In the silence she could hear the steady ticking of the large red alarm clock on the small table near her head. She glanced at the luminous face. It was ten past three in the morning. Why was it, she wondered, that time seemed to go by so much slower when you couldn't sleep? She had gone to bed earlier than usual once she realised that Isaiah wasn't coming to visit her. She touched her face carefully with he fingers, feeling her still swollen nose and cheeks where Bogdan had punched her and kicked her. Her jaw ached constantly from the cracked jawbone that she couldn't afford to have attended to. Since the attack she had only been able to eat porridge and milk. Why had he attacked her? she wondered. The three photographs obviously had something to do with it but where had they come from and what did they mean? What had she done to make him so furious? Why had he attacked her and not explained his actions to her? He had always been so kind and loving towards her in the past. And now she was too scared to go to the apartment in Hillbrow or to work at his house on the mine.
