‘You’ll never guess who I bumped into!’ Maya and Nena say in unison, and then laugh.
The screen freezes and Maya can only see Nena’s face stuck in time, from a few seconds ago. Caught in amusement at the coincidence of having said the same thing, mixed with the slight confusion of a tiny time delay and a bad connection, wondering if what the other said was in fact their own echo. Nena’s eyelids are half closed as she is frozen on her sofa, her tired face dimly lit by a lamp at one end of it and the glow of the television behind the laptop.
Maya can tell from the smaller window, with her own face in it, that she looks a different sort of tired. Her eyes are narrow and sleep-ridden from having woken at 5 a.m., so she could file her column and Skype Nena before sunrise yoga – although Nena thinks Maya looks tanned and invigorated and said as much when they logged on.
The connection resumes, the frames unfreeze and both women move again.
‘You go first!’ Nena says.
‘No you!’ replies Maya, knowing her anecdote will take some beating.
Nena looks around her living room and keeps her voice low, so as not to wake Ava in her cot in the bedroom. Nena really needs Ava to sleep, even though part of her is desperate to show her off. She hasn’t spoken to Maya in weeks and could do with someone other than her friends inside the TV to talk to. The television is muted and Tom is working late, so Nena speaks her news in hushed tones.
‘Emily Snatch! In the park, the other day. So weird. She looks the same.’
‘Oh weird,’ says Maya. ‘How is she?’
‘She’s a baby factory. Churning them out.’
‘Oh.’ Maya feels a surprising stab of jealousy but brushes it off her lap and onto the white tiled floor of the ‘IT suite’, a basic rectangle that’s more of a stark classroom for two than a modern tech hub.
‘Yeah, she has three kids, one of them is in Arlo’s class. She lives near me. We’re hoping to meet up…’
‘Cool.’ Maya has loads of questions about Emily Snatch but feels the sands of time ticking before the sun rises; before Ava needs Nena’s attention; before the connection goes again. So she doesn’t ask any of them, and knows that’s fine with Nena.
‘You go next. Who could you have possibly bumped into out there?’
‘WELL…’ Maya thinks of James, who she left stirring in bed so she could get online before yoga, and feels oddly guilty about the excitement of her news. ‘It’s another blast from our university past.’
‘Oh god, who?’ Nena winces, wondering which of her exes it could be.
‘Jon Vincent.’
‘WHAT?!’
She wasn’t expecting it to be Maya’s ex.
‘Yes.’
‘The Baby-faced Assassin?’
‘The very same.’
‘Mother—’ The screen freezes again, but unfreezes almost immediately. ‘—ucker. What’s he doing there?’ she says, with a crease of her nose.
‘Ooh, I’m so annoyed, Nena. He’s here between filming. He’s only gone and bloody made it as an actor! He comes to Thailand regularly to “reset his dials”.’
‘Urgh, gross.’
‘I literally ran into him on the beach looking all Hollywood. Actually, come to think of it, I reckon he’s had his teeth done…’
‘I’ve never seen him in anything, and I watch a lot of films.’ Nena remembers her current reality is reality television – of course she wouldn’t have seen Jon in anything she watches.
‘I don’t know about films, I think he alternates between Netflix dramas and theatre. I googled him before I called you, to have a little snoop – he must work under another name because the only Jon Vincent on IMDB is a sound engineer.’
‘What does he look like?’
‘The sound engineer?’ Maya says with a half-smile.
‘The Baby-faced Assassin.’
‘Annoyingly, he looks good.’
‘Arsehole. Married? Kids?’
‘Not sure. Don’t wanna ask.’
‘Damn, Maya, if only you knew his stage name, we could find out everything. Maybe he has a bonkers actress wife.’
Maya feels another surprising stab of jealousy. ‘Yeah, I don’t want to ask that either. Don’t want to give him the satisfaction.’
‘What did Jon say?’
‘Not much – we’re kind of avoiding the whole issue – we’re avoiding him really. Although James has been really cool about it.’
‘Go, Train Man.’
‘We’re about to do sunrise yoga though, and I noticed Jon’s signed up for it too. So that might be awks.’
Maya wonders why there’s a fizz in the hollow of her stomach. Or is it the excitement of talking to Nena? She misses Nena.
‘How long’s he there—’
Maya thinks the connection has frozen again, but actually it was the jagged move of Nena’s head turning towards the living room door and freezing intently, to hear whether Ava is crying.
‘Shit, she’s awake.’
‘Get her! Let me say hello.’
‘I don’t want to stimulate her, she’ll be super-awake and hard to settle.’
Oh.
Nena sees the disappointment in Maya’s freckled face and thinks Fuck it, she won’t sleep anyway.
‘Hang on, I’ll go get her…’
While Maya waits, she looks out at the palm trees swaying in the dark. The computer suite feels a bit creepy when she can’t see much outside it, knowing that under the strip light and stark walls she is visible – and visibly alone – to anyone outside. She thinks of James again and wonders if he’s got up, or whether he’s fallen back asleep.
Nena returns to view with a chubby Ava in a patterned sleepsuit, snaffling into her mother’s neck. Maya’s fear levels abate as her heart fills with love and longing.
‘Ah!’ Maya gasps.
‘She’s a bit snuffly, I wonder if she’s teething.’
‘Oh look at her! She’s grown so much.’
Nena’s tired face nods. ‘I might have to feed her.’
‘And her hair! There’s so much of it.’
Maya’s coos are enough to pique Ava’s interest, and she turns her ruddy cheeks out from her mother’s neck towards Maya, who she is confused to see on the screen.
‘Hello, my gorgeous girl. It’s so good to see you!’ Maya marvels at the monitor and waves.
Ava’s furrowed brow squints back and she turns her body further. Just as she reaches out a hand, the screen freezes again.
‘Oops, you’ve gone,’ Maya says, waiting for the connection to resume. ‘Hello? Can you hear me?’
The screen stays the same. An image, stuck, of Nena on the sofa, obscured by Ava in the foreground. Maya can now see the pattern on her sleepsuit is of little whales shooting water from their blowholes. Her soft black hair frames her bright eyes. Her mouth is a circle of determination and intrigue. Her hand has chubby creases below the wrist as if someone left an elastic band there, and she’s reaching out to touch Maya through the screen.
‘Hello?’
Maya puts her hand to the screen, to touch Ava’s.
‘Hello?’
The connection fails. The screen doesn’t move. And Maya bursts into tears under the strip lighting.