Not the Heart of Darkness.(Story)(Short Story)

My mother came from a minor European country which once had a worldwide empire. Such colonies as remained to it in later centuries tended to be small and unprofitable, and of these none was more hopeless than the tiny island off the African coast where I took my holiday this year.

Unfortunately for the economy, no one speaks English. This makes mass tourism impossible, but was a secret satisfaction to me, because I feel slightly aggrieved from time to time that the whole world speaks my father's language.

The hotel boasted every facility, but hardly a single guest, and I could only assume, educated by my reading of Brazzaville Beach, that the real ...