The world from my window

The old man sat on a chair outside the kafenion, his face covered in blood. A small crowd gathered, one person stepping forward to give him some comfort. It was an Englishwoman, one of the most compassionate people in the village. Last year, she had even saved the bug-eyed cat from extinction. She soothed the old man the best she could, said a few reassuring words in Greek as another English person put something warm around the old man's shoulders. He was in shock, possibly suffering from concussion. He was gabbling away in Greek and then began to cry. An ambulance was called and took an age to materialise. In between times, the police came to the plateia twice, once to talk to the old man and the next time to come back to say the alleged assailant, who was said to have hit the victim on the back of his head with a stone, told the police he did not know what they were talking about because he was asleep when it had happened. But the old man's wound had come from some...