9
Separation
Thessaloniki, August 1977
Eleni was at her mummy’s office in the hospital. It always felt like a special honour to spend the morning at her mummy’s workplace. If she had it her way, she would be there much more often. She loved the hospital, with its beautiful lime- and cherry-blossom-scented garden that overlooked the town centre and Thermaikos Gulf. On a spring or summer day like today, she loved sitting on one of the bright red benches in the garden, chewing a freshly baked koulouri that her mummy had bought her from the canteen and looking down at the blue-green glimmer of the sea spreading as far as she could see, merging with the sky at the horizon. The beauty of the landscape would be somewhat spoilt by the sight of the inpatients popping out into the garden to smoke
