About the book: 2023 / “Pa-pa,” I hear again, and this time someone touches my leg. I pull the phone away from my ear. And the gaze flies down, meeting sad blue eyes. Bright, clear, like a summer sky without clouds. I fall into them, falling out of reality for a second. A miniature doll tugs at my pant leg. Just a baby. Thin fingers squeeze the fabric, and large, doll-like eyes with fluffy brown eyelashes begin to blink harder. The little girl is confused and somehow sad. “No, dad,” she says in disappointment, pulling back her hand. He turns around and, with his head down, looks down at his feet. Winding along the corridor, like a ghost, moving away from me. But even from a distance I hear a sad and drawn-out: “Mom-a-a.” And this plaintive voice evokes in me a strange storm of emotions. Excitement mixed with a squeezing feeling that I can’t understand. I return the phone to my ear. And I mint: “I’ll call you back.”.