinged by circumstance. Lucy had fished a comb out of her bag and was trying to tug it through her hair. He watched, entranced.

‘I don’t suppose you’ve got a mirror on you?’

‘No, sorry,’ he said.

‘I seem to have lost mine. Oh, well – least of our worries. Is my face filthy?’

‘There’s a smudge on your right cheek.’

She licked a kleenex and rubbed vigorously.

‘That’s better,’ said Howard.

‘You know something? I’m really glad I found you – all this would seem much worse otherwise, I’m sure.

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