The woman sits in front of the computer, taking a moment to contemplate the grey ocean visible from the windows. The Irish waves, livid and boiling with rage, bring back memories of other storms, days heavy with rain and loneliness, spent in an Italian town on the Ligurian coast with an intimate feeling of contentment.
The browser opens to her favourite webcam, and here it is - the Alassio of her youthful years, of that future now mostly behind her, the grey, wintery Alassio where the beach is only frequented by seagulls and some dog on the trail of intriguing scents, memories of a dead summer.
The Day of the Dead... As are all those who meant so much to the woman during those years of her life - her mother, her only true friend, her father who saw her as a princess, her little dog who accompanied her on walks on the damp sand - long gone.
The only living thing on this cold and desolate day are the memories of a past blown back by the Irish wind, the warm light they emanate, and the happy sensations experienced in those distant days from a girl in whom the woman struggles to recognize herself.
The mirror gives her back an image very different from that quiet and introverted girl, yet, behind the wrinkles and grey hair, that Eilis still lives, sometimes vibrating for the same emotions.
The woman knows she is on the path of no return, towards a destination that everyone reaches sooner or later; she knows she is old because now the future no longer promises her anything and the only place she likes to visit again and again is her past...
A past made up of small, simple things, of emotions aroused by the iridescent foam of a wave breaking on the beach, by the reflections of light on a seagull's wing, by the mystery of an island so close and yet so remote for its inaccessibility.
The woman confides her emotions to the sea, a constant in her life... yes, it's strange to describe it that way, because if there is something ever-changing and always in motion, it's the sea.
She feels its breath day and night, and considers it a strong and reliable friend, always ready to listen without ever judging.
The sea that welcomed her dreams in youth now comforts her in old age, and its waves bring back to her the light of distant days...