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see her in the middle of nowhere.
    She shook her head in the attempt to restart
her thoughts. Under the scorching sun of that unusually hot summer, the gears
of her brain had resumed turning slowly. And so they forced her to linger on
old memories.
    The last time such a hot July had been
recorded was some years earlier. She, Gavin, and Joseph had gone for a trip by
the sea. Joseph’s skin was so delicate, like his father’s. She’d had to rub
into him half a bottle of sun cream, fearing that he would get sunburn. The
memory of the cream’s smell was so vivid in her mind. It was like she could
smell it even now. She would’ve never thought it had been last summer of her
son, and of her marriage. On the other hand, Gavin always ended up with some
bad burns, because he refused to use anything. He used to say that for one day
by the sea he didn’t really need any. The problem was that the sun was
everywhere, not only by the sea. He got burnt even just walking on the street.
    Amelia laughed at the thought of her ex. They
had first met at university, and had been going steady ever since. Getting
married and having children had seemed to them like the logical consequence of
their relationship. Sometimes she missed him a bit; not that she was really
missing him, but rather the idea she had in her mind of their family. It was so
reassuring. When he had left her, at first she had wondered how he could have
done that, after all the years spent together. How could he have abandoned the
woman he loved, his wife, in such a terrible moment? For better or for worse ,
that was the wedding vow. Only later on she had understood; she had realised
that the feeling that had united them had been less deep than what they had
both let on. It had been consumed with the passing of time. All that had kept
them bonded had been Joseph. With his death, nothing had remained. Staying
together would’ve been a lie.
    However, she was angry with him. He had
disappeared overnight. What she missed was the friend, more than the husband.
She’d never had a friend like him since. She hadn’t been able to have a profound
relationship with anyone else. She could not trust. She didn’t want to
trust.
    As she returned to reality, she realised that
the pathway had widened, transforming into a proper dirt road. Its surface was
dusty and, luckily, sprinkled with just a few stones. Her feet were thankful.
She was climbing a slope, when she caught sight from afar of a coloured object
in motion. And it was moving pretty fast.
    She quickened her stride. Beyond the top, the
road became paved, although it still looked abandoned. That object, however,
was halfway on the following hill. It disappeared behind a group of trees in no
time. But there again, another one popped out from the same point, this time a
white one, proceeding briskly in the opposite direction.
    They were cars and there, perhaps a mile away,
was a real road.
    She reached the tarmac and immediately she
regretted it. It was burning! She leaped to the side, returning amongst
creeping plants. The road was surrounded by flowering bushes, which were very
overgrown, invading it. The country landscape wasn’t actually bad. Only now
that she could see her salvation close at hand, Amelia started to appreciate
it. The fact that the road over there seemed quite busy with traffic cheered
her up. Now she just had to get there.
    She proceeded with calmness, complaining as
she saw every car pass, each a potential means to return to the city,
disappearing behind a bend. Cursing, she finally came closer to her
destination. But it wasn’t really so. It was there, two steps away, but at
least four or five metres above her. She literally had to climb to reach the
roadside.
    She saw a motorbike passing close to the
guardrail. “Hey, help! This way!” she shouted, waving her arms about.
    The biker kept going.
    No way. She had to go up there so that someone
would see her. The incline wasn’t excessive, but she had to