The Invisible Guardian. Dolores Redondo

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       8

      As she walked home, Amaia was surprised to realise how quickly the light had faded that February afternoon and she had a strange sense of being cheated. The early nights during winter made her feel uneasy. As if the darkness carried an ominous charge, the cold made her shiver beneath the leather of her jacket and yearn for the warmth of the quilted anorak James had tried so hard to persuade her to wear, and which she had rejected because it made her look like the Michelin man.

      The warm atmosphere of Aunt Engrasi’s house dispersed the unwelcome remnants of winter that clung to her. The scent of the wood in the hearth, the huge rugs that covered the wooden floor and the incessant chatter from the television, which was permanently on even though nobody ever watched it, welcomed her back again. There were much more interesting things to do there than listen to the TV and yet it was always on in the background like a poltergeist, ignored as an absurdity and tolerated out of habit. She had once asked her aunt why and she had replied, ‘It’s an echo of the world. Do you know what an echo is? It’s a voice you can still hear once the real one has died away.’

      Back in the present, James took her by the hand and led her over to the fire.

      ‘You’re frozen, my love.’

      She smiled, nuzzling her nose into his jersey and inhaling the scent of his skin. Ros and Aunt Engrasi came out of the kitchen carrying glasses, dishes, bread and a tureen of soup.

      ‘I hope you’re hungry, Amaia, because your aunt’s made enough food to feed an army.’

      Aunt Engrasi’s footsteps may have been slightly slower than they were at Christmas, but her mind was as clear as ever. Amaia smiled tenderly as she noticed this detail and her aunt snapped at her, ‘Don’t look at me like that, I’m not slow, it’s these damn shoes your sister gave me that are two sizes too big. If I pick my feet up I’m likely to go flying so I have to walk as if I’m wearing a dirty nappy.’

      They chatted while they ate, with James telling jokes in his American accent and Aunt Engrasi sharing the local gossip, but Amaia couldn’t help noticing the deep sadness that lay behind the smile with which Ros tried to follow the conversation and the way she tried to avoid eye contact with her sister.

      While James and her aunt took the plates through to the kitchen, Amaia caught her sister’s attention with just a few words.

      ‘I was at the workshop today.’

      Ros looked at her as she sat down again with an expression that revealed both her disappointment and relief at being found out.

      ‘What did she tell you? Or rather, how did she tell you?’

      ‘In her own way. As she does everything. She told me that they’re going to bring out her second book, that they’ve brought up the possibility of a television show, that she is the backbone of the family, a paragon of virtue and the only person in the whole world who knows the meaning of the word responsibility,’ she recited the litany in an exaggerated sing-song voice until she managed to make Ros smile.

      ‘… And she also told me that you don’t work at the workshop anymore and that you have serious problems with your husband.’

      ‘Amaia … I’m sorry that you found out that way, perhaps I should have told you sooner, but it’s something that I’m working through bit by bit, something that I have to do by myself, that I should have done a long time ago. Anyway, I didn’t want to worry you.’

      ‘Don’t be daft, you know worrying is part of my job description and I’m good at my job. As for the rest, I agree with you, I don’t know how you managed to work with her for so long.’

      ‘I suppose it was all there was. I didn’t have any other options.’

      ‘What are you trying to say? We all have more than one option, Ros.’

      ‘We’re not all like you, Amaia. I suppose it was what was expected, that we would continue to run the workshop.’

      ‘Are you trying to reproach me for something? Because if that’s the case …’

      ‘Don’t take this the wrong way, but when you went it was as if I didn’t have any choice.’

      ‘That’s not true, you have a choice now and you had a choice then.’

      ‘When Aita died, Ama started behaving very strangely, I suppose it was the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s, and I suddenly found myself trapped between the responsibility Flora demanded of me, Ama’s episodes and Freddy … I suppose at that point Freddy seemed like an escape route.’

      ‘And what’s changed now? Because there’s something СКАЧАТЬ