The Island of Missing Trees

Meryam tells Ada that she thinks the incident was a result of Ada being possessed by a “djinni” (an invisible spirit). According to Meryam, they always come out in hordes during storms and accidentally stepping on one can cause it to possess you. Meryam has already found a healer in London who can perform an exorcism, and Ada skeptically agrees to try visiting them on the condition that Meryam tells her more about Defne and Kostas. Meryam tells Ada how, despite breaking up when they were young, Kostas came back to Cyprus many years later, and when they got together again it was like no time had passed at all.

Kostas returns to Cyprus for the first time in 25 years in the early 2000s. After arriving at the hotel, Kostas decides that he must try and find Defne that same afternoon. Over the years he had continued collecting information about her and knows she is an archaeologist, still unmarried and without children. Before leaving London, he had managed to find a contact who could bring him to Defne—an old colleague, David, who had been based in Cyprus for the past 10 months.