Under His Influence

They were backing off, slowly and sheepishly, beneath Anna’s demented glare.

“Anna,” entreated Liam, taking her arm. She flung him off.

“Yes. We are not flying. We must stay here and wait for John.”

“What?”

“He is coming. We must wait for him.”

“Anna, I don’t get it. What’s wrong with you?”

She flung an arm dramatically in the direction of a coffee kiosk.

“There is sustenance over there. Fetch me some.”

“I… Right. Coffee and a Danish?”

“Sustenance.”

“Okay.”

When Liam returned with giant cartons of cappuccino and two almond croissants, they sat on the floor, leaning against a barrier, and stared at the diminishing queue checking in for the Australian flight.

“So we’re not going? You don’t want to go to Australia afte

r all?”

“Australia?”

“Yes. That beautiful, hot, sunny, surfy country where we were going to relax and chill out and get away from all this fucking stress and angst.”

“Fucking stress and angst.” The way Anna rolled the words around her tongue, as if trying out a new language for size, gave Liam pause, and he stared at her again.

“What’s up with you, Anna? You’re ill. They should have taken you away when they had the chance.”

“I’m fine,” she replied mechanically.

“Really? So why are we sitting here, waiting for the man you expressly came here to get away from? Why aren’t we in the departure lounge waiting to board the plane?”

“Have to see John. It’s important.”

Liam sighed.

“Christ, he’s really done a number on you, hasn’t he? All this breakup stuff has triggered a breakdown. Well, if he ever comes here—and I can’t see why he would, since it was his idea you leave the country—perhaps I can get him to write a big fat cheque for the Priory. You need serious rest. Medical rest. I’m so sorry, love.”

Liam slipped an arm around her, but she was rigid.

“When you feel up to it, we’ll go home,” he said, hopeless. “And call a doctor.”

“I have to wait for John”

“Right. Wait for John. Of course.”

John and Mimi had to guess which terminal Anna and Liam had gone to, but John’s psychic link drew him towards the correct one first, and he and Mimi ran through the crowds of luggage-toting travellers, towards the vast checking-in hall.

“Can you see her? I know she’s here somewhere.”

John ran to one corner of the building while Mimi searched the other. It was John who came upon the rumpled pair first, stopping a few yards away to stare at them before he was observed.