The cost of image

I wrote a story years ago, broadcast by the BBC World Service, in which a man is driving to Limassol for the results of a cancer test, worried that his wife and daughters may have very little income when he dies. There’s an insurance policy covering his travel for work that will profit them if his death is accidental, so he contemplates finding a spot on the then old road where he can fatally crash.

An elderly man jumps out in front of him, Pavlos brakes and yells ‘Are you trying to...