'La Graciosa'

La Graciosa is an island. There are a handful of restaurants on it, and probably as many bicycle rental businesses. Most of the houses are holiday homes. I wonder how many people live there year-round...There is one shop, a small grocery shop.

There is a hospital on the main island nearby. In case of emergency, they fly a helicopter to La Graciosa. A boat would be too slow to come to the rescue.

On the ferry leaving La Graciosa, where people are going back with tired sandy feet and sunburnt cheeks, I hear an ambulance siren.

I think of the people on the main island, where the hospital is. They know about all the people in La Graciosa, relaxing on the beach, walking the paths between the volcanoes, cooling their bodies in the crystal blue water. They must be there, hearing out for an emergency call. If it wasn’t for them, the people on La Graciosa wouldn’t be able to relax.

La Graciosa means the gentle, the calm, ‘the gracious’.

My photo.

2 comentarios

Aliou Barry

08 may 2022

Did u like Graciosa? terms are quite negative and loneliness.

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Lorenza Peragine

16 may 2022

Contestando a

Hi, thanks for the comment. This story is not really about La Graciosa. It’s about a moment in time - which did really happen when I was visiting there - and the thoughts that this moment triggered in me. I’d like to think this story could place anywhere. For me, it’s about distance and closeness/connection, the work that goes into caring and taking care of others, dependability, the idea of a ‘desert’/inhabited/idillic island, and relationships between places that are supposedly ‘remote’ or disconnected from the rest of the world, and the rest of the world. Or it can also be about anything else you would like it to be about!