Sam walked into the bedroom. "He's fast asleep – the day really tired him out! It was fun, wasn't it?"

"Mmmm," Luka murmured.

"What're you doing, Luka?"

"Uh – I'm trying to retune your radio. I want to catch that local Croatian station – ah, there it is."

The sound of unfamiliar speech filled the room. Luka caught Sam frowning slightly. "Sorry, I'll turn it down a bit."

"Don't they have music? I mean – I love hearing you murmur stuff in Croatian when we're making love, but, um, I'm not sure I want to other people butting in."

"Shit!" Sam thought to herself. "Why do I always sound like I'm telling Luka off? I've been Alex's mom for too long, I'm just so used to saying 'no'." To banish these feelings, she thought back over the day – they'd taken Luka's car and driven out of the city. It had felt so liberating to get clean, fresh air into their lungs. Alex had been a bit skeptical at first – he was a city boy born and bred after all and would have been happy to hangout in a video games arcade all day – but he soon got into the swim of things. Well, not literally: it may have been unseasonably warm for early spring but it was still far too cold for bathing, but they'd taken a boat on to the lake. Then Luka had shown Alex how to fish – they had gotten completely absorbed in what they were doing – while Sam had enjoyed a true luxury – peace and quiet to read her book.

It wasn't just Alex she'd been pleased to see so happy. She knew Luka had a light-hearted side to him, but it didn't surface often; she suspected he stuffed it down most of the time even when he did feel playful. "Poor guy – I sometimes think he thinks he doesn't deserve to be happy," she pondered. She understood. To think about losing Alex was more than she could bear. And he'd lost two kids and his wife. She shivered.

She climbed into bed next to Luka – he was obviously intent on listening to what sounded like a news report. She opened her book, read a page, but felt sleep coming on, closed it and snuggled up next to him – he put his arm around her and pulled her closer but remained silent.

In those few minutes before sleep came, she became aware of one word she could hear again and again on the radio. Vukovar.