bubbling water. She was trying to help but he could not relax.
“Being here-all this luxury-it makes me feel so guilty,” he said.
“Hush. Think about what you do every day. You’ve earned it, far more than anyone else I know.”
“It’s difficult to think like that when you see people freezing to death.”
“Not the ones who come to your shelters.”
“Not all of them.”
Now that he was back in Adelaide’s world, Adelaide’s life, something was bothering him.
“You know that guy we were talking to at the party last week? The one that works for your father?”
Adelaide drew circles in the bubbles.
“You mean Tyr? What about him?”
Vikram tried to recall the scene, the smooth expression of the man’s face, the same man who had thrown him out of here all those weeks ago.
“This might sound weird but… I got the impression that he was spying on you. If he tries to get anything out of you about the aid schemes, you will tell me?”
“I don’t think you’ve got anything to worry about, Vik.”
“He works for your father. Your father hates me.”
“Alright. I’ll keep an eye on Tyr.”
“Thank you.”
He sank lower amidst the bubbles. He wanted nothing more than to let his mind unravel, drift, forget.
“You still look worried,” said Adelaide.
“I am worried. I’m worried about the aid schemes. That they’re not doing enough.”
“Would more money help? We could canvas. Approach private funders. We could do other things.”
“I don’t think it would make a difference. I mean, yes, of course we can use more money, it’s just-I think the problem’s deeper than that.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
“I don’t know. This sounds crazy, but sometimes Adelaide, I honestly think people want me to fail.”
“Then you’ll prove them wrong.”
“I feel overwhelmed. I feel like I was insane to think I could make a difference.”
“Vik.” She leaned forward and ran her hands up his good arm. “I understand. You know, it’s like when Axel- when he vanished. I thought, Osiris is so huge. How on earth will I begin to look for him? But you have to start somewhere.”
She smiled at him, encouraging, and he nodded tiredly. She was right.
“I had a letter from my mother today,” she said. “Viviana is disowning me.”
“Will you be able to tell the difference?”
He wondered after he’d spoken if the question sounded callous, but Adelaide did not look offended.
“Not really. But it’s more of a statement, coming from her. She said she was disgusted with my behaviour at the dinner party.”
“I was proud of what you said.”
“It was unwise.” Her wet fingers trailed his chest as she leaned back, mirroring him. “But you know, Vik-more and more I can’t bring myself to care. About any of it. I missed Gudrun’s party last week. She’ll take it as a snub but I couldn’t bear to stand there, seeing the same faces, hearing the same conversations… Jan’s calling me every day about organising her twenty-second, I keep making promises and I haven’t done a thing.”
“Then don’t. Let them fend for themselves.”
She ran her toes down the inside of his thigh.
“That’s not very altruistic, is it?”
Vikram captured her nudging foot in his hands. There were calluses on the tendon where one of her absurd shoes had rubbed. Adelaide wriggled her toes, trying to free herself.
“That tickles!”
“Do you hate being tickled?” he asked.
“Ye- no. No, I don’t. Stop it!”
He moved his finger slowly along the inside of her foot. Adelaide solved her dilemma by sloshing water at him. He cupped a plume of foam and sent it back. Adelaide returned a larger plume. They sank back and she rested her ankles once again on his legs.
“Adelaide, there’s something I need to-”
“Vikram, have you ever heard-”
The sound of popping bubbles filled the room. Steam was beginning to varnish the tinted window-wall.
“What is it?” Vikram asked.
“You say first.”
“No, you go.”
Adelaide pushed a damp strand of hair behind her ear. She was wearing her serious face.
“Vik, you won’t fall in love with me, will you?”
He laughed. “No.” He thought about turning the question on her, teasingly, but she had a habit of only getting her own jokes.
“It would be a shame if you did,” she said. “Because I can’t care about anybody.”
“I can see how that would be inconvenient.” He flicked foam at her. “I’ll try and restrain my passion for you for as long as possible.”
“Don’t be a gull. I have a reason, you know.”
He sensed that she was, in her convoluted way, trying to tell him something. He remembered knocking on her door in the middle of the night, a stranger who might have been anyone, an amusement for an insomniac girl. Here he was in the austere beauty of her bathroom, their skin brushing, almost fused by the distortions of water. There must have been a transition, a moment of impasse. He searched his memory; he could not find it.
“Well, what’s the reason?”
“Osiris-Osiris demands some sacrifice on our part. It’s not a lovers’ city. That’s the price we pay for our hospitality here.”
“Is that your doctrine?”
“It has to be.”
“I can’t agree.” Osiris takes so much from us, he thought. Surely what Adelaide was talking about-intimacy, companionship in the night-was one of the few things they could hope for.
“What’s your doctrine?” she asked.
“I don’t see things as clear-cut as you do.”
“Things aren’t always complicated. Sometimes they just are.” Adelaide popped a bubble with one fingernail. “Anyway, I interrupted you, before. What were you going to say?”
Vikram thought of Axel’s letter. He should tell Adelaide. Stars, he should really tell her. Now was as good a time as ever.
She smiled at him, waiting. He tugged her leg, pulling her towards him. Her body slid underwater until he could see only her hair, spreading out in a three dimensional fan through the bubbles. She resurfaced in front of him, took his face in her hands, and kissed him. He kissed her back. “Nothing important,” he said.
“Tell me.”
He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Anyway, what were you going to say before? You changed your question.”
“Oh. That. I was going to ask if you’d ever heard of something called white fly.”
“What’s white fly?”
“Just a phrase I heard and I didn’t know what it was. I wondered if it was a western thing?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
Adelaide twisted in the water so that she could lie against his chest. He poured a globule of shampoo into his hand and began to lather her hair.
“That feels nice. You know Vik, what you’re doing-it’s really, really important. You mustn’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
“I’m glad you think so. Without your blessing, I probably would have quit the entire programme.”
