The sun lay low above the horizon when a dark slim figure appeared from one of the houses at the outskirts of the town. The warm late afternoon light softened the contrast between almost white, unkempt hair framing a creased visage of an elderly woman and her pitch black clothes. The woman paused for a moment, looked towards the setting sun, then crossed the street with a few measured steps and stood with her bare feet on a small mound of earth amidst the parched grass. She closed her eyes, turned her face towards the setting sun and took a few deep breaths. Then she opened the eyes directly into the sun and stared unblinkingly at the fiery globe for a full minute. She closed her eyes again, turned away from the sun, which was now almost kissing the edge of the hill, kept still for another minute, then descended towards the house and disappeared inside.
Vera has lived on the island for decades. She knew the town, its character, its inhabitants, their customs. But she knew she would never become one of them. She grew up in the plains of Panonia where fields of corn stretched to infinity. She lived there until her husband-to-be brought her to the island. They married and brought up two children, a boy and a girl. She was reasonably happy there but missed her fields and the friends she had left behind, so she sought the company of visitors, she sought word from the outside world. She would visit her relatives and friends back in
Things went for the worse, though. Her son, now a father of two adolescents, became gravely ill. She watched him wane and there was nothing she could do. When they buried him, she was overwhelmed by grief and never fully recovered. The trauma affected her eyes and the doctors told her they couldn’t help her and she might go completely blind.
Soon after she was faced with that fact, she woke up one night and couldn’t fall back asleep. So she turned on the TV although she could hardly see anything, and there was a show about people who practiced the ritual of looking into the sun and what beneficial effects that ritual had. Vera thought she had nothing to lose and if she was destined to blindness she could as well try performing the ritual as she had heard on that show. To the her own and her doctors’ utter surprise her condition not only ceased to deteriorate but started to improve significantly.
Every morning and/or evening Vera can be seen emerging barefoot from her home, stepping on the mound of earth she had made for her ritual and looking into the sun for a measured period of time. She believes the ritual has improved her eyesight and general condition and it gives her the energy to continue fighting.
