Imperfect

Chapter 1

Ottawa.

She was in front of the atlas in her uncle"s bedroom.

Unlike the day before, clouds were gathering in the sky above her grandmother"s house.

The door to the room, now home to the family heirlooms, was wide open, the power had gone out, and Zoe was waiting for it to come back on.

So, leaning against the desk between the photos of her relatives in embarrassing ages and portraits of the weddings of their pre-war ancestors, she kept her eyes fixed on where she knew Ottawa was. Canada.

She was imagining how many flying hours it could be, pretending to do calculations in front of an atlas, in the dark.

Six hours? Eight?

She checked Natalia"s letter again, bringing it close to the tip of her nose.

Raymond St, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

A metallic sound and there was light.

"AH!"

Two huge strides and he appeared at the door.

"See? They should call me Matteo-problem-solver."

"Thanks Matteo- problem-solver. "

She smiled at him and put down the letter.

He reciprocated beaming, rubbed his palms and peeked at the atlas from over her shoulder.

"Ottawa you said?" He kissed her hair.

She ran her finger around the city.

"O"Tawa," she corrected him.

Matteo went to the table and moved the hair from Zoe"s face. "Why are we looking for o"ttawa?"

"Well..."

She gave him an enquiring glance, who knows how he would react.

"I want to go there."

Matteo had a job, she didn"t want to upset his life, but she didn"t want to lose him for anything in the world. All the same, she did not want to give up on Canada.

By telling him she was admitting it to herself for the first time.

She felt that she had to do it and would not be able to give him any certainties. Neither when, nor how long, nor why.

Matteo looked at her forehead, where he still had his fingers, then slid them to her lips together with his eyes, his hand ending up on the table lying between the page of Canada and that of the northern United States.

Ottawa was showing under her thumb, in her eyes. "Okay, let"s go there."

He shrugged his shoulders and smiled.