Although he had been comforted by his wife and his beloved kitten, and Davide's visits had distracted him a little, his need for a change of air had grown day by day like asthma with the advance of spring, so he had looked forward to the start of the new school year with the same euphoria as the first, and its arrival had lifted his spirits, even giving him some real good cheer.
At the opening teachers’ board, the bright smiles in the perfumed tans of his colleagues gave him the impression that he was at a politicians' convention in a Miami Beach hotel by the ocean. It did not escape his notice that this was an ephemeral illusion, but for that day, not even at the deadly discussion about calendars and outings, he was willing to admit that he was instead in the south-eastern suburbs at the
