“Do you think Mei is fi ne?”
A condemned silence was hanging on the phone.
Suddenly a stronger wind was making two rows of windows rattle like crazy. I shook and I panicked, standing looking at a vivid ashy stain with a pattern resembling the lovely face of Mei on a broken tile misplaced on the fl oor of a lonely building. Somewhere in my heart, there was a scratch with an unbearable quality. A feeling of great uncertainty was crawling under my skin, as though each and every bone of mine was repeating the same question and listening.