“She said the ferry would return by seven. By seven, the sea was empty.”
— from the field diary, №198
“Both cups are still there. The ferry did not come for you.”
The ferry arrives at noon when there is no one left to meet it. Up from the pier runs a path through a lemon grove; the peel in the sun smells louder than the chapel bell. The gate at the end of the path is open. On the table under the magnolia are two cups: one full, the other overturned. You wait, but no one comes out. A green apple falls into the grass so ripe you do not dare to pick it up. By evening, the stones release their gathered heat, a draft of salt and someone's dinner rises from below—vanilla, smoke, sweet resin. You walk down to the pier in the dark. Both cups are still there. The ferry did not come for you.
specifications
№ 198 from the perfumer's notebookBy morning the heat presses through the gaps in the shutters, settling on the sheets with a heavy, dry warmth. Somewhere far below near the pier a seagull calls, and a dull splash is heard—a fisherman pulls in nets dripping with salt water. You step onto the stone terrace barefoot. The pot with the lemon tree at the corner has warmed up; new buds opened overnight, their scent mixing with yesterday's cooled pine needles. On the wooden table where two cups stood yesterday, there now lies a clean canvas and a dry branch of magnolia. No note, no keys. You stand by the railing, staring at the horizon, as the first morning ferry slowly rounds the cape and heads south, without even slowing down.
