7A feeling like an electric shock hit me whenever I remembered Merla. When Mama Aida pressed Maria for news of her, Maria said, ‘She’s fine but she doesn’t want to talk to anyone.’ Mama Aida was reassured but I was sure Maria was hiding the truth. Merla didn’t answer my emails. I had sent dozens of messages, but it was no use. My last message went:
Merla, you are reading this message from me. You must be. The idea that you never open your email inbox terrifies me. Please answer me, if only with an empty message.
I was unusually frank with Merla, perhaps because I fully believed she had carried out what she had hinted at and couldn’t read what I was writing, or maybe because I believed she was somewhere reading my messages. I ended up saying things I had never said before, such as the fee
