DAY 28 (ENCLOSING)

(Day 26 continued) Awadil wakes up two hours later, 27 days before the UK government approve a vaccine which offers 95% protection from COVID-19. He will never learn of this. He vehemently apologises to Bilhah. She insists on exchanging phone numbers, explaining that she’d like to keep in touch. His company, she says, even just the odd text message, will help her remain accountable in her efforts to make a better career, a better life for herself. He considers the request and feels his soul stir, a single ripple on the surface before it goes still again. With his hands in his pockets, he nods and is too ashamed to meet Bilhah’s eyes.

She says she’ll call Bonbon’s owners and ensure the safe return of the cat.

Here begins Awadil’s rebirth. Think of him as a mayfly.

The two gingerly embrace and he gazes across at the birds. A tear makes a small stream through the dirt on his cheek.

At the door, he forces a smile and nods. Not another word is said.

Bilhah steps forward to open the awkward old catch on the door and the daylight floods in, bright, stinging both their eyes. Bilhah thinks the loud bang is another collision of cars, but the red and blue flashing lights are already here and she cannot grasp the gravitas of this yet. Not on a conscious level. At least the chicken blood on her protective uniform makes Awadil’s fresh spilled blood seem less grotesque to gawping bystanders.

News of the vaccine dominates the newspapers. Only one publication carries the ‘terrorist’ situation story. Even then, it is a small headline shoved down in the bottom right corner, directing the reader to page 4, where a mugshot of Awadil, with his rumoured ISIS ties and the brave officer who saved Bilhah.

***

Whether the firebreak lockdown has helped to control the virus is debated far and wide, with great fatigue and lethargy weighing down our words as people wait for the cafes and pubs to open, ready to accept whatever it takes to return to what they were on with before all this.

***

At breakfast, Trudy asks her mother what kind of cat the one in the news story is. Her mother closes the paper, scowls at her husband, who shrugs his shoulders, before telling the small girl she thinks it might be a tabby.

***

Across town, Dan watches the interview with the manager of the poultry shop, at the crime scene. The man says he received word from Bilhah that some headcase had broken in and taken her hostage and alerted the police.

“Fucking paki. Course it it.” Dan sneers when they show Awadil’s photograph as Amy takes his crumb filled plate and cup away, rolling her eyes. She opens her mouth to tell him that he might not be from Pakistan, but lets out a long sigh instead.

***

Simone, on the bus, reading the online article through steamed glasses, feels sympathy and wonders what brought the man they shot to this point, to his own, private brink. Maybe we’re all closer than we think, she considers before she remembers the message she had to reply to on Instagram.