Every summer in Sicily is hot. It comes with the territory. But this year, the heat has been relentless. An African anti-cyclone low pressure system has settled over the island for weeks now, baking the landscape day after day until the earth has cracked into a thousand pieces. Across the fields, deep fissures spread through the soil like the pieces of an enormous jigsaw puzzle. For days we have watched the sky, searching the clouds for the slightest promise of rain. Most of our rainfall comes during the winter months, but every now and then, summer offers a brief reprieve. This morning, quite unexpectedly, it arrived. First came the wind.…