第01章 伊甸园 (02/17)

It was early May. In some of the gardens the fruit trees were encircled with dense clusters of daffodils. The birches were already in pale green leaf. It was extraordinary how everything burst forth at this time of year!

What made this great mass of green vegetation come welling up from the dead earth as soon as it got warm and the last traces of snow disappeared? As Sophie opened her garden gate, she looked in the mailbox.

There was usually a lot of junk mail and a few big envelopes for her mother, a pile to dump on the kitchen table before she went up to her room to start her homework. From time to time there would be a few letters from the bank for her father, but then he was not a normal father.

Sophie's father was the captain of a big oil tanker, and was away for most of the year. During the few weeks at a time when he was at home, he would shuffle around the house making it nice and cozy for Sophie and her mother.

But when he was at sea he could seem very distant.