Early morning at Ghika's -

I don't drink wine or stronger
stuff these days, I only get tired and the day
after drinking is killing me but the first
night on our Greek island at the Taverna
Kristina I got carried away and had far too
much Retsina
and I woke up in the middle
of the night with anguish and pains in my
chest and a throbbing heart and I couldn't
go back to sleep and in the morning I felt
horrible and when I stumbled up to Ghika's
to get some fresh bread I met the island
doctor with four men carrying a stretcher
with the corpse of a man who had just died
only sixty years old
and Ghika was sad as he
knew the man who lived just around the
corner and he used to come to the shop
every day but this morning his heart had
just stopped
and I took a loaf of the warm,
fresh bread that Ghika had just brought on
his donkey from the bakery in the port
and I walked back to our
house of course realizing I'd probably never
drink again

[Back]