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4:00 A.M.
It’s been a bad night.
Gabriel came home, exhausted, at about ten. He’d had a long day and wanted to go to bed early. I tried to sleep too, but I couldn’t.
Then a couple of hours ago, I heard a noise. It was coming from the garden. I got up and went to the back window. I looked out—I couldn’t see anyone, but I felt someone’s eyes on me. Someone was watching me from the shadows.
I managed to pull myself away from the window and ran to the bedroom. I shook Gabriel awake.
“The man is outside,” I said, “he’s outside the house.”
Gabriel didn’t know what I was talking about. When he understood, he started to get angry. “For Christ’s sake. Give it a rest. I’ve got to be at work in three hours. I don’t want to play this fucking game.”
“It’s not a game. Come and look. Please.”
So we went to the window—
And of course, the man wasn’t there. There was no one there.
I wanted Gabriel to go outside, to check, but he wouldn’t. He went back upstairs, annoyed. I tried reasoning with him, but he said he wasn’t talking to me and went to sleep in the spare room.
I didn’t go back to bed. I’ve been sitting here since then, waiting, listening, alert to any sound, checking the windows. No sign of him so far.
Only a couple more hours to go. It will be light soon.
AUGUST 15
Gabriel came downstairs ready to go to the shoot. When he saw me by the window and realized I’d been up all night, he went quiet and started acting strange.
“Alicia, sit down. We need to talk.”
“Yes. We do need to talk. About the fact that you don’t believe me.” “I believe that you believe it.”
“That’s not the same thing. I’m not a fucking idiot.”
“I never said you were an idiot.”
“Then what are you saying?”
I thought we were about to get into a fight, so I was taken aback by what Gabriel said. He spoke in a whisper. I could barely hear him. He said: