TE23 Double Feature

Loranne Vella

Rocket

the door, as if it is waiting for its master to come back. An empty cup of coffee is on the edge of the low table, as if it’s moving slowly towards the edge, by a millimetre at a time. Maybe one day it will manage to fall and break into pieces against the tiles, and get rid of this useless existence. Houses are full of things that have been left behind by their owners, others with whatever the deadly waves managed to carry inside, as for example a broken boat in the sitting room of one of the few houses in Marsaxlokk that had not been devoured by the sea. Summer brought high temperatures, unbearable hot weather, dryness and fires. The beaches no longer attracted swimmers, as they had done for whole centuries. In the past, the sea used to mitigate the heat and stickiness of summer days. After the havoc that had been caused by the floods and seaquakes, however, nobody dared to go into the water to relax and freshen up. The sea became a real cemetery. They had to 58

protect themselves against the heat in other ways, such as by staying in during the day, and go out only at sunset. Winter arrived, at last, and the sun stopped blazing so fiercely. Snow started to fall, however, and people were forced to stay in anyway, to protect themselves from the cold. Better snow than rain , they thought, as they prayed that this winter it wouldn’t rain so heavily as the winter before, flooding everything. In mid-March then, ashes were falling, and they assumed that Mount Etna had again erupted. The ashes destroyed several fields, also killing several farm animals in Gozo. When it finally started to rain, the water cleaned away all the ashes, giving a breath of fresh air to the whole island. In summer, however, the sun was fierce again, as was the winter, and the winter after. At the backstage of such events–whether small or big, they all had their importance–there was Petrel’s camera, stuck to his right eye, 59