CHAPTER 8
All it takes is one rejection, one measure, one syllable,
one breath, to propose a new round...
(Giusi Verbaro: “Summer Solstice”)
The sun was rising fast and another day full of sultriness and humidity was already foreboding. Lucia drove all the dismay she felt for Mira back to the depths of her bowels and made her way to the Government Palace, trying to bring to mind thoughts that were pleasing and that would help her face the Council of Best. Only a couple of weeks before, on the occasion of the summer solstice, she had gone to Apiro to celebrate the event with her lifelong friends. She had spent two wonderful days up on Colle del Giogo. The pure mountain air had ensured that the plague epidemic had by no means touched that small community, based on agriculture and pastora
