‘Now you see why I want to die.’ Cosima stood between Luca and the door. ‘I cannot live with the guilt. Why did you save me?’ Her voice was an icy wind.
‘I had to.’
‘How did you know I was in the sea?’
‘I saw you run out.’
‘But you didn’t follow me, you stayed in the church.’
‘Yes.’
‘How, then, did you know? Who told you?’ She stood behind him, silently demanding that he turn around and look her in the eye.
He rubbed his forehead in confusion. ‘I think I’m going mad.’
‘You saw a little boy, didn’t you?’ she persisted. ‘A little boy with a feather?’
He turned and looked at her. He didn’t want to give her false hope, but he couldn’t lie. ‘I saw Francesco.’
Cosima’s eyes welled with tears and her lips trembled. ‘Oh God,’ she whispered, crossing herself. ‘I want to believe you, but how can I be sure you’re not lying?’
‘How do I know I’m not seeing things?’
‘No one else saw the child in the church. Only you.’
‘I can’t explain it. He looked real enough to me.’
‘But my son is dead! You can’t play with me like this! Look into his face. Are you sure it was him?’
‘I know what I saw! I haven’t lost my mind. Christ, I didn’t ask for this.’
‘Do you see them all the time? Dead people, I mean.’
‘Spirits?’
‘Yes.’ He took a deep breath. He hadn’t discussed this with anyone, not even Freya. But he could see that she needed some sort of explanation.
‘As a child I saw spirits, but I didn’t realise what they were. I’d hear voices. They frightened me. But my mother told me I was crazy and that she’d send me to a place for crazy children, so I blocked them out. Little by little they faded, became less frequent, until I stopped seeing them all together.’
‘Why did you see Francesco?’
‘I don’t know, Cosima. I can’t explain it. I saw him on the beach the day I arrived here. You were walking and he was beside you, chattering away, but you didn’t seem to be listening. I imagined you were just ignoring him.’ A fat tear dropped on to her thumb. She brushed it away. ‘After that, I saw him at the trattoria with Rosa and in the church while you were lighting the candle. You remember I tried to talk to you?’
‘Yes, I remember.’
‘He was playing in the square. When you walked off he ran after you.’
‘But I was alone.’ She shook her head in disbelief. ‘I’m always alone.’
Luca put his hand on hers, a spontaneous gesture that might have been presumptuous, but she didn’t remove it. ‘No, Cosima. You’re not.’
Downstairs on the terrace, Alba and the rest of the family waited.
‘What do you think they’re doing up there?’ Rosa asked, bristling with jealousy. ‘How long does it take to show him a photograph?’
‘Rosa,’ chided her mother. ‘If they’re talking about Francesco, that’s a very positive thing. I hope they take as long as they need.’
‘What’s this about the feather, Rosa?’ asked Panfilo. It hadn’t escaped his notice that Luca had blanched at the mention of it.
‘Nothing really,’ Rosa replied with a shrug. ‘Luca says he saw a little boy with a feather in the church at the festa. That the same little boy alerted him to Cosima wading into the sea.’
Alba narrowed her eyes as her daughter jogged her memory. ‘Yes, he did say something about a little boy.’
‘What of it?’ asked Panfilo.
‘Well, no one else saw him,’ Rosa continued.
‘Are you suggesting that the child was Francesco?’ Beata asked.
‘I don’t know. I mean, no, not really. But if Cosima thinks so, that’s a good thing, right?’
‘Good God!’ Alba swore. ‘You mean Luca’s psychic?’
Panfilo grinned. ‘It doesn’t matter. If he manages to help Cosima he can be whatever he wants to be.’
‘No, he’s psychic,’ Alba insisted.
At that moment Eugenio came around the corner, tired from bicycling up the hill. ‘What’s all this?’ he asked, surprised. ‘What’s going on?’ His children ran into him, wrapping their arms around his legs and waist. ‘Hello, monkeys! Shouldn’t you all be in bed?’ He looked to Rosa for an explanation.
‘We invited Luca up so we could thank him,’ she said. He frowned, not recognising the name.
‘The man who rescued Cosima,’ explained Toto.
‘They’re upstairs. They’ve been up there for ages,’ said Rosa huffily. She looked at her mother. ‘Don’t you think I should go and see if they’re all right?’