41
Sweet adolescence
Thessaloniki, April 1986
He drained all the liquid from his Greek coffee cup with a noisy gulp. He lifted the cup with his right hand and he looked at the thick coffee mud gathering at the bottom, as though it was a specimen. With a decisive gesture, he swirled the mud around and turned the little cup upside down, pouring the thick liquid into the saucer and eventually placing the cup upside down on a square plain napkin to let it dry. He loved to look at the intriguing shapes gathering in the cup, at moments of low mood like today, and to imagine for a moment that he could see his future clearly pictured there. Sometimes, he found himself lost in the shapes appearing in the cup: little clouds, sheep, snakes and snaky roads. Occasionally, even a little heart shape w
