6In one of our webcam chats I asked my mother about Merla. ‘We haven’t had news of her for some time,’ she said. ‘When we asked Maria, she said she didn’t know anything about her. Your Aunt Aida is going almost crazy. Hasn’t she been in touch with you?’
I said I hadn’t logged into my email account for a while. I logged in straight away. I found it was full of adverts, along with one message from Merla that she had sent nine days earlier. She had left the subject line empty.
‘José! Can you see me?’ Mother asked me, waving her hand at the camera.
I was busy with my email. ‘Yes, Mother, but I’m busy. Let’s talk later,’ I said. I turned the webcam off and went back to my email. I deleted the adverts and kept Merla’s message without opening it straight away. Something told me the message con
