Tired Brain
As we enter the last week in August I can feel the summer slip away like sand through the fingers. Feragosto has come and gone and on Sunday our neighbours returned to their apartment in Bari after three weeks in the country. Erminia refers to them dismissively as "u barese", the people from Bari, foreigners. Yesterday evening she stumped round, plastic bucket in hand, intent on collecting figs from the Bari people's neglected trees. There's this one tree that has fruit that's especially good for drying she tells me. I remark that I can see she has lost weight. Actually she looks fitter and seems more mobile. "Yes" she says with a frown, "I don't feel like eating anything. I don't like this heat, it's bad and my brain is tired. Know what I had to eat last night? Bread and figs!" Then she said "when I feel like this I used to go round to see Yanni." Another frown as she shrugs petulantly. Suddenly, I feel v...