Wikky

Early morning, after the violence of the previous night, I sat at a wooden table in the sunny kitchen and ate a breakfast of fresh butter on bread still warm from the oven. I walked through a city that had not noticed the gunshots and screams of yesterday. I left the city behind on a country lane, and cut across pastures toward the water. The grass was very high and I parted it in front of me with my hands as I went. As I scrambled down toward the water's edge I had to jump over a wire fence, almost lost in the sea of waving grass. On the other side of the fence was a carefully kept villa, and a path led into the courtyard. I followed the path and walked through the open doors into a covered solarium. Around a corner a small girl, wrapped in a towel with wet hair, surprised me and made me jump back. Her father came running as she called, and almost collided with me. He started when he saw me. You frightened me, he said, and looked at me suspiciously. I held up my hands to show I was friendly and said, at least you were frightened by a grown man, while I was frightened by your little girl. But I still backed out of the villa quickly as they watched and walked down to the path to the water. Coral reefs shown muted colors through the turquoise waters. A ferry steamed towards the pier.