Fina was struggling with the cargo, down on her knees and leaning into the dugout canoe that rocked gently in the soft waves at the very edge of the sea. Her man, Xappo, always seemed to make these things harder than they should be, like starting out so early on this cold morning that had come after another long, chilly night. He said they needed to make a deal with the people who had the sidia, and the trip would take them all day.
sidia“There is no fire in the sky,” he had told her, pointing to the island in northern distance on the evening before going to bed. “It will be safe now, but not later.”
Fina could see that there was no glow from Lipari, no red in the darkening sky beyond the sea, but she didn’t believe Xappo could predict when it would come. He had been right many times bef
