then, let’s make a deal, let’s shake on it,’ Calli told them with delight and stretched out her arm. ‘Let’s promise that wherever we all are and whatever we are doing we will meet up in Crete next spring.’
‘It’s a deal and I promise,’ Sylvie said, shaking Calli’s hand vigorously.
‘The friendships that blossom on this island are for keeps,’ said Maya and put her arms around the two women sitting on either side of her. ‘Spring in Crete, then, it is!’
The next morning the older woman insisted on taking Calli to the airport in her little car.
‘You really don’t have to do that,’ she protested.’ It’s a long journey and I can take a taxi just as I did when I arrived.’
‘I won’t hear of it,’ Maya reassured her. ‘Besides, we can enjoy a few more hours together and it will give me a chance to look around the town after I’ve dropped you off.’
The return journey to the airport proved to be much more enjoyable than Calli’s arrival. Maya’s driving was a far cry from old Theo’s, and since the two friends had allowed plenty of time, they stopped for a picnic. Maya parked the car and led Calli down a gentle slope towards a giant boulder invisible from the road.
‘I find this particular rock formation very majestic,’ Maya said, spreading a cloth under its shade. She delved into the picnic basket and brought out freshly baked village bread, cheese, black grapes, ripe red tomatoes and juicy green olives. They ate with relish and after they had finished their meal they lay back on the warm earth, savouring the gentle breeze and the sound of the cicadas. Suddenly Maya sat up and turned to look at Calli. ‘You must walk forward and only look ahead,’ she said, snapping the younger woman out of her gentle drowsiness. ‘Turning back will do you no good. Look only to the future,’ she told her and reached for the flask of coffee to pour them both a drink. ‘Until we meet again, my friend,’ she said, smiling, and raised her cup to her lips.
12
Crete, 2018
Calli’s flight touched down at Heraklion airport in the early evening. The sky was streaked in swirls of pink, the air fragrant and familiar. Whenever she and James had arrived on the island, they would either take a taxi or hire a car and drive to the village, although it would have given Calli far more pleasure to see some of the familiar faces of her family waiting at the Arrivals gate as they had always done when she was a child. He had never wanted that – he couldn’t be doing with their intensity, their fussing, their emotional reunions – so she complied.
This time her cousin Costis was there to greet her. She had sent a text to tell him she was coming and his jubilation at the news of her arrival was touching. I hope you are not going to refuse me again, he replied immediately. I’ll be there to collect you. Send me your flight details. She had been out of touch for a long time and guilt rose in her throat as she messaged him back. Costis was not much older than Calli and she had always been fond of him; after her grandmother he was her favourite relative. They had been close as children, had spent each summer together when his two ‘English’ cousins visited Crete. He had been protective of both Calli and Alex, who were something of a novelty among the other children in the village; he had felt proud and privileged to have such exciting relatives visiting from England. Even though both siblings spoke perfectly good Greek, Costis relished teaching them the Cretan dialect spiced with certain words deemed unsuitable for children of their age. ‘Where did you learn to say that?!’ a furious Eleni would often shout, inevitably turning to scold the rascal culprit. But that was all such a long time ago – Costis had a wife she’d never met and two young children now and was running the family grocery store in the village. Yet whenever the cousins met their childhood connection was ignited and Calli could spot that same mischievous glint in his eye.
‘Calliope! Over here!’ she heard Costis call out her name in full, the Greek way, the name of her grandmother. He spotted her looking around for him among a crowd of visitors and ran smiling towards her. ‘Welcome back, my little cousin,’ he said,