Fabiana

Fabiana is Charlie Treadaway’s girlfriend, whose presence sharpens Fern Woolbright’s awareness of the attraction between herself and Charlie. The novel gives little direct access to Fabiana’s thoughts: she first appears through Fern’s observation, while later details about her relationship with Charlie reach Fern through Rob and through Fern’s own jealous imaginings.

Appearance and Introduction

Fabiana appears from the bedroom behind Charlie, ducking under his arm. Fern sees a dark-skinned girl with matted, back-combed hair dyed jet black and bruised-looking lips. After throwing Fern a hostile look, Fabiana walks to the front door, opens it, and slams it behind her. The encounter establishes her as an immediate, physical presence in Charlie’s home, but the scene offers no account of what prompted her exit beyond Charlie’s dismissive explanation of it.

Relationship with Charlie

Charlie identifies Fabiana as the person he is going out with, but his account is contemptuous: he attributes her anger to her Spanish background and compares dating her to going out with a coffee percolator. Later, Rob reports that Fabiana has tattooed Charlie’s name onto her thigh herself, using the point of a compass and Charlie’s drawing ink. The tattoo becomes infected; Charlie stays with her for a week to make sure she takes the antibiotics prescribed by the hospital. The details suggest both intensity and care, though the relationship is not presented as secure or healthy.

Charlie spends a weekend at Fabiana’s flat in Fallowfield. Fern hates his visits because he always returns in a terrible state. She learns that the couple sometimes cut each other with thin razor slices, which crust purple with dried blood. Rob tries to minimize the behavior as showing off and a faux-punk pose, contrasting it with Charlie’s well-brought-up, middle-class background. His reassurance does not alter Fern’s view of the damage or her distress at Charlie’s closeness to Fabiana.

Presence in Fern’s Perspective

Fabiana’s vigilance becomes a barrier between Fern and Charlie: Fern feels she has barely seen him, as if Fabiana has sensed that the two cannot be trusted together and is keeping watch. That perception remains Fern’s, rather than a confirmed account of Fabiana’s motives. Her jealousy also enters Fern’s dreams: Fern imagines Fabiana’s infected leg becoming so bad that it must be amputated, ending her dancing. Fern wakes disappointed to find the imagined outcome was not real. The episode makes Fabiana less a fully disclosed viewpoint character than a persistent rival in Fern’s consciousness, alternately associated with Charlie’s absence, his self-destructive relationship, and Fern’s resentment.