Spanish

Moving day.

A week after the move, the paint comes out again, for the scratches the move left - and, while they're at it, a new colour or two.

A brown stain appears on the ceiling of the flat below, and the plumber always comes tomorrow.

Sarah's mom and dad arrive for the summer, as promised, and meet four floors of stairs, the July heat and Encarna again.

Sarah is on a night shift, Mom and Julian have gone to a concert, and Dad and Encarna are left alone on the terrace with a bottle of sherry and not many words in common.

In August, Seville empties.

Sarah and Julian get off the train in Bilbao, in August, in the rain, and spend their first weekend in the north at Nerea's family's.

On Monday night, Nerea's family takes Sarah and Julian from bar to bar in Bilbao's old town, for small bites on bread, the way it's done in the north.

On their last night in the north, at a cider house in the hills outside San Sebastian, the cider shoots from the barrel, and Nerea's father and Julian argue about where you eat better while Sarah keeps the peace.

On the stroke of midnight, as Friday the last of August turns into Saturday the first of September, Manolo rolls up the shutter of his bar after a month at the beach, and the whole street is waiting.

Monday, September 3rd.

Two weeks into Julian's new job, Professor Ortega is still in his office every single day, correcting his index cards with a red pencil, and last night Ortega's wife phoned Julian at home.