Elena's POV
The sea smelled like possibility. It was a silly, romantic thing to think as our small procession of volunteers and children filed off the ship's gangway the last morning, but I couldn't help it. The Mediterranean had a clarity that felt like rinse-water for the soul , salt and bright citrus and an honest wind that left no corner of you unexamined. For two weeks the ship had been a floating schoolhouse, a medical center, a stage, and a playground, and every time a child's laugh rose above the deck it felt like a bell striking in the hollow places I'd been carrying for years.
