Seek and Ye Shall Find

Seek and Ye Shall Find

I FEEL AS

though I am full of electricity.

I pace my flat.

Bella is stroking Pushkin on her lap, which is astounding in itself, because until he met Alora, Pushkin made it very clear (via his sharp little teeth) that he strongly disliked being picked up.

‘ She was there.

’ I’m aware I have said this seven or eight times now.

‘I’ll be honest with you, Eddie,’ Bella says. ‘I always assumed Bridie was dead.’

‘What? Did you? Why?’

‘You know, with the whole sending birds as a sign and stuff. I just assumed she was sending them from, you know …’

I gesture for her to continue.

She whispers, ‘ Heaven

.’

I can’t help but laugh. ‘It is ridiculous that we’re both still alive – let’s get that out of the way first.’ I take another lap of the living room.

‘I don’t know,’ Bella says thoughtfully. ‘Sometimes you

hear of people holding on when they have something to do. When my grandad was dying, my brother was on a flight in from Germany and his plane was delayed, but my grandad held on until he got there and said goodbye.’

‘That’s beautiful. But. Oh God, do you think we’ll both die the moment we meet?’

‘No, I just …’ She’s distracted as she realizes that Pushkin is nibbling the tassel on one of my sofa cushions (￡6.50, with Pop Art diving illustration).

She wrestles the tassel from Pushkin’s mouth and says, ‘I think perhaps it was meant to be.’

‘But what do we do? What do I

do?’ I pace again to the window and look out at the registry office, the tiny strip of canal.

‘What do you mean, what do we do

?’ Bella asks. ‘We’ve got to find her!’