Page 91 of The Sun Sister

‘Then how?’

‘Do you remember meeting him in New York...why, it must have been a year ago now?’

‘Yeah, we had dinner and it was a train wreck.’

‘I know, he told me. He’d actually flown over to see me, as well as you – he’d managed to trace me after all these years and wanted to meet me in person. I think he knew he was very ill by then. He told me how worried he was about you. And asked me to make contact with you if he was no longer here to do that himself. His lawyer – Mr Hoffman – subsequently contacted me by post in July to inform me of his death, but I was abroad for several months and didn’t receive his letter until I got back in March. Which was when I wrote to your agent.’

‘Oh, okay.’ My eyes were drooping with tiredness now.

‘Anyway, it’s been a very difficult night for you, honey, and you have more to come. I want you to get some sleep. Do you want me to leave?’

The weird thing was that now I knew that Pa had genuinely trusted her, Ididn’twant her to leave. This woman, who I couldn’t get a handle on at all, had been sent by him to watch over me. And it actually felt comforting.

‘Maybe in a while?’

‘Okay,’ she said walking over to the easy chair in the corner of the room, ‘Then how about I sing you to sleep as myYeyoused to do for me? Now close your eyes, and imagine the wide-open skies that hang full of stars over the plains of Africa.’

The Lion King, which had always been my favourite Disney film, immediately popped into my head, especially as ‘Granny’ (would I call her that one day?) began to hum, then sing words I couldn’t understand. But her voice was so rich and mellow and goddamn gorgeous that Ididclose my eyes and see those vast starry skies. I smiled, feeling calmer than I had for a long, long time. And with her voice lulling me, I fell asleep.

‘Electra, it’s time to get up. Mariam is here.’

I opened my eyes, frustrated because I hadn’t slept so deeply for as long as I could remember and now someone was trying to make me wake up. I rolled over, shaking my head.

‘Electra, you have to wake up, honey. The car’s already downstairs waiting to take you to the airport.’

As I surrendered and rose to consciousness, I remembered why I was being woken.

Nooo...

‘I don’t wanna go...Please, let me stay here. I feel better already...’ I moaned.

The covers were lifted from me and strong arms pulled me upright.

‘Youhaveto go, Electra. Now put these on.’

I stared at my grandmother, who was holding out my cashmere sweatpants, and slammed my fist into the bed.

‘Who are you to tell me what to do?!’ I spat. ‘I don’t hear from you or see you or even know you exist for the first twenty-six years of my life, then you suddenly turn up and start ordering me around!’

‘Well, somebody has to do it; look at the mess you’ve gotten yourself into without it.’

‘Get out! Get out!’ I screamed at her.

‘Okay, okay...I will. I know I have no right to tell you anything, but I’m begging you, if you don’t face this moment now, it will only come again and again. And would you like to know something? I lost my precious child to addiction. So don’t you lie there feeling sorry for yourself, miss! You don’t know what hardship is and I’ll be damned if I’m going to lose you too! Get your skinny behind out of that bed and get yourself clean!’

With that, my grandmother turned tail out of the room and slammed the door behind her, leaving me shaken to the core. No one – not even Pa Salt – had ever spoken to me with such anger before. Maybe it was the shock, but I did get dressed and opened the door timidly to find Mariam sitting on the couch waiting for me.

‘Ready to go?’ she said.

‘Yeah. Has she gone?’

‘You mean your grandmother? Yes. Right, your holdall is in the trunk. We need to leave now.’

I followed Mariam out of the apartment, feeling exactly as I had when I was leaving Atlantis for a new term at boarding school. I could so easily turn round and go right back inside, pour myself a vodka, do a line...

But my grandmother’s words rang in my ears and I followed Mariam out of the apartment and down in the elevator like a lamb to the slaughter.

‘Electra, you’re on day twenty-two of your programme here with us at The Ranch; how do you feel?’