Five or six days went by with no word from her and I started to worry. I thought something had happened to her and went looking for her at her building. I went back there several times, ringing her bell afternoon, evening and night, even early in the morning. I never got an answer. I realized I had no idea how to track her down. I didn’t really know her friends, I didn’t know where her family lived, I had no number to call. I was seized with panic. I looked up all the Delle Foglies in the phone book and called them one after the other, asking for Lorenza. Those who answered told me, more or less kindly, that I had the wrong number and there was no Lorenza there. I even considered calling the police or the hospitals, in case she’d had an accident, or had fallen ill and been admitted. Immediately, the idea struck me as absurd. But I did go to the library and carefully read the local news in the Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, starting from the day after we’d been to the cinema. I looked for news of accidents or other similar events, but didn’t find anything.

I was in a state of genuine anxiety – the fear that something had happened to her was equal to the fear that she’d simply decided to leave me without even telling me – when one evening I saw someone I’d met during those months I’d gone out with her. I couldn’t remember his name, but that didn’t matter. I went up to him and without too much preamble – actually, without any preamble – asked him if he’d heard from Lorenza. The guy looked at me a little bewildered; I’m not sure he even knew who I was. Anyway he replied that as far as he knew she’d left for a Greek island. Also as far as he knew, she would be there for several weeks. And no, he didn’t know which island, he concluded, looking me up and down and walking away.

There followed a period of great confusion.242

I was relieved that nothing had happened to her, but hurt and sad about how she’d disappeared. I thought seriously of leaving for Othonoi, joining her there and making a terrible scene. Then I forced myself to think. It was only speculation on my part that she was on Othonoi, because of the story she’d told me in Santa Maria di Leuca.